Making Mountains out of Mole Hills

Last week I helped put on the International Conference on Communication in Healthcare (ICCH) in Miami Beach, Florida with the American Academy on Communication in Healthcare (AACH). I’ve worked with this association for over a year, but I had never met any of the board members (or members in general), or any of the conference participants. I was excited but also nervous to finally meet everyone. This would also be the first professional conference I had ever helped plan and attend. In the days leading up to the conference I started to worry about the little things: “What if I say someone’s name wrong?” “What if they don’t like the way I’ve done something? What if I can’t help them or answer their questions?” I was proud of the work I had done leading up to the conference, so why was I so worried that I wouldn’t be up to par once I got there? I was so worried about making a good “first” impression, when I had already built the relationships. We usually make mountains out of mole hills when it comes to ourselves and our work, don’t we?

I heard something very interesting the other day – it is the difference between self esteem and self confidence. Self confidence is fostered by being good at what you do, while self esteem is more a feeling of who you are inherently. As it turns out, we can have good self esteem but bad self confidence and vice versa. Although my esteem (my internal self) was feeling high, my confidence (my external self) was feeling low. Nerves and new situations will do that to people, but we just have to learn how to get a grip on it so that we can show how well we can do. I believe that we can relate to that in our businesses as well, especially in association management. When we take on a new client at Drake & Company we admit up front how much we know about a client’s industry. If we don’t know much about it, though, we promise to learn the industry so well that no one would ever know we were new to the field. That’s having both self esteem and self confidence. It’s protruding good self-worth on both the inside and outside. It’s all about attitude, I believe.

When I was on the plane to Miami I just kept telling myself, “You’ll be fine. You’ve worked with these people for a long time and have built good relationships. Just be yourself.” Just be yourself. That’s a phrase I think a lot of people dismiss. Once I finally decided to just be the “me” I had been all this time, I wasn’t nervous anymore. I became even more excited to meet my colleagues and all of the conference participants. My original plan was to have our executive director introduce me to everyone, but I decided that it was more “me” to just introduce myself. So that’s what I did. Thank goodness for name tags because I didn’t know everyone’s faces, but every time I saw a name that I recognized, I would introduce myself with a big smile and my hand reached out to meet them officially. The response was overwhelming! As it turns out, people were just as excited to finally meet me. Moreover, they wanted to thank us for all of the work we had done and all of the help we had provided along the way. That was such a good feeling. It was like all of the work and relationship building had paid off. That in turn gave me even more motivation to do my best while I was there. I’m very proud of the work I did and the help I gave during my time at the conference. I feel confident in saying that I helped a lot of people and did my job to the best of my ability. And, I had a great time in general. It really didn’t feel like work, even though the days were longer and my feet hurt worse than ever!

Since I’ve returned from the conference I feel even more “connected” to my client and the people. It is like I have come full circle on so many levels. I’ve finally attended a conference for a client (so now I have another shared experience with my colleagues at DrakeCo), I now know that I can help plan a conference of high caliber, and I know that I can feel confident about the work I do and how I represent both my clients and my company. I have more self esteem as well as self confidence than ever and I’m excited to do more! Bring on the mountains; they’re just mole hills anyway!