There is a time in life to panic. I think it’s okay to allow yourself that moment of, “Oh Shoot!”, as long as you can focus and fix it. I have definitely have had multiple times in my life where I was panicking on the inside and doing all that I could to keep from letting them see me sweat. It’s almost like I am giving myself an internal pep talk:

You can do this, you’ll knock it out of the park, you can make this happen.

It’s almost like having that angel and devil conversation. One of them is whispering, You’re dead meat! There it all goes-down the drain. While the other is giving you the pep talk of a lifetime and is becoming the Tony Robbins of your soul, igniting you to fix it, conquer it and make it happen.

Here’s a little inspiration for you…. ;))

Although I have had many times in my life that have caused panic, I am only going to share two with you for now. I mean I could write a book on these moments but it’s a blog so I’ll keep it short, and as we get to know each other, you’ll learn more about my sordid, fun stories —just as I hope to learn yours.

Story 1

I was working at a motherboard manufacturing company in my 20’s. I often had huge orders with clients for whom we were building specific product original to them. In the tech world it’s known as OEM (original engineered manufacturing). One day I had a large order and the client needed a quick turnaround. Now this was a new client to me. And it was a gigantic deal for me to win. It was obvious when they called they were in need of a champion and they were hoping it was me. No pressure right?

I went to my production manager and he said that we couldn’t get it done that fast and couldn’t meet that deadline. This was literally no joke. A deal breaker. The client was testing my flexibility in the marketplace, as he was having a hard time trusting my young age. (Side note: when I first walked into the meeting with him he asked if I was 14.)

Anyhow I didn’t want to walk back to my desk and call and tell him that I couldn’t do it.  But apparently that was my only option.

How could I face him and let him know that we were not the company who could get things done for him?

Instead of walking to my desk, I turned to the production manager  and I asked him if I could help. He looked at me like I was crazy and said, “yeah sure”, wondering what type of spreadsheet phone calling solution did I think would help build computers.

Well instead of walking back to my desk to make that dreaded call, I looked at the inventory that we had, I spoke to some of the other OEM sales staff to see what inventory we could borrow from them as a base and then change what we needed. I did my homework. I knew it could happen. I just knew in order for it to happen they would need some extra hands. And guess what— I have some! 🙂

So in my skirt and heels I walked into the warehouse, stepped into the production line and began building alongside our incredible staff. Seeing that I was willing to help get this order done created excitement and an energy that got everyone kicking butt. We worked hard, we worked as a team and they hands down helped me win over a client that didn’t think, “This little girl had what it takes.”

There are times where you face the Fight or Flight Syndrome, and it’s almost too much. If I find yourself in a situation where you’re panicking, stop for a minute, take a deep breath and think, How could I solve this? If I can’t think of a way, I ask a co-worker I trust or a friend.

Story 2

I want to tell you this last story as it was almost too much for my positive thinking mindset and clearly stretched my nerves to the limit.

I use to do press tours for a modem manufacturing company. I would tour all over the U.S speaking and Latin America. I was down in Guatemala.

Now many people who don’t know the language would refuse to do public speaking in a different country.  But you miss great opportunities that way.  I wasn’t going to miss this one.  I am a solution finder. So I found translators at every Latin American city and country I went to and the translator would be on stage with me translating my presentation for the audience.

This worked fantastic for most countries. Until Guatamala….

I always met the translator about a half hour before the presentation so I could show them my PowerPoint presentation and they could review it and discuss any technical terms that they may not understand.

Well, the lovely lady that was my translator, sat reading the printed presentation for about 15 minutes shaking her head side to side. Now she could be reading really fast but this looked bad to me.

So I finally asked her, “is everything ok??”

She then proceeded to tell me, 15 minutes before I am to walk on stage in front of 100+ press and potential buyers that she didn’t understand how to translate any of the technology in my presentation. Not a word of it….

PANIC!!!!!

I did, I admit it, I panicked. (Internally, of course.)

The MC of the event started to put my body mic on me.

My mind was racing.. My palms were acting like it was mid July.

How can I do an hour presentation when over 50% of my presentation is technology that my translator doesn’t understand! And I don’t speak the language. What was I thinking!!! How could I put myself in this position. I can’t just point to pictures and grunt. I can’t tap dance my way out of this. I can’t cancel…

My heart thought it was in a 24 meter dash and it apparently wanted to win…

I broke down crying… J/K I didn’t. I didn’t have time to do that. Plus you don’t expect me to take stage with messed up makeup, do you? 🙂 haha

The only thing I could do was take a deep breath. I couldn’t get lost in what I couldn’t do. I had to start thinking of what I could do.

I took the stage with my translator.

I looked at the audience and introduced myself, found my voice and with manufactured confidence said, “There are some terms that I need help translating for today’s presentation. Could you raise your hand if you know how to translate…..” Yes, I asked the audience to help me with the presentation they paid to see.

I went through my list of terms. I selected different people for each term and told them that every time that it came up I would point to them to translate.

I did the presentation. I looked like a raving, maniac disco dancer on stage pointing left and right and out towards the back.

The audience was laughing, sure it may have been at me, but they gave me the largest round of applause at the end, knowing that I did what I had to do to communicate.

I remained positive, I chose to keep calm, think of a solution and move forward. To me that’s the only choice you can make in almost any situation.

Allow that quick panic, or the sadness but you need to move forward so choose life, choose to roll your sleeves up and tackle your challenges. Choose to be positive and know life will work out. Yes sometimes you may look like a fool but you will have a survival story that will make you smile.

Just remember, you got this! Leave a comment below with one specific example of your, “I had to  stay positive moment”. I would honestly love to hear your story. handingyouthemic