In 1969 – 50 years ago this July – man took his first steps on the moon.
This summer, as we celebrated the anniversary of Neil Armstrong’s immortal words about it being one small step for man, I was taking my own baby step into the unknown and although the end result was not quite as dramatic or historic as taking a stroll on the lunar surface, it became a pivotal moment in my reinvention.
Although I didn’t know it at the time, I was on the cusp of taking a giant leap when I made what appeared to be an inconsequential decison to attend a Link4Business networking event in Spalding.
At this point networking was way outside my comfort zone, but I was coming round to the way of thinking that suggested it may be beneficial to my business.
Although I had a good client base from my previous role and had acquired a few more from my own marketing efforts, the time had come to leave the confines of my home office to venture forth and, oh dread, actually meet people.
Earlier in the year, in a moment of weakness (probably after realising I hadn’t spoken to another living being other than the cat for two days) I had put my name down to attend a L4B event – only to bottle it at the last minute when the reality of having to walk into a pub and not knowing a single soul hit home.
But in May I managed to rope in a friend to attend with me and on the day dutifully showed up to shake hands and swap business cards with a room full of strangers.
Facing the fear…
Despite facing my worst nightmare and having to “speak” publicly to introduce myself and my business, I actually found myself enjoying the event and feeling excited at the possibilities that becoming part of a real business network could bring me.
So much so that the next day I arranged to meet the district organiser to talk to her about ways I could get more involved in the group.
And that meeting may just have changed my life!
Not just a happy coincidence…
Link4Growth district leader Nikki was looking for someone to take on the running of the Spalding event and as we talked I became more and more excited and convinced that this was would be a great opportunity for me.
We hit it off right away and neither of us realised just how sunburned we were getting as we chatted about our big plans for world domination. (We are now planning to launch our World Domination Manifesto in January!)
That is now four months ago and it has been amazing the things that have come about as a result of L4B.
I have been doing a lot of work on manifestation and Law of Attraction over the past few months and I don’t believe for a minute that my attendance at that networking event was a coincidence or an accident.
I was drawn to it, or I drew it to me, because it was just what I needed at that point in my life.
The opportunities it presented and the people involved were perfectly aligned to help me take the next steps in my journey of self development and business success.
This is just the beginning…
Since then I have met some amazing people who have helped me, mentored me, inspired me, made me laugh, made me cry (…mentioning no names, Emma Elderlfield!), employed me, built me up, given me confidence and cheered me on. You know who you are and I am eternally grateful to you all.
I have been given opportunities to attend training courses, join a mentoring group and be part of other networking events, which have pushed me further out of my comfort zone and taught me valuable lessons about myself and business.
And I believe…no, I know, it’s just the beginning.
There’s so much more to come.

My big blog takeaway…
So, what I want you to take away from this is to have trust in yourself and the universe.
If you want to achieve something, whatever it may be, you will most likely not do so by doing what you have always done.
They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
If you want something different than what you have now you are going to have to step outside your comfort zone.
This does not have to be a big grand, jumping out of an aeroplane (or canoeing down the Zambezi if you are me!!!) kind of stepping out of your comfort zone.
It can be a small step like dragging a friend along to a friendly networking group.
All I can say is that you never know what may come of it.
Whatever it is you decide to do, whatever small step you take, do let me know how it goes.
I’d love to hear your stories of small steps turning into giant leaps forward or you.
If you go with an open mind and an open heart and are willing to wholeheartedly embrace the opportunities that present themselves, all sorts of exciting things may happen for you too.
Get in touch...
If you fancy joining us at L4B, I would love to see you at my lovely Spalding meeting at the Tulip Queen, which I do now run!
You can find out more about Link4Business and our next meeting date here.
If you need more help with having the confidence to take that small step – or a giant leap – drop me an email or give me a call on 07595 036454 and I’ll do what I can to help.
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