Argh. I didn’t want to do it. In fact I still feel a bit of regret.
But, I did it. I said no to J-Lo and NO to one of my most of favourite things on earth.
You see, for nine years, every year I’ve taken myself to the most amazing conference.
It’s where I saw President Obama two years ago.
It’s where I’ve listened to the founders of Twitter, the CEO of Google, the founders of Air BnB and Uber, and Zappos.
And, it’s where I’ve had the opportunity to meet amazing authors like Guy Kawasaki, Tim Ferris, Daniel Pink, Malcolm Gladwell and SO many more.
It was where I cried hearing Brené Brown speak, was inspired by happiness expert Gretchen Ruben, moved by innovators changing the game of medicine, and inventors who are changing the lives of people living with disabilities… political prisoners who are speaking out for the underdog.
It’s where I laughed hearing the cast of the TV Show Veep.
And it’s where my dear friend Cat and I had so much fun creating daily videos to report back to the HerBusiness community year after year, sharing what was new and innovative in marketing and new media.
But this year. I didn’t go.
A few days ago, I got my ‘it’s only 3 days to go’ reminder email and I wanted to cry.
My FOMO (fear of missing out) was SO high. Especially because this year some very good friends of mine we going and the speaker /guest line up was A-MAZING.
Elon Musk for example…
Oh and saying no to J-Lo?
I’ll explain in a minute what happened there.
The South by South West (SXSW for short) conference is held in the wonderful city of Austin and it’s attended by 15,000+ people.
There is a HUGE smorgasbord of sessions to attend, plus a host of invitation-only parties, divine restaurants and the opportunity to hang out with friends and some really cool marketers who are really doing amazing things.
And, it’s not all business.
There’s music, movies (Hey, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s was there this year) and loads of actors and musicians attend every year – so there’s also some fun star-spotting.
This is THE place to be in March.
But, I said no. This year.
… to SXSW AND to J-Lo.
Last November I was in Las Vegas for another conference and I noticed that tickets were on sale for Jennifer Lopez’s “All I Have” concert in March. So, we went ahead and booked tickets, knowing we were going to be in the US in March for SXSW and could first stop in Vegas for a few days beforehand.
I’m not a huge J-Lo fan.
But, she is pretty amazing show person and two sets of friends have raved to me about the show. Plus, seeing any headline acts in Vegas is pretty special.
I’m not sure that I’ll ever get to see that show. But, who knows. Maybe I will.
But the lineup of speakers at SXSW… Well, that’s never going to happen again. Ever.
So why did I say no?
My team and I are quietly working on a new program.
For months now we’ve been speaking with women in our community.
We’ve been looking at your answers to surveys, we’ve analysed the responses to questions we’ve been asking.
And we really dug into the types of questions that typically come up in our webinars, on our Facebook Lives and in our in-person meetings and different courses.
We’ve been looking at what you respond to…
… what pains you most in your business
… what we’ve done that you love and what you don’t love that we can improve…
Where you’re stuck…
Where you feel bogged down and unable to make progress…
How you want to reach more people and clarify your message so that you can make more sales and have more predictable cash flow…
How you want ongoing support to reach new levels in your business…
We are preparing something for you that you’ll start to hear about in a few weeks.
This is one of the biggest and most complex projects we’ve done in a long time.
It’s something I’ve been wanting to do ever since we rebranded (changing our name form Australian Businesswomen’s Network to HerBusiness) two years ago.
It’s taking a lot to bring this together.
And it’s the type of project that has our whole team ‘all in’ all focused, super-busy and working hard to bring you something truly special…
Something you deserve…
Something I know will really take your business forward… that will help you create the IDEAL business that you’ve dreamed of.
It’s a project that, even though I’m working really hard right now — doing super-long hours and really stretching myself outside of so many comfort zones — I’m having a lot of fun with.
The reason that I can work this hard and have fun is that we’ve been planning all the steps, all the tasks, for a long time.
We’ve given ourselves a long lead time to try new things, to do better than before.
We’ve planned out our big 2018 projects and broken down our BIG goals into mid-level goals and into smaller tasks.
Every task is allocated to a team member or outsourced. Every tiny to-do is allocated.
And, this is allowing us to, day by day, make progress and know that we are getting closer to the BIG goal.
Saying NO was hard.
We’d already bought out tickets to the conference and to shows and booked hotel rooms.
We’d booked our flights.
We’d let friends know we’d be coming.
We’d picked the SXSW sessions we were definitely not going to miss seeing.
But as the time to leave for Austin approached, what I knew was that as much fun and as rewarding as the trip would be — it would take my eye off the main focus that I need to have all my attention on right now.
It would have been easier to say YES — to go to SXSW, to see Jennifer Lopez in Vegas, and to have a ton of fun.
But I know that the whole time I’d have been stressing about the progress that I wasn’t making on this ‘secret’ project.
I’d have been trying to juggle getting things done while travelling, being in seminars and dealing with time zones.
But, here I am.
Further along the way towards this big goal that I have — making progress every day.
I’m so glad I made the decision to say YES to a longer-term goal.
And NO to a short-term goal.
Because so often it can be easier to say yes to what’s in front of us. But saying yes can mean we are saying no to something more important.
Next year… that’s another story.
I have my tickets booked for SXSW 2019… and I can hardly wait.
