I chaired my first Athena meeting yesterday at the Amersham Tuesday group. Being a member of Athena has been really great for not just my business, but a huge boost to my confidence. I'm enjoying some great supportive friendships. When I think back to this time last year when I attended my first Athena meeting, what a quivering shy thing I was, absolutely dreading the moment when I would have to stand up and deliver my monthly minute!
It didn't seem to make any difference that even though I had been working behind the scenes with Athena's admin for nearly a year and knew all about networking, when it came to actually delivering the minute I was bricking it! I remember being so worried that no-one would take me seriously. I couldn't concentrate on anything much that was being said in the first part of the meeting and it got even worse when the monthly minutes started being delivered! All I could do was count down the ladies until it was my turn! And then, after I'd said my prepared piece, it took the time of a few more ladies to deliver their minutes for me to recover and get my heart rate back to normal and feel like I could actively listen to what was going on!
Now, a year on, not only do I look forward to delivering my minute, but here I am chairing the meeting!
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