Lessons Learned from the First Ever Vocal Women Event
yesterday was a big day for me. i did something out of my comfort zone that for a hot minute made me completely terrified. i facilitated a 4 hour workshop, vocal women, in the city of las vegas…and i didn’t even pass out!
i facilitated this along with olivia schofield, the sole female finalist of the world championship of public speaking from 2011. she’s a fiery and outspoken european woman and we were both tired of seeing a lack of women represented in the speaking world so we made the decision to do something about it. in fact, i wrote about it last year and it caused a bit of a stir and then why we started it.
we have been holding monthly webinars about different topics from writing speeches to stage presence to confidence and how to turn it into a profession. it’s been challenging, rewarding, and unknown about where it would all lead. since many people are in las vegas for the toastmasters international convention, we decided to hold our first ever in-person event right here in sin city!
long story short…it was outstanding and i feel incredibly proud of what we put together and the women we had there!
of course, we learned about through the process (like double checking to make sure a conflicting event isn’t happening, advertising sooner and then charging more because we way undercharged for what we delivered).
to be honest (because yay authenticity), for a few days when the registrations stopped rolling in i was feeling embarrassed. this was our first event and in my head i had pictured a room with a least a few dozen women in it. i also had over 50 people me they wanted to be involved (including a good chunk of men) but their flights weren’t getting in on time or were in another training. i was feeling like we didn’t do a very good job with creating this event.
as the event drew closer, i realized how stupid this was. it wasn’t about numbers, it was about impact and we had the opportunity to impact and connect deeply with the amazing women who trusted us enough to be a part of our very first live event. on top of that, we had women from australia, ireland, and the states. donna even flew in just for the day to attend this!
many thanks to lisa, bea, donna and sandy for giving us your heart and soul through an incredibly powerful and bonding event yesterday! cheers to you all!
i feel proud that olivia and i were mad last year about the lack of women competitors and speakers and instead of just staying mad, we took action.
i feel proud that i didn’t let my anxiety dictate whether or not i would do this event (it wanted me to quit and hid under the bed with a juice-box of wine).
i feel proud about the women-specific event we put on because it allowed us connect deeply on many of the things we experience as women that men cannot relate to.
i feel proud that we had an idea, didn’t know how to start or what to do but figured it out anyway.
i feel proud to be a woman, a speaker, a partner, a small business owner and an agent of change.
if there is something that is bothering you or you want to see changed, don’t wait around for someone else to maybe take action on it. it’s up to you, to me, to us. even if you’re scared or have no idea what you are doing, do it anyway.
Audrey
August 12, 2015 at 8:25 am
Congratulations, friend! Yay for telling the anxiety to hush and for coming away feeling empowered and brave! Way to go!
Audrey recently posted…Grumbles on the Blog
Paula Howley
August 12, 2015 at 11:02 am
I want to say WAY TO GO both of you and I am so proud to be a part of Vocal Women in a small way as well. Please keep it up ladies- you are RIGHT- it’s about RELATIONSHIP- not numbers. The numbers will come as long as you are giving value and really caring, which I know you are doing.
chelsea
August 17, 2015 at 10:34 am
thanks paula! you shall always remain our very first member!!!! wish you could have been there, you would have loved the fiery, feisty and very woman-specific conversations that were had!
Elyse
August 12, 2015 at 3:45 pm
Yahoo! I love hearing people overcoming their anxiety!
Elyse recently posted…Reverse Bucket List
chelsea
August 17, 2015 at 10:33 am
it’s not always easy but it is certainly worth it, elyse! thanks 🙂
Lindsay
August 13, 2015 at 11:37 am
Congratulations on such a successful event! You are awesome!!
Lindsay recently posted…I’m Going to Vegas, Baby
chelsea
August 17, 2015 at 10:33 am
thanks lindsay!!! appreciate your comment of support!
Jennifer Haston
August 13, 2015 at 5:06 pm
YAY!!!! This is awesome!! I Love the “call to action”
“if there is something that is bothering you or you want to see changed, don’t wait around for someone else to maybe take action on it. it’s up to you, to me, to us. even if you’re scared or have no idea what you are doing, do it anyway.”
chelsea
August 17, 2015 at 10:32 am
thanks so much jennifer! appreciate your support and it sounds like you are taking action too!
Amanda
August 15, 2015 at 10:40 pm
You are such an inspiration for women everywhere, you know. I love that you go for your dreams!
chelsea
August 17, 2015 at 10:32 am
thank you amanda! it’s hard and scary and unknown sometimes but i’m starting to realize the outcome is more important than that 🙂
Your Partner in Passion Kait
August 18, 2015 at 7:41 pm
I fucking love you!
I used to HATE low numbers…because they made me feel like a failure because my thought process was that low attendance = a reflection on me.
Yeah mental shift please! Now I kind of love them. You’re able to go deeper and in some ways they’re easier to facilitate and really make a community-led event. As a leader you have less redirecting to do and more collaborative learning.
SO glad you didn’t let anything stop you. We need this! Xo
chelsea
August 21, 2015 at 8:46 am
thaaaanks kait! you can totally go deeper and so much quicker so i LOVED it! it was really great. thanks for being excited and for your thoughts on this! cheers to us changing things up!