Welcome and thank you to everyone who has liked our ROTH page on Facebook and even shared the information. I want to use this opportunity to celebrate everyone who has registered for the conference; especially Veronica Flournoy and Roz Knighten from the USA, you have made a very wise decision. For everyone who is yet to register; honestly, you don’t want to be told what happened at this conference. Register today, it will be worth your while.
In today’s podcast still in the spirit of growth and living the dream, I want to put out five principles that have helped me grow […] the ROTH conference over these last seven years.
I remember the first edition of the conference held on the 20th of July, 2008. It was held on a Sunday from about 12. 00 noon till 7.00 pm. Like I mentioned last week, we planned and executed the entire conference in less than thirty days, so naturally I wasn’t expecting that we would have a lot of people attend.
However, I had instructions to follow and a conference to plan so leading up to that day I didn’t have the liberty of wasting time brooding over if people will attend or not. However that morning as we put finishing touch to our arrangements; I think I went into a Panic Attack. I was sweaty and hyperventilating. It suddenly dawned on me that it was a possibility that people won’t attend and that the conference will be a huge failure.
So I started to speak with my Sisters and friends who were there to help with the final arrangements and they kept telling me that I should not worry because everything was going to be all right. Did I believe them? Yes, but did that stop me from worrying? Well… not exactly! However, it all went well; to the Glory of God.
Now this is seven years later and though I still have those last minute rapid breathing, I am more confident than I was seven years ago? What I have learned about birthing and growing a dream that might be useful to you is the focus of this post.
1. Be Curious – Recently I was teaching a class in church on ‘Teachability’ and I pointed out to them that creative or gifted people are some of the most un-teachable people around. I mentioned that the reason this is so is because, an ability to do something really well, can begin to becloud our judgement and make us feel we don’t need to learn more. A Leaderpreneur, Organic Leader or Dreamer can also be un-teachable. Here is what I mean; we all start our dreams and businesses because we know something others don’t know; at least that is what we think, this can make us think we don’t need to know anything new. The side effect is we become stale and lose the edge we used to have. One thing we have done with ROTH is to be open to and curious about new things. Our format hasn’t changed much but we have pressed into God yearly for fresh insight on how to make the conference experience more memorable each year than it was the previous. You cannot innovate except you are curious.
2. LEARN FROM YOUR FAILURE: I cannot honestly say where ROTH is concerned that we have had any major failures over these years, but we have had situations where things haven’t gone as planned at all. There was a year we contacted a speaker and she gave her word that she was going to be available to speak. However, as preparations kicked off she suddenly didn’t take our calls. That year turned out to be one of our better outings because her replacement did such a fantastic job that I doubt she would have been able to do. The idea is to learn from failures to get better.
3. BREAK THE RULES: When we started out, we had some unspoken rules as to how the conference can and should be run. However, we have taken steps to redefine that mould by breaking some of those rules and each time we have done that, our outing has been better. So make sure you don’t get yourself into the rut of ‘how things are done’. Find other ways and you will be amazed how far you can go. Someone told me one particular year that the women will not stay through the day for the conference because in her mind there was a rule that said an event should not be longer than four hours. We went on that year to do eight solid hours with the attendees begging for more. Rules are meant to be broken; break them so you can grow.
4. LEARN NEW LESSONS AND APPLY THEM SUBSEQUENTLY: Somehow, I am wired to be a ‘forever’ student and my team have now caught that spirit. What that means is every year each person is charged with taking note of something we can do better the next time and once plans begin for the next year, we take them into consideration. One thing we learnt last year for instance is to ensure that our drinks and refreshments are not kept at the back of the event center as that didn’t work out well last year. Consequently in making floor plans for this year, we will have to tweak that arrangement.
5. GO BACK TO STEP 1: Yes, you can never finish learning new things; and curiosity is the first step in that direction. So having done 1 – 4, you need to go back to 1. Ask questions, be observant and be open to how much your dream has the capacity to expand.
I know you may not be called to plan a conference as part of your what, but if you look deeply at the steps above you will find that they can be applied to about anything you are doing.
Again, please spread the word about the ROTH conference and make arrangements to attend. No matter what it is you have been called to do the biggest step you will ever take is to find your MIDWIFE and ROTH holds that promise…
You will make it NeverTheLess, I promise you will…
Here is to your success.
Bidemi