Last September Rachel Mullen of Music City Suds contacted me to ask if I’d be interested in speaking at the Tennessee Soap and Candle Social. I said yes, and them promptly freaked out. Speaking in public is uncomfortable for me, but I know I need to learn to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. So this past weekend I hopped on a plane and headed to Chattanooga to join 70 attendees and speakers.
Friday afternoon I helped Rachel set up the facility and at night Brooke St. Ant gave an amazing blending workshop. I went back to the hotel with my roomie Bethany and her daughter Savanna to get some sleep, we had a big day on Saturday.
Charlene Simon was the key note speaker, and much to my surprise, she spoke about learning to be comfortable being uncomfortable. I was up next and I was glad. I knew I’d be more relaxed once I was done, but following Charlene was tough! I stumbled over a few words and spoke a little too quickly. I wasn’t perfect, but I was good enough, and that’s now my new motto, to be good enough.
To finish out the conference, Bethany spoke about making candles, Holly Port spoke on hosting events, Kayla Fioravanti on Aromatherapy, and Roslyn Johnson on Live Streaming. Now Live Streaming was a topic that really made me uncomfortable. I don’t like the way I sound on video and going live is scary. What if I screw up? Sometimes I can really over think things, so Sunday morning at the Chattanooga airport I did my first Facebook Live, and it wasn’t so bad. In fact, it was almost fun.
This weekend I learned that I wasn’t the only nervous speaker. In fact, pretty much all of us were. Any time you do something new, you’re going to be nervous. It’s difficult to break out of your comfort zone, but it’s necessary for growth. It’s important to push yourself to try new things. If you do something once or twice and it’s not for you, at least you tried. I’m grateful this week to Rachel for giving me the opportunity to speak at her conference.
What are you grateful for this week?
Yours in Gratitude,
Angela
My name is Elizabeth Kissell and we met at the Tennessee Soap and Candle meeting. I came over and told you that I had never heard about “butt ugly” soap and that you gave a great tip to use leftover soap with melt and pour. (Also talked to you about Memphis where I am from…just trying to let you put a face with a name). Anyhow, I used your process today. At first I came up with a blue gray ugly, ugly soap. I wasn’t pleased with that so I melted the soap back down and poured it into a different container. I wasn’t pleased with that either! Finally, I melted the soap again and added rose clay. You can see the little specks of the regular soap. I will send you pictures of the finished product if you send me your email address.
Thank you so much for the information about melt and pour. It is not my favorite way to make soap, but it was one of the best ideas I got from the soap meeting!
I remember you! Thank you for letting me know my talk was helpful, I appreciate it, especially since I was nervous.
Definitely send me pictures. Send me a message through the contact page on my website and I’ll send you my email address. I have to give credit to Trisha Trout of Prairie Sage Soap in Idaho. She is the one who makes “Butt Ugly Soap”. She uses clear melt and pour over shavings. Check her website.
Today I took all my shavings and trimmings from the past 3 months and put them in a crock pot to rebatch. 🙂 Happy soaping.
Such a great talk you gave! You seem to be very good at being comfortable with the uncomfortable. Great information you passed on to the soaping community. I had the best roomie in crowd 😉
Awe, thanks Bethany!