I know you are probably thinking “Give it a rest already” the Work Freedom summit is OVER. But, to be true to form, I must write and share my latest epic income-generating disaster.
If you’ll remember, I participated in the Work Freedom Summit a few weeks back. I spoke about publishing eBooks, something I know a bit about. Of course, I could have also presented information on freelance content writing, teaching ESL online, affiliate marketing, creating online courses, blogging, overcoming insurmountable obstacles, and finding your passion. However, when the hosts got around to my application, apparently everything had been taken but the eBooks topic, so it was a take it or leave it situation.
So let’s talk about the interview first. I thought it went ok, until I went to share my slides. Just before the call, I had been practicing and forgotten to reset the slides, so I began with the end in mind or something. Being flustered, it took me a few minutes to even figure out why the slide I was looking at wasn’t the title slide. To make matters worse, instead of typing 1 and hitting enter to return to the title slide, I SCROLLED through them backwards looking in panic for the title slide.
Then there was that oversight on my part about the link to the handy worksheet I had prepared. I was supposed to send the host a copy of that document erroneously believing that it would be included in the bonus section or at the very least, a pdf link after my bio. Nope. It appeared absolutely NOWHERE because I FORGOT to send it!
So today, feel free to download this document about the steps on How to Turn Your Blog into a Book (which is an upcoming eBook).
Another issue that I’m sure was all in my head was that I sort of felt like the kid sister in this whole experience. You know, the one mom said you HAD to let tag along but you really didn’t want to because somehow I was left off the initial contact list and missed the first few communicants from the presenters. Then I was supposed to get an email to check my profile page but didn’t so had to ask the host about it. But it all worked out.
I was able to attend a few of the sessions during the summit and listed those in a previous post. I just wanted to make a commentary on the communication styles of the presenters here.
With one notable exception, the women presenters participated in a dialogue with the host and the men expounded their thoughts at the host. I know that’s not really a new observation on the differences between male and female communication styles, but seeing it in these back to back sessions really brought it home to me. The communication styles also influenced how I, as a female observer, absorbed the information presented. I was more interested in, hence felt like I learned more from, the dialogue rather than the pontificating, naturally.
I also noticed that not one of the presenters in the sessions I attended used slides! WHAT? I thought that conducting my session as a class would be the most natural way to provide the information to viewers and as a consequence, spent some time on slide creation. ALL of the presenters were just talking heads, no additional graphics, nothing in the background to spark creative interaction, NOTHING! They might as well have been podcasts (which I also recently did for that first time and you can find that here.)
Now for the nitty gritty. It would have been nice to have received some monetary compensation for my time and effort in promoting, but as no one signed up for the paid version of the Work Freedom Summit via my affiliate link, I earned a big fat goose egg. I’m not as disappointed as you might think, since I went into this as a learning experience rather than expecting to make the big bucks, but still….
Those are the negatives. There were some positives about this experience, however.
First, I learned that I could do this! Remember how I mentioned in a previous post that participating in a video summit was something way beyond my comfort zone? Well, it was, but I did it anyway. And it wasn’t so bad. Neither was sharing a graphic with MY picture on it all over social media. I mean, it wasn’t my favorite thing in the world to do, but I did it!
I also picked up a few useful tidbits from the presentations that I am planning on implementing beginning in the new year. So my time spent in viewing wasn’t wasted at all. (And neither will yours be if you choose to get the lifetime access pass now available. Wink Wink, Nudge nudge)
Lastly, the summit deadline made me get on the stick and finish the publishing course I’ve been working on. It’s live. You can see it here: Book It: Everything You Need to Know to Publish Your Book on Amazon.
I’m looking for Beta Testers for the course before I make a big deal over it. If you, or anyone you know is brave enough to self-publish or has already self-published, I’d love for you to give me feedback on the material I’ve provided in this course. Please contact me with the form below.
All in all, my first summit presenter experience was a mixed bag of tricks. But I can say, I’ve been there, done that, and it’s time to move on to another venture.
Surviving Mexico 