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Its about ‘pushing through’ when you know things haven’t quite turned out the way you’ve expected them to. In the back of my mind I had a feeling it would be the case, because experience tells me so. However, for my colleague Helen, it was an eye opener, so let me explain

On Tuesday we had to deliver a seminar on digital strategy working alongside Nat West. The event had 47 people booked on, however only 13 people turned up, which automatically puts us on the back foot.

For the record, I’m not one of those individuals who creates an illusion to tell the world it was brilliantly attended; that there’s limited seats, places are going fast, we’ve had to change rooms because its oversubscribed, when it wasn’t. The majority of people can see through that cock and bull story, so who you trying to kid mate !

I digress, what’s important is to recognise it certainly isn’t a reflection of the hard work put in by all the parties involved to get the event on ! As they say the show must go on.

One of my philosophies in life and business, which you’ve heard me say before if you follow my blogs, is the best learning comes from the most awkward or difficult of situations or the ‘grey areas’

So, there my colleague was, ready to deliver an outstanding seminar on digital strategy to a room full of businesses eager to learn. If you’ve done presentations before, you’ll know that you feed off the energy from a full, buzzing room. The power gets turned on and you become at one with your audience. If you’re a Marvel fan, the only way I can explain it, is imagine the character Electro, the one who feeds off electricity to gain power.

Unfortunately for Helen, because of the low attendance, the energy from the room, was at best, like an unresponsive TV remote control with dying batteries. You keep pressing like a maniac to get a response, but its delayed. You then resort to ‘the magic rub’, taking the batteries out, giving them a blow and a rub – No innuendo intended! (I have no idea why we do that, or where that came from, but it seems to work for a short while, until you change them for new ones).

Helen’s performance, having seen her deliver an outstanding seminar only a few weeks earlier, at Birmingham Chambers, by her own admission, wasn’t up to the standard she had now gotten used to. It was by no means bad, far from it, it just didn’t meet the high standards she’d set herself

In her own mind, it was a mini disaster, she felt deflated, and glad it was over. I know exactly how she felt at the time, because it’s happened to me many times before. But on reflection, and because of the benefit of my experience we had an honest feedback conversation. I explained to Helen, that she could have quite easily given up, but she didn’t. She continued to the end and made the best of the circumstances.

All you can do in situations like the ones presented on Tuesday, is learn from them and be honest with yourself. Never should one hide away, that shows weakness in your character, you take it on the chin, and come back fighting. Helen’s character shows me that she’s made of the strong stuff, she had to go through it to experience it, and now she’s better equipped to tackle the situation should it happen again…In fact it will happen again !

I’m super proud of Helen and the rest of my team at Wow Zone. They have an inner strength that when the chips are down, or we come into uncharted territory they have the mindset to tackle it and come back bigger and better. As a CEO that’s all you can ask for !