Nominating yourself for an award feels kinda strange. Here’s the story of what happened when I took a chance on an award.
When Sandra Garlick MBE of Woman Who began speaking about the Woman Who Achieves awards in the spring of 2024, I disappeared off down that good old rabbit hole of ‘I’m not good enough to do this!’.
But something inside of me was gently nudging me forwards, just a little bit more every day.
I knew I didn’t need to wait for someone to nominate me. I was also aware that being part of any recognisable awards can be fantastic for visibility as a small business owner. But there was a HUGE part of me that kept saying ‘why would you enter these? You’re never going to win. Your business is not yet big enough to claim anything significant.’
Sound familiar?
Me and that monkey-mind have had a dance of ‘do it – don’t do it’ on more occasions than I can count over the years. Big life stuff, small decisions too.
For the purposes of these awards, it needn’t to be about any of that – there were no categories to worry about – did I fit here, or there? nope – whew!
Just talking about your hopes and dreams for the awards application can reignite a spark – help you remember your ‘why’ and reclaim what you came here to do.
Stop you from playing small. And I felt ready for that (mostly).
The same can happen in any moment where you’re struggling to believe in yourself – or those naughty monkeys at ‘smalltalkrus’ are chattering away and having you doubt yourself.
They do it to keep you safe, see.
All it takes, in these moments, is to remember who the F you are.
Have a vision board? Go look at it.
Won an award or received something profound to remind you of what you’ve already achieved? Show it off with pride. Be with it. Feel good about it. Here’s the permission you were seeking. although you didn’t really need it from me.
I won this award because I took a chance – I had no idea what might happen, but I went ahead and did it anyway. Here’s an insight:
Celebrate your wins – however small. This helps raise your vibration and pick you back up from the doldrums where little people hang out.
As someone who loves to write, I took time and care over my application, but once I read it through, I knew the time had come to click ‘submit’.
Job done – or so I thought.
I never expected for a moment that I would be selected as one of the finalists!
Ohh I had entered awards before, when I worked in the wedding industry (prior to 2020). I went to the 2nd round, waiting patiently in the crowd as they selected the best weddings stationers in the region – and no, I wasn’t one of them.
It all felt a little bit like lip service, somehow though? It just didn’t feel quite real to me – I can’t explain why.
Perhaps it’s because I knew in my heart it wasn’t what I was meant to be doing in the world.
So when my name was called out to be in the final stage of the interview process this time around, going in front of the judging panel I began to wonder. Was I really in with a chance?
As I shared my story, how I got from where I once existed, to be where I am right now, I felt energised.
Sharing it came to me so naturally – I’ve spoken about parts of my story many times. I know it better than any fairytale (and there have been parts darker than any ‘Brothers Grimm’), I’ve written blogs that share aspects and life-defining moments – but I’ve never done it without any kind of preparation.
And now, there it was in front of the panel. The word ‘wow’ repeated more than once. One of the judges said it gave her goosebumps to hear what I shared (and I can’t remember exactly what I said, the 15 minute spot just flew by!).
I shared a story about a conversation I had with a Quantum physicist at an event the previous week, one which demonstrated to me just how far I have come in my mindset.
This is probably going one of the stories I’ll share more over time especially because I’ve come to understand that when you truly step into and owning being just who you are, your confidence levels and mindset can really change gears, sometimes very rapidly. And it all starts with knowing how to handle that negative self-talk, so it can’t stand in between you and where you’re headed. Because why would you let it?
I took a chance and won an award. It paid off – so what else is possible?
A powerful piece of confirmation I received during this interview was about the impact I could have as a professional speaker. It has been something I’ve toyed with a lot in recent years. Hearing it from the panel who have conversations with many impactful speakers, business owners and influential women in business during these interviews, really helped clarify that I have a place in that kind of arena.
Maybe – just maybe that’s something for me to pay attention to – an exciting prospect indeed!
What a wonderful experience to be part of – feeling very much like a winner before we even got to the Awards, held in May 2024 and continue to revel in the possibilities presented to me by this interview.
I feel so blessed – and I thoroughly enjoyed it all! Check this post to find out what happened at the Awards.