I was recently invited to speak for a retreat at a certain university. I was really excited. In this particular case, I would be speaking to a group of students involved in a certain non-profit.
So, I spent quite a few weeks preparing my presentation. I decided to tailor my content to non-profits instead of my usual focus on local small businesses.
I drove 4 hours to the retreat and spent the day hanging out with the students. I spent the night down there with them. The following day was my big presentation.
This entire event probably cost me around $2,500 including my time preparing, my time down there, and everything else involved. But, because I am growing in my speaking career, I was happy to “donate” my time to help them out, and learn a few things in return.
Learn a few things I did…
As I usually do, I gave them an evaluation form to fill out at the close of my presentation. I usually get tons of great feedback and lots of great reviews.
But, not this time. As I scanned through the small pile of evaluation papers, I noticed that most of them were negative. Wow! That was not what I was expecting. One person even made an attack on my personality, which hurt.
So, on my 4 hour drive home, here is what I did. I said, “God, help me not to waste this opportunity. There is no way I could buy this kind of education at college. So, please teach me what you want me to learn through this.”
Here are the 10 lessons I learned through this failure:
1. Failure is a metric.
How else can you know that you need to adjust your sails? Failure is the gauge that says, “You need to make a slight adjustment to your course in order to get where you want to go.” View failure as such. You are not a failure. But your current course is, so make adjustments and keep going.
2. Success does not come to the idle.
There is absolutely no way to succeed without sticking your neck out. You have to take a few steps in order to get on the road to where you want to go. If you sit and wait for success, it will never come.
3. Harsh criticism may be just what you need to hear.
There was a common thread in the negative feedback that said I wasn’t engaging my audience enough throughout the presentation. I will take this to heart. I will try to look for ways to be more engaging in my next speaking engagements. If you find yourself receiving harsh criticism. Try to keep an open mind, and learn something from that will help you become a better person.
4. My presentation could have been better.
There was some negative feedback about the presentation itself as well as the slides I had made. Seriously, there is definitely room for improvement. Even though I was proud of my slides, and the content I had created, obviously it could have been better. Look for ways to improve, even though you know you did your best.
5. I frustrated them by not speaking directly to their situation.
I did not talk about their specific non-profit organization, and apply my points accordingly. I talked over them about all non-profits. I sense their frustration about this. Like, “how do we apply that point to our situation???” If you are going to speak to a specific group, make sure you know as much as possible about them before hand so that you can give them specific pointers. You will help them the most this way.
6. University students are a lot different than business owners.
I learned that university students are more concerned about their homework, passing their exams, and getting on with their careers. I am used to speaking to business owners who hang on my every word, because it will help them grow their businesses. These two audiences are vastly different. Learn what your audience is most concerned with and speak to them.
7. This was not my target audience.
My target audience is small business owners. So, I’m not sure what I was expecting… but this group was sure not my target audience. Do you know who your target audience is? If you don’t know who exactly who you are called to serve, then you MUST get clear on this.
8. Volunteers are not responsible for feeding their families.
These students are just simply volunteering for this non-profit. My presentation had no correlation with them putting bread on their table. Or helping them make an income. There is a huge difference in the atmosphere when people are trying to making a living vs. volunteering.
9. People value what they pay for.
I’m all for doing free workshops, especially when just starting out. However, it’s so true that people value what they pay for. It might be best to find speaking opportunities where they will pay you for your expertise and knowledge.
10. I’m not staying down.
This is my most important lesson that I learned. I refuse to stay down. I am going to get back up and keep going on. I will adjust my sails. But I’m not going to let this failure get me down. Now, I want to ask you what you do when you fail? do you wallow in self-pity? Or do you ask God what you can learn, and get back up and go on? The reason I’m openly sharing this failure with you is not for your pity. No, not at all. I want you to succeed. And I want you to experience growth through your good times and through your “bad” times. Take at least one of the points above and apply it to your failure. You’ll be alright. I want to see you succeed. But much more than that, I know that God is “for you”. And if God is for you then who can be against you?
Blessings,
Martin
