Opportunity knocks.

Knock Knock!

We all know that opportunity usually comes with change. If what you have been offered isn't new then what's the point in trying it? You might as well stick at what you're already doing if you're not going to change something with the new opportunity.

Recently I've made some choices that led to changes in my life. At the time they felt risky and I wasn't sure I wanted to disrupt the status quo but so far it's turned ok.

As I've mentioned before, I attended BradCamp Be A Better Speaker, earlier this year on the hope of improving my speaking skills and one day headlining at The Business Show. Truth is, I realised that when I attended BradCamp that I didn't actually want to be a speaker after all. But I did want people to know what I had to say. One of the ideas that I got from BradCamp was to start a podcast. I wasn't sure where to start or what I was doing but I knew I'd figure it out. I always do.

3 months on, I have a podcast that I am proud of, am honoured to interview some of the great minds of the SME world and I love what i'm doing. I'm also in talks with several companies to produce their podcasts. A small idea at a development day has given me the opportunity to not only get my voice out there but to also increase my client base. I'm glad I took that opportunity.

Believe me when I say I know how scary opportunities are and how change is a tough cookie to digest but sometimes the only reason we don't take up an opportunity is because of self doubt.  We think  don't deserve what we're being offered or we're not talented enough. Truth is, if you're being offered the opportunity it's because someone else has seen your potential. Someone else has seen how hard you've worked. Some one else thinks that you're the right person for the job.

Weigh up the pros and cons and give it a go. You cannot grow if you refuse to change. Look at the caterpillar and the butterfly. If the caterpillar didn't make the change, he'd never have grown wings and been able to fly .

Release your inner butterfly. The door of opportunity looks exactly like the door to failure. You need to open them to find out which is which. or you could just stay locked in the same room.

Until next time.
Much Love
Miss Make It Happen
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Life Decisions

In business i'm good at making decisions quickly. Snap, Crackle, Pop - it's done. One of my strongest skills is to look at a bad situation and be able fix it. Quickly. Both for myself and other people.

Put me in a personal situation and my brain just doesn't work in the same way. Seriously, you would think I have a twin. One with a super brain and one with fluff for brains. I very much use my male brain for business and my female brain for personal decisions.

My mum, bless her, was once quoted saying to me "Dionne, you spend all day being a business woman and then you turn in to an idiot of an evening". Truth is, I spend all day making decision for myself and other people that I like releasing my inner child of an evening. If I dont, I start to get stressed, angry and thats when I start making the wrong decisions during the day. I'm sure my clients are happy that I fell out of a tree a couple of months ago... at least the decisions I make for them are safe and sound. 

So why can't I make personal life decisions the way I make business ones? Because i'm human. I have a heart as well as a brain. Some people will tell you its possible my heart is made of stone/ice, i'm not bothered by it. Business, I can afford to be cold and even cruel and clinical when making the decisions. When its about my personal life the heart gets involved. The internal battle between brain and heart kicks in and I start getting stressed, my eyes start to leak, I become moody. Summed up, I turn in to a woman.

Example -

I once decided that I wasn't getting enough out of a contract for the work I was putting in. So after a few emails of them telling me there is nothing they can do, I rocked up to their office (albeit with chocolates and wine) and said "it's over". I'd been working with this client for just over 10 years. it was a £150K a year contract. Snap, Crackle, Pop - Done. It's "Business".

Go out for a coffee with someone, find out he has a girlfriend, feel awkward about the conversation you've just been having, lose sleep over the decision of deleting him off of Facebook!!

In both examples, I was going to upset someone. In both examples i would lose something out of the situation. One was a quick and painless because only the brain was involved. The other.... well we al know what happens when we let the heart loose on a situation.

Until Next Time...

Miss Make It Happen
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