Jess Ekstrom – 00:00:02:

Welcome to Amplify with Jess Ekstrom, a show designed to help women get out of their head and into their zone of influence. Happy Monday, everyone. Here’s some food for thought to start your week. Recently, I was going for a bike ride and I heard an echo of someone speaking into a microphone. I turned the corner and a woman had her own pop-up tent with a sign written with a sharpie that said, Church service open to all. She set up dozens of chairs in an empty parking lot, all placed six feet apart because this was during the pandemic. She even had chalk between each one to show the measurements so the chairs wouldn’t move. She had thought this through. But, there was only about three people sitting in the audience, but she was speaking into her microphone as if she was speaking to an arena of 20,000 people. I slowed down on my bike and watched her. I couldn’t really hear what she was saying, but her initiative to put this service together and her confidence to deliver it to a small crowd was just absolutely incredible. But this woman taught me something super valuable. You’re not always going to get the perfect scenario of what you pictured, especially when you’re a beginner and also for years to come after that. I’m sure she would have much rather had a sea of people in a long line waiting instead of three. However, she didn’t let the disappointment of the external circumstance change how she showed up internally. She showed up as if she had a megaphone to the world. With social media, so many things are measured and judged. How many followers? How many likes? How many views? And I’ve heard critics say that you’re broadcasting your message to a small audience is “cringeworthy” . Well, I’m here to tell you. Create the damn cringe. How are you supposed to grow an audience if you don’t start speaking to them? How are you supposed to deliver your message without practicing and testing your delivery? And take scale off the table. What if it was okay to speak to who’s right in front of you instead of the pressure to always reach and always appeal to the masses? Creating the cringe is a message that has taken me years to get comfortable with. But once I accepted it, it totally changed how I measured myself and my own progress. And maybe it will change yours too. So I’m going to leave you with this. Be so enamored working on your ideas and solving problems that you forget to care how many people are listening or validating you. Thanks for listening to Amplify. If you are a fan of the show, show us some podcast love by giving us a rating and review. And give us a follow @MicDropWorkshop and @JessEkstrom. Coming up on Amplify.