Take the Leap

A couple of weeks ago I was asked if I wanted to be on a talk radio show.  My initial response was a resounding YES.  I felt pretty good about it until the email came in with instructions.  They wanted a bio, some questions that I would want to answer in order to lead a discussion, a link to my website, and a phonetic spelling of my name if it was unusual.  DellaVecchia, yup, I guess my name qualifies as a bit hard to navigate.

Hmmm, what did I get my self into?  What was I feeling about my decision and what was I afraid of?  Maybe I wouldn’t be good enough, I was worried that I wouldn’t have the answers to questions.  What if I failed?  I actually put off sending my email response for a couple of days until I realized that I already had a bio… It’s on my website, my Noomii page (coaching referral service), on Yelp… it’s actually all over the internet in some form or another.

So what was my hold up?  There wasn’t one.  I love talking to people, and I love talking about coaching.  This talk show just happened to combine both, plus I get to potentially direct the conversation.  OK, feeling better and better.  My fear raised my awareness, which is fine, but I didn’t let it stop my progress.

I can do this.

I sent in my bio and a list of 4 questions ranging from how I got into coaching to how my niche found me.  I then put it out of my mind until the day of the show.  Why worry about something that hasn’t happened yet and of which I really had no control.  After all, it’s just a conversation between two people.

I was instructed to dial in about 5 minutes prior to our scheduled time, which was at 12:30, so I was working on some client business when an URGENT email popped up from the Admin of Money For Lunch.  Could I dial in early for my segment?  Instead of 12:30 they wanted me at 10:00.

At 9:55 I dialed in and listened to the wrap up of the previous show.  10:00 on the dot, I hear Bert announce the show and introduce….. not me.  Oops, what the heck is happening?  I check email again and low and behold, another message from the Admin.  Sorry, wrong time it’s really 11:30.

OK. I email back and ask if she is sure. Yes, she promises it’s the right time now.

At 11:25 I dial in again and hear Bert ending his previous show.  A couple minutes later he introduced me. Yay!  And monumentally mispronounced my last name!  So much for phonetics.  We had a great conversation and I have to admit that I totally enjoyed myself.  The questions I sent didn’t matter a whit.  We just talked and it went wherever it went. We spoke about career coaching, my background in IT and International management.  And most importantly, we discussed why my coaching is different.

I explained that I coached to my client’s strengths, their likes, and their passion.  From that base I help them realize the career path that will make them happy.  I also help them with their resume and social media.  As a career coach you can’t just have straight up career conversations and then walk away when someone needs assistance with matching a resume to a job description.

And by the way, I would do another interview again in a heartbeat.

As a coach I’ve learned to take the leap, don’t let fear of something stop you from moving forward. Fear is a very normal reaction, it’s what we do after we recognize it that matters.  If you want some help facing your fears send me an email Terry2thrive@gmail.com  or give me a call 410.804.1954.

If you want to listen to my session here’s the link…

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/moneyforlunch/2015/12/11/terry-dellavecchia-randy-miller

It’s Money For Lunch and the show was held on 12/11/15, you may have to scroll down to find the episode with my name on it.