So I was having a great time with the girls yesterday in our chat, and we got to talking about consultations. One gal, who is super sharp AND super neat AND super cool, was lamenting how she “flubbed” her first consult. And I’m thinking, flub? What’s to flub? This isn’t a test. You aren’t on stage. You won’t get any brownie points for being perfect. And I told her as much, LOL!
But I know what she meant. She felt like she let herself down. Well, I say, she didn’t flub anything. So she she had a consult, and she wasn’t as smooth as she would have liked. Big deal. If I could show you a movie of all the bad consults I’ve had over the years, where I was tongue-tied or I said something I wished I hadn’t or I wasn’t as confident and polished as I’d hoped to be… you’d be rolling in the aisles. But I’m much better now, thank you veddy much. And that only came with practice.
There are going to be a ton of consults you do where you’ll absolutely bomb. But that’s the thing–you can’t ever bomb at these things. The world won’t come to a screeching halt. Much to your chagrin, you’ll live to see another consult, LOL.
Seriously, though… these “practice” consults, as I like to call them, are absolutely necessary and worthwhile. Every single one of ‘em. You get better every time. And you learn something valuable with every one. You HAVE to have these experiences. It’s the ONLY way you will grow from them. They are what is going to lead you to becoming the smooth, polished administrative expert and old hand at these things who knows exactly how to lead her process and connect with her right clients and forge the solutions that are going to help them move forward.
So don’t be hard on yourself! Do your best to relax and look upon the people you consult with as lovely acquaintances in the road of life. Maybe you’ll end up working together and knowing each other better. Maybe you won’t. But if you look at it like this, no matter how things turn out, you haven’t lost a thing. And trust me, one day you will laugh at how terrible you were (or so you thought), and smile proudly at how far you’ve come. You’ll have a lot more fun in the process, too. 
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