How I Built a Business Based on My Weakness

Kiwis enjoy doing business with people they know, like and trust.  Networking is a great platform to show others who you are and what you're about – in other words, to show off your personal brand.

You might find networking boring or time-consuming; you might not see the point or are a bit scared or uncomfortable with it.  I love helping people get comfortable meeting new people and making new contacts.

But it wasn't always comfortable and easy. 

From fearful to fabulous

Just 10 years ago I was terrified of strangers – people used to describe me as painfully shy, even cringe worthy. I would stumble over words, shake, quiver, go blank, endure many sleepless nights in anticipation of attending an event, sweat, hyperventilate, have panic attacks and the occasional blackout.

I know all about feeling out of place, awkward, shy & fearful of networking.  But, realising that I wanted to start my own business, I knew that I would have to do something about my intense fear.

From being unable to walk through the doors of the first eight networking events I tried to visit to becoming known as the ‘Networking Queen’, I not only overcame my fear – I built a business out of it.

My catalyst for change was getting to the point where I was so sick to death of being afraid that I just had to take action; any action. My desire for change outweighed my comfort (and fear) of staying put. I worked incredibly hard to work on my fears & doubts which also taught me to fully embrace my individuality. Now I relish the opportunity to share and show people how they can also shine and really benefit from networking – think of it as dating for business!

I have turned overcoming an all-consuming fear into a business and haven't stopped at networking....

Tackling my other fears

I have three more personal fear projects that I am at various stages of tackling: my public speaking journey, media, and video. Getting to grips with public speaking, I’ve been hitting the stage for the last three years, tackling radio and TV interviews (both live and prerecorded) while being invited as a guest on to podcasts. I co-founded an online event series in May 2020 which connects to a much wider audience worldwide. Since March 2021, I have started creating and posting selfie videos!

I fell into public speaking by default a few years ago. The more that people heard about the ‘Networking Queen’, the more I got asked to speak to community groups, conferences, team building and training days, and management meetings. After aggressively working at it for two years (the time it took me to get comfortable with networking) I have had moments on stage where I thought ‘Wow that feels amazing!’ but I’d like to get to the point where I love the whole presentation.

I have to confess that I am very much at the beginning stages of working with media (radio, TV and print) and video. As with the previous two projects, I have an intense fear of doing them, but I force myself to give it a go and tackle it anyway. To date, I have undertaken a 30 minute live interview on community radio, pre-recorded TV interviews and podcasts (which thankfully can be edited), and started producing one minute tip videos for clients.

Now it’s your turn to overcome your fears

My key motivation is to demonstrate through my own journey the power of overcoming debilitating fear and be part of a community that builds people up, encourages, and has everyone working together to be successful.  

The best backhanded compliment I get on a fairly regular basis is, “Now I know your personal story, I’m nowhere near as bad as you were so I think you can help me”.

If I am to live truly according to my values – transparency, vulnerability, curiosity, authenticity, and empathy – I am prepared to make an absolute fool of myself in order to help just one person overcome and thrive. By expanding my offering to talking about my personal fear projects (networking being the first) and helping others work through their own fears, I’m able to broaden my audience worldwide and have a far wider impact. After all, everyone has fears they’d like to overcome!

If you’d like to follow along with my fear projects, let’s connect here on LinkedIn.

If you want to know the process I follow, DM me!