I am co-chair of the Parry Sound Area Founders Circle with Nicole Boyd.
The Parry Sound Area Founders Circle are community leaders, entrepreneurs, and business leaders who have invested funds as prizes to be awarded to individuals or groups with innovative ideas that will help improve the local economy throughout the Parry Sound District.
We recently had our our Awards Dinners. The winner of the $10,000 was Sound Yarn & Fibre and the winner of the $5,000 was Harbour Hot Sauce.
Other finalists included: I Like to Move it Movers, New Wave Fishing Academy, Oli's Parry Sound Fishing Charters, and Smart Fitness Studio.
Jeff Brown, was our keynote speaker. His talk, well, "inspiration" does not really do it justice. Everyone has a story, and his story lifted people, moved people, encouraged people, and provided hope, for them to tackle their past, and future. So awesome.
A few days after the dinner, Jeff wrote about his experience, which again, provides deep insights and valuable learnings.
When did you last step out of your Comfort Zone?
I’ve been having an incredible time here in Ontario, Canada, meeting with fellow photographers, speaking at a photography night and hosting a LinkedIn workshop all thanks to a very good LinkedIn friend Peter Istvan.
However the major role of my trip to Canada was to deliver a keynote after dinner speech at The Parry Sound Area Founders Circle Annual Awards Night to a room filled with successful entrepreneurs, business owners, and influential members of the community, no pressure then!!!
To say that I was a little bit nervous was an understatement.
Yes, I’ve spoken at many events and delivered workshops around the world but these are always to an audience of fellow photographers or delivering a presentation about LinkedIn or marketing something I’m very confident talking about. In fact I could waffle on about marketing for hours and usually do.
But to deliver a 20 minute speech with no slides to prompt and keep me on track and to talk about my own journey as an entrepreneur since the age of 16 really put me out of my comfort zone.
Firstly, I was filled with extreme self-doubt, why the hell would an audience of successful business owners on the other side of the world be interested in my entrepreneurial journey.
Secondly without my usual Powerpoint slides to keep me on track I had visions of the whole speech being a complete disaster, as I find it very hard to read allowed from notes with my dyslexia.
But I’d committed to Peter, so I had to deliver and do a damn good job of it. The only thing to do was rehearse, rehearse and rehearse, as well as reading numerous books on public speaking to help refine my delivery.
When I nervously walked up to the mic on Thursday night I still had no idea how it would go, but to my surprise once I started to speak everything seemed to flow. Nobody fell asleep, I managed to get a few laughs and a round of applause.
Over the past few days I’ve received several messages from attendees thanking me for my talk. Telling me how they were taken back by the honesty and rawness I shared of my journey through success to failure and back to success, and inspired by my personal transformation from extreme depression and attempted suicide to happiness, positivity and loving every minute of my life.
It's with a huge thanks to Peter and the good people of Parry Sound Area Founders Circle that I stepped out of my comfort zone, conquered my nerves and had an amazing night.
I’ve been made to feel so incredibly welcome on this little trip to Canada, I really do hope to return again later in the year, you’ve inspired me to step out of my comfort zone more and I hope in return I’ve inspired you to do the same.
