Wow!  The last few days have been pretty amazing for me!  I, Nonny R Knight, won a Porsche and sat in one for the very first time in my life!  Actually, the spell check facility just corrected my spelling of Porsche which should tell you just how inexperienced I am on the subject of sports cars.  This year has been a time of hard work, determination and facing a whole lot of fears as I strive to make a difference in my life and that of my family and anyone else I can help along the way.I still remember going into London for my first training day last year.  I was determined to be the first there and the last to leave, to ask a whole load of questions and get as much as possible out of it as possible.  The thing was H, my youngest, was ill and I wrote this post about forming alliances and my reasons for travelling away from my baby when really my heart was at home.  And the same thing happened again yesterday…

Preparation

I had arranged childcare for my three lovely girls and left them in the care of trusted friends.  My biggest concern was for H; This was going to be the first time of leaving her for a whole night in the care of someone else and though she is rapidly approaching 2, she is still a baby to me!

Anyway, with plans in place, tloml and I set off on Friday evening for a weekend away on our own for the first time in years.  Yes, we were off to a business related conference but it was just the two of us.  Great!

I practised my presentation on him a few times, read a book by Dale Carnegie again – [amazon_link id=”0749305797″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Improve Self Confidence and Win Friends by Public Speaking[/amazon_link] – or something to that effect.  I was getting ready for this conference and the presentation for the contest that I truly wanted to win.  I have no doubt worked hard this year but you know that feeling you get – Great things happen to everyone but you! – Well despite writing this blog and trying to encourage others for a year, i do still suffer from that.

Whatever, whatever, I was going to give it my best shot.

Past Weeks

Before we carry on to the conference, let me tell you a little about the preceding weeks – I had managed to have two car accidents in the three weeks leading up to the conference.  No, I am not an unsafe driver; I had managed to stay incident free for over 7 years and there is an ongoing debate on where fault lies.  However, for one reason or another, these car accidents had happened and I was beginning to feel a bit down about it all.  The cost of it was eating into my spare cash that could have become deposit money for new property and I was not best pleased!

At this point, yes, I truly did want to win a car!

Tloml was not overly impressed either, I assure you! But he took it in his stride 😉

The Conference

Anyway, back to more recent times, we arrived at the hotel – Thistle Hotel Heathrow – which I did find slightly underwhelming and a bit like the cheap aeroplane carriers where they suck you in with the cheapness of the flight but then charge you for everything under the sun so you end up paying almost as much as a more expensive flight!  The staff were however pretty nice so I will try to excuse the rest of it 🙂 .

The Underground Investor’s Summit began and it was inspiring.  We had Parmdeep Vadesha helping us discover our goals and inspiring us to discover why we had those goals.  It is, after all, the reason behind the goals that will keep us going rather than the goal itself.  There were a great number of other speakers who gave all the delegates great advice on building their business like Sarah Barrett, Jim Haliburton, Heidi Roberts, Ed Ling, Mathew Moody, Hanif Khan, Richard Shepherd, Shimon Rudich and a whole lot more.

Very inspiring indeed!

The morning of the Contest

On Sunday, the 17th June 2012, the second day of the conference – I was enjoying another great night of unbroken sleep (2nd time in about 5 years! Friday night being the first!) when I was awakened by tloml, around 6am.  My darling friend/’babysitter for the weekend’ was on the phone.  H was wheezing and vomit-y and sweaty and all-round not great! 🙁

What to do? What to do?

• Stick around and hope for the best (and feel like a bad Mum all day!)
• Go home and ditch the contest (What were the chances of winning anyway?)
• Try to get home and get back in time for the presentation bit with the baby – No trains would have managed it as they seemed to running on Sunday speed so this idea was ditched
• Send Tloml home so at least I would know she was with a parent but then He would not have been around to see and support me

After a few text messages of reassurance to my friend, I had a great idea – One of my brothers is a newly qualified doctor and is probably a whole lot closer than I was.  He could keep an eye on her and at least I would then know she was in safe hands.

The thing I must confess was that somewhere inside of me, there was the fear of doing my presentation only to realize I was not good enough.  At least, if I went home, I could always say, it was H’s fault.  Can you see the sinister way fear can sometimes take hold and cause you to do things that seem OK but are really a cover for the fact that you are petrified?

Thankfully, I managed not to give in though I was sorely tempted.

The Contest

So I practised on Tloml twice more after lunch though it was different each time as I did not want to stick to a script but rather speak on a few key issues from my heart.

The year gone by has been incredible for me.  I have done things I would never have imagined I could do.  Even this blog is one of the many wonders of my year.  I would never have thought I could build a website and yet I am up to about fifteen at the moment with more in the pipeline as I improve my ability to market products online.  I have a house I let out and a few others that I manage for other investors.  I have sourced leads for other investors, I have helped people move on with their life by helping them sell their property (It is not the easiest thing to do in this economic climate.)

I have made a lot of new friends, faced a lot of fears and it has truly been exhilarating.  Not of course that I intend to stop.  There are still a lot of dreams to be lived.

Anyway, I was second to do my presentation and I quite enjoyed it – I even sang a little!  – Was not sure I would do that bit, it all depended on how nervous I felt 😀

I listened to the other three people do their presentations and they were very inspiring.  I was uncertain how anyone could choose; we were all winners, really.

However, the moment of decision finally arrived and WOW!!!!!

I WON Parmdeep’s PORSCHE!

I could not stop saying ‘Oh my Goodness!’

It was a great moment!

I have better-ed my best this past year and I would love to believe that you have too.  Let’s keep moving forward and if there is anything I can do to help, please do drop me a line.

Have a look at the video presentation and read through my Contest Diary over on part 2 of Better Your Best