You’ve probably heard about the Thing that I was working on for the #customerlove challenge — a free webinar that would hopefully drum up business for my voice coaching services by the end of the challenge. Because I still need to get my car fixed. And now I’m committed to going to BlogWorld — or at least Las Vegas during BlogWorld so I can stalk certain participants.
And you may have heard that things didn’t exactly go well during the Thing. No, they didn’t. But then again, they did.
Read on to find out why, and what I learned:
Lesson #1: Don’t wait until two days before the event to finally decide which venue to use.
I originally wanted to use Ustream, but my webcam is shite. I had bought a Zi8, knowing I’d be making videos for the site, but didn’t realize you need a webcam for Ustream. Didn’t want to use GotoWebinar because I’d have to learn how to create a Powerpoint-style presentation. Thought about Skype, but the limit for a conference call is 25 people, and I was aiming big. [50! 100!!] Teleconferencepro is phone quality sound, and I wanted better. Also wanted a visual component. Audio Acrobat was another possibility, but I thought their website looked clunky and outdated, which didn’t inspire confidence.
So I finally chose GotoWebinar’s 30-day free trial and planned to spend all Wednesday learning how to use it. But between that and ironing out the final script/Impress presentation [thanks to Liz McGowen and Mike Korner for their help], I guess I missed something.
The time came, I waited, and nobody was there. I tweeted and discovered that people were waiting for ME. I couldn’t see them. Didn’t know what to do. So I tweeted a url and about 10 of the 48 people who signed up [19 registered] got in.
Lesson #2: Mistakes happen. Laugh. Make it fun.
We had some good laughs about stupid technology and my flakiness, and I did the webinar. It was great, everybody was lovely, and I was very pleased.
Then I learned…
Lesson #3:Click the damn Record button.
*sigh*
Well, now I’m pissed. At myself, not GotoWebinar. I think their site and service are awesome and well worth the $99/mo that I would gladly pay after the free trial, if I could afford it. [And no, the link above is not an affiliate link.] But I’m still in the free trial, so I’m going to do it again — AFTER I reread the instructions, attend a training session by GotoWebinar, and do a THOROUGH dry run ahead of time.
Lesson #4: If at first…
I’m gonna get this right if it kills me.
p.s. Oh yes, and…
Lesson #5: Remember to ASK.
I also forgot my call to action at the end, to ask people to sign up for private voice coaching.
And people think I’m kidding when I call myself a flake.
Biggest lesson learned: Just do it.
What embarrassing, hilarious, unbelievably stupid, public screw-ups have you had? Tell me in the comments below so we can all have a good laugh!
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We learn best by making mistakes!
True. Sometimes I think that’s the ONLY way I learn!
I feel for you, LaVonne! Here’s my story …
Way back when, I thought I would put Google ads on my blog to start bringing in a little money. I signed up, added the HTML code, and I was good to go. In fact, I was so excited that I told people in my newsletter to click on the ads so I would get paid. And my husband started clicking on them every day from work. My running total was nearly at $50 when …
my account was summarily cancelled for click fraud.
I don’t know if it was my friends’ or my husbands’ clicks that triggered the problem, but there was no appeal and now I can never sign up for Google Adsense ever.
I felt so stupid afterward. Especially since I had to take the ads down and explain to everyone what had happened. And I realized that I would probably never have a career as a problogger.
Which is okay, because now I’m building a career as a creativity coach 🙂
Oh, that’s a great story! On the plus side, nobody makes money with Adsense
on their blogs anyway — although I did get a $100 check from them once. But
it was all downhill from there. It’s much better to sell your own stuff than
advertise someone else’s. You get to keep all the profits that way.
~LaVonne
Oh, I agree! Now I like to think it was the universe’s way of saying, Nah, you don’t need to mess around with that 🙂
I can totally relate to this! I am doing a second session tonight as i realised 90 mins into the first that i wasnt recording!!
Go2webinar is great and vimeo is doubly great for putting up the vids afterwards.
What kind of voice coaching do you do?
Well, now I feel better, lol! I hope your second session goes well — come back and post a link to the video, would you? I’d love to see it.
I help people sound better in their webinars, podcasts, and audio or video products.
Thanks so much for visiting!
Technology . . . shudder and shake . . .
Some people just get ‘it’ so easily and for others (aka: me) it’s enough to make me break out in a sweat!
Okay, well done LaVonne, seriously, well done . . .You took action and DID something!!
The first thing that strikes me was the fact that the technical aspect was the main component that let you down and now you know what to do in the future. . . so as you’ve said . . . lesson learnt!
And yes I too, feel for you!
I’m trying to recall a recent public screw up that was embarrassing or hilarious . . .
and all I can do is cringe at how many there are, even more in my ‘private’ life.
I do remember proudly writing a post on my Blog last month and due to different interpretations and perceptions of a particular word; I was mortified to think I had inadvertently ‘hurt’ someone’s feelings.
(The word was ‘Flake’ . . .need I say more LaVonne!!)
It brought home to me that I needed to become more aware of our differences in cultural ‘slang’
But here’s something that is just so stupid that I can’t believe I am doing it.
I use ‘free’ resources as much as possible due to financial restrictions. And I started up with Blogger.
I have 4 blogs there ( three relate to the one subject and link together but only after months of working out how to do so (Technical components I had to learn) and one that is just a ‘blah blah blah’ unimportant one about my life.
But wait there is more . . .
Then I heard about WordPress.
So I have another three blogs there . .. two relate to the same subject and yep, link together . . .
Now how stupid is this.
I can’t decide which platform I should spend the time and energy focusing on, so I’m currently maintaining both platforms with a total of 7 blogs. FFFFing ridiculous.
So that is something that is just plain embarrassing ~
You gotta feel better now LaVonne!!
warm hugs
Ah, that’s funny that the word was Flake, lol. Didn’t we have a discussion
about the definition of Flake recently? Did this happen before or after our
conversation? Just curious. If I remember right, I felt that it has a
negative connotation and you didn’t. Maybe it *is* a cultural difference.
You’re in Australia, right?
I know what you mean about having blogs all over the place. I used to do the
same thing, until I got my own hosting account and learned how to manage it.
But I’m a bit of a geek. Now I have all my blogs in one WordPress multiuser
installation, so I can play as much as I want without having to install WP
every time. Funny thing is, I don’t feel like starting new blogs any more,
not since I started this one. 🙂
~LaVonne
Oh LaVonne, yes that was the particular conversation I was referring too!! And yes, I’m a ‘flaky Aussie’ who uses Aussie terms and slang with a dash of weird humour and a dollop of sarcasm (usually aimed at myself so have no fear!) thrown in!!
Thanks for the info re/blogs BTW !!
warm hugs and take care of yourself!!
I love that you are out there making things happen LaVonne! If we don’t have an opportunity to make mistakes, we don’t learn, and if we don’t learn, we won’t grow. But the first step is the “Doing”. Congrats on your first webinar, and looking forward to hearing about the next one!
Thank you, Christy, and thanks for visiting. 🙂 My mom used to say, “If
you’re not making mistakes, you’re not doing anything.” It feels good to be
“doing.”
~LaVonne
LaVonne – I think it’s great that you’re putting yourself out there and sharing your mistakes with all of us so that we can learn too! And it’s very inspiring.
I’ve been toying around with this idea (originally inspired by a talk I had with Peggy Arvidson) about doing brown bag lunches for working women. I have a few topics I think I can cover and it’s a great way to get to know people, network and hopefully get a few clients for my energy work, start doing paid workshops etc. I know it’s a good idea. I know I can do a good job at the presentation part. But I am absolutely, pee in the pants, terrified of doing it because I’m afraid no one will show up and it will be a total and utter failure. Or people will show up and in my flakiness I won’t have prepared well enough and it will be a total and utter failure. But here you are – showing up, doing your thing and mistakes are happening but it’s working anyway. Because you’re learning, you’re meeting people and – hopefully – you’re having fun. Hopefully you’ll get some voice coaching clients from it. At the very least, you’ve inspired others to get out there and do our thing. Make our mistakes. And laugh with you about it.
Much love!!!
What I was most scared of didn’t happen, and that was that I wouldn’t be
prepared. I was, and I gave a good presentation. The mistakes were
regrettable, but I can forgive myself for them. Not being prepared would
have been another story.
Good luck with your brown bag lunches — I think that’s a great idea, and
you’re gonna ROCK it!
~LaVonne
Ummm, the first time I did a teleseminar there were supposed to be two guest speakers. One of them didn’t turn up. Every few minutes on the recording you can hear me asking “Is ‘guest speaker’ on the call yet?” in a nervous little voice.
The second teleseminar I did (a year later, because I lost my confidence on the first one) I lost my voice about five minutes in. Managed to continue for an hour with croaking out a couple of words, drinking, then croaking out a few more.
They don’t sound too bad now, but at the time they were horrifying!
Ah yes, I remember that second teleseminar. You posted about it in Dave
Navarro’s forum, and it wound up leading to me becoming a voice coach, lol.
So thank you for losing your voice!
~LaVonne
Hey, LaVonne —
The most important part of The Great Webinar Debacle {great post title, by the way! yay for unintended snafus} is that YOU DID IT. You DID IT. You jumped the first hurdle. It’ll always be easier from here on out. The learning curve is an amazingly interesting thing. I think it’s cool how perfectly clueless we are when we start into a new thing, and then after just a bit of finagling and practice, we know worlds more than we did at the start.
I’ve always wanted to podcast and recently jumped in with my first two episodes. I’ve never played with audio editing software before and had no idea what I was doing. Also, I’ve never interviewed someone for an audio format, so wasn’t aware of some of my verbal tics and speech patterns {like interrupting and overlapping — starting my sentence slightly before the other speaker ends their sentence}. My first audio interview was very bare bones — just Catherine Caine, me, and a raw recording. Then a kindly Twitter friend emailed me with some suggestions as to how I could improve my raw recording. I put his suggestions into play {thanks, Andy Dolph!} and my second interview with Dawn Martinello was a totally different animal. Thank goodness for our friends. And YouTube tutorials. 🙂
Looking forward to your next webinar!
— Abby
Yes, that’s how I felt when it was over, even when I realized I’d forgotten
to record. I had passed a big hurdle and learned a lot, and lost my FEAR of
it — that was the biggest hurdle.
I’d love to know what tips Andy Dolph gave you about audio recording. Maybe
I should interview him! #lightbulbmoment
~LaVonne
First of all… YAY, YOU!!!! It is so immensely awesome to see how you are blossoming into this wondrously wise, self-confident woman.
Snafus are taken in a stride that I am quite admirous of, you are reaching out for goals, starting movements like #customerlove, and just generally being an Awesome Example for the rest of us! 🙂
Thank you so much for putting yourself out here & giving this flake hope. 🙂
Second, judging from the comments, I must be the only person that hates GoToMeeting, but hate it I do, to the point that I am willing to miss out on awesome info such as your webinar to avoid it. It’s a pig, I found it difficult to use, it involves installing software, it’s expensive, and the recordings as I recall are proprietary-only. AND it’s not cross-platform. (After looking around a bit, we are looking at either http://www.freebinar.com or http://www.dimdim.com for our uses, btw.)
Anyway, congrats again! 🙂 Looking forward to more of your awesomeness! 🙂
Thank you, Birdy! I had some of the same reservations about GotoMeeting.
I’ll check out those links, thanks!
~LaVonne
Birdy, I checked out those two sites, and they look like good alternatives.
I’ll probably go with Freebinar after they begin offering recording of
webinars – which they’ve tweeted will start within two weeks. I want to have
my webinar next week, at the end of the #customerlove challenge, and don’t
think I should count on them to have recording ready by then.
I totally understand your objection to installing software just to see a
webinar, and I don’t like the idea that GotoMeeting’s recordings are
proprietary — in fact, now that I think about it, that wouldn’t be good for
me at ALL, because I want to use the recording later as part of a product.
Yikes. Well, I guess that means I’ll have to wait for Freebinar to get
recordings going… or I could do it once without recording it, and do
another one later. Yeah, that sounds good.
Aren’t you glad I work things out at the keyboard? lol Thanks so much for
pointing me to Freebinar!
~LaVonne