I can remember a time as a child when I was extremely shy. I was often teased by the other kids because I didn't talk much. When I originally started my home care agency, I had the same problem. I feared walking up to others and introducing myself. I feared going to networking events, marketing my business and speaking in front of large crowds. Well, I quickly learned that I was going to have to run my mouth, because I was running out of money. I thought that I could just run paid commercials and ads and my business would flourish. That was a hard lesson learned and a lot of wasted time and money.
Many of us allow things such as fear, feeling inadequate, unqualified voices, and lack of resources to keep us from the things that we want the most. Sometimes you just have to step out on faith and make things happen for yourself. Here are some of the things I did to conquer my fears:
1. I did more research about my industry and my competitors. This meant becoming familiar with case managers, social workers, discharge planners and other home care agencies. Doing your research is vital in any industry. If you don't have the knowledge needed, then you more than likely will not succeed.
2. I started going to networking events, but I would show up early. I figured if I was one of the first people there it wouldn't feel so awkward because people then had to come up to me. That actually worked! After a while, I knew pretty much everyone who attended those events and they knew me. I then felt comfortable being at various events, and it didn't matter when I arrived.
3. The last thing I did was to start attending a Toastmaster class to assist in getting over my fear of speaking in large crowds. Before you knew it, I was hosting events of my own.
There are always going to be things we are afraid of; however, we should never allow those things to keep us from our dreams. Figure out what it is that is keeping you from what you want and find a way to conquer those fears.