It’s Thanksgiving morning, a gray, drizzly day here in often-sunny-but-not-today Southern California. I woke up at 5:30am (day 7 of a 30-day habit-building exercise), and the house is blissfully quiet. I’m sitting in my office in a pool of warm lamplight, my feet curled up underneath me in their ridiculous pom-pom slipper socks. Later this morning we’ll descend on my brother’s house with my children, a chocolate cake, a tray of bacon-wrapped scallops, and several bottles of wine. Much hilarity will no doubt ensue.
All these things inspire gratitude (even the rain, which reduces the danger of fire, and the waking up early, which gives me that time-and-space buffer before beginning the day).
But I want to specifically talk about my business and my work, by casting my mind back to Thanksgiving 2007. One year ago, I was just beginning to consider co-teaching a build-your-own-website class to coaches. I was calling myself a Web Architect and looking for more website clients, and I initially thought that teaching a class would be an interesting thing to try, although I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be much good at it.
December was full of planning and writing and dreaming. And the first class began at the end of January 2008. It was called Six Weeks to Your Webpage, and I taught three fabulous coaches and coaches-in-training to be friends with Blogger. And I had a great time. Teaching! Coaching! Listening as my workshop participants took those first tentative steps into web publishing! Empowering! Congratulating! I was hooked.
So right away I jumped into planning a next class, to begin in March. Except nobody signed up. This felt pretty terrible, to be honest. But I already had proof that the concept worked, and I had happy clients who cheered me on, and I just kept improving and coming up with new ideas.
I discovered that I loved the teleclass teaching format (sometimes with video using GoToMeeting so I could do a live demonstration). I discovered that I’m good at it. I went nuts in June and July, offering a new free teleclass every week, and loving every minute.
Experienced teleclass leaders told me they still always felt a twinge of nervousness before a class, and I wondered if I was abnormal or crazy for my complete lack of fear. I mean, I’ve been an off-the-charts introvert for my entire life. I avoid crowds, big parties, and will never call customer service when a visit to a website will do. I never go shopping on Black Friday. I’d much rather stay home with a good book (or a good blog). Yet here I was, showing up weekly and acting like a web expert (a kind, patient, gentle, supportive web expert!) to complete strangers who were calling in from around the world. Man, life is strange sometimes.
Today, I’m still talking, planning, and dreaming. My newest container for all of this is the revamped website, the “hub” of all my online ideas and services. One thing I can say with complete certainty is that these ideas and services (and the website itself) will change. I’ve realized that my business, my business partnerships, and the work I do is constantly evolving.
A year ago I didn’t know what Twitter was, and today I’m a Twitter fanatic. A year ago I’d never taught a teleclass, and today I have an archive of 30+ hours of my live teaching. A year ago I thought I was alone in the business world, and today I have a supportive mastermind group, 148 Twitter followers (are you people crazy?), and a web of connections throughout the blogosphere that is constantly growing. I have you, my dear reader. And I am deeply grateful for each of you.
Happy Thanksgiving!
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Posted by Wendy Cholbi, your friendly neighborhood swim-goggle-wearing technology-to-English translator
Wendy, it was great meeting you last night at Liz Strauss’s Open Comment Night. I very much like your approach to your Thanksgiving post.
Linda Sherman’s last blog post..Gratitude at Thanksgiving – My Top 10