Taking Imperfect Action: Advertising my 4-Week Workshop

I did it! Well...  at least I committed to doing it.

What is it? The 4-Week Workshop I've been talking about for the past two blog posts.  I'll probably be talking about it for the rest of the month because I have a lot of work to do to feel prepared and this blog is a good sand-box for experimentation.

"Take Imperfect Action" is one of those phrases that's tossed around in Agile circles.  Basically, it means don't wait around until you think everything is perfect before you take action.  By taking action, even though you don't feel 100% ready, you learn and improve the next time around.  You won't feel 100% ready the first time you do anything, because you don't know yet what you don't know!

Of course, taking imperfect action feels very uncomfortable on several levels, especially for people like me who have spent years in Quality Assurance. I'm a reformed perfectionist, but it still feels embarrassing to move forward when you don't think your product is fully baked.  

So even though I really have a lot I want to do before my Workshop, I felt that it was ready to advertise. I went ahead and scheduled two Meetup Events on the Grey Wolves Meetup for the first 4 weeks of May!  Actually the Virtual classes will run Thursday evenings and start April 29th and run through May 20.  The in-person classes will be at my house and run Saturday afternoons May 1 - May 22.

The Grey Wolves Meetup has over 4000 members so it's always been the place I've had the best luck at finding people to go to my events.  However, the people that sign up for things on Meetup are notorious for not showing up.  (This was the impetus behind my RSVPeeves bitch session whiney post.) I'll see if I can skew the odds in my favor by contacting the people who sign up, welcoming them and tell them how excited I am to have them in the class. [Note to self: Stay confident! None of this..  "The class is new so don't expect too much" BS!  Surprisingly, I actually do feel quite confident. ]

I went ahead and updated my personal Website with a new page describing the Workshop, but realized I still had to enable SSL on that site.  I thought that would be simple, but it turns out..  it wasn't.  I have an email out to Weebly customer service to help me with that one.  

I also created events on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Alignable to advertise the class.  I could create and promote more and maybe I will when the dates get closer, but for now I'll settle for a smaller class.  If I get 6 paying students I'll be happy.  

I know for the students, though, it's always more interesting and fun to have enough people that they are also networking and meeting new friends.  Again, I have plenty of time to promote when the dates get closer.  

• Description and Agenda Prepared - Check!
• Pages to Advertise created on Social Media - Check!
• Workbook and Worksheets for each week created - To Do!
• Personalized Welcome for everyone who signs up - To Do!
• Feel the excitement and anxiety of a new challenge - Ongoing!