Your Voice, Inc.

Have you ever come back from a conference and your head is spinning with ideas?  Have you not been able to sleep because all of the great content is keeping your brain moving at warp speed?

When you go to a value-packed conference like the 21st Century Book Marketing Event put on by Arielle Ford and Mike Koenigs be prepared to be swept away.  I went to the first conference last year and I knew what I was in for – fabulous ideas by phenomenal experts.

As the conference began, Arielle asked, “how many of you attending the conference last year?”  Quite a few of the 360 attendees raised their hands, including myself.  A woman behind me said to her friend, “Once wasn’t enough?”   with a tone that implied, why would you have to attend twice?  I smiled and thought, “Strap yourself in, Honey, this is going to be a wild ride.”  What a wonderful example of foreshadowing.  Thirty-six hours later this same woman was up on stage at the end of the event going through a relaxation exercise because she was so overwhelmed.  Yes, I smiled at the irony.

This year I had a plan for maximizing the content and minimizing my sense of overwhelm.  I am confident you will find it useful and adaptable to your own style.

Conference Survival Plan:

1.  Magical Margins: In the left margin of your notebook use shorthand to plan out how you will use ideas and quotes when you get back to work.  This significantly cuts down on the time it takes to go through your 20+ pages of notes and pick out the gems.  You can certainly adapt this idea to your laptop or iPad.  If after the first day you realize you did not keep up with your plan, make adjustments so it works for you.

• TW/FB – quotes or ideas you want to repeat and share on Twitter or Facebook.  In some cases I put the initials of my clients next to them knowing I would post the comments to their accounts on their behalf.  I could do the same for my own account and/or retweet theirs to expand their brand.  By using socialoomph.com I can easily commit to one hour and schedule posts to several sites that would be published over the next couple of days.
• AI – Action Item to execute for your clients or your business
• R – Research, a website you want to check out or a concept you need to look into
• CC – Colleague Collaboration, a concept you want to execute but are not entirely sure you know how.   Plan to reach out to a colleague for help.   Just writing these two letters next to an idea significantly reduces your stress.  You don’t have to worry about how you will figure something out, set the intention that you have resources available to you and acknowledge you are not alone in the process.
• FU – (not what you are thinking) – a Follow Up item you need to handle on behalf of a client that was sparked by an idea or concept
• D – Delegate item to support staff

2. Sort and Schedule: Commit 30-minutes at the end of each day of the event to sort out your tasks and set the priority.  This process can have a tremendous calming effect on you because it can take what seems like a large pile of overwhelm and break it into small pieces of a beautifully executed strategy.  Besides, it is not as if you can go right to sleep anyway…

• 24 hours – those things that MUST be started or completed the first day back to the office
• 48 hours – pretty self-explanatory
• Week – by the end of the week, these items will have been initiated or completed.

3. Rolodex Roundup: As you meet people and exchange business cards,  make a quick note on each one as a reminder of your conversation to ensure a personalized follow up correspondence.  When you get back to your office at the end of the conference, write an abbreviation on each one and/or use your contact system to keep track of the following actions:

• W – Reviewed their website.  Having reviewed their website will help you in crafting a personalized message when you follow up.
• B – Do they have a blog?  What is their passion? Could you add value?
• TW/FB – Connect with them on Twitter and Facebook
• TY – Send a hand-written thank you card if you can find a mailing address (within 24 hours).
• EM – Send an email if there is no mailing address (within 24 hours)

Adjust these ideas into a system that you know you can stick to.  You will be amazed at how much better you feel knowing you have a system in place before the event starts.  You will also find it easier to sleep each night because your mind has processed the day’s information and you have sorted it into an easily-digestible action list for a productive week ahead.

Did you attend the event?  If so, I would love to hear about your experience and your take-aways.  If there is something you need, perhaps I know of a resource that can help you.