Preparing for Summit this year includes preparing Cohort to come with me. Guiding my students into careers in the CRM Community has been the biggest blessing of my career. I am so grateful for it. In an especially hard year in my personal life, my students and this program have kept me grounded and moving forward. It is bittersweet watching them prepare for Summit this week and new careers in CRM.
They are all coming to Summit, and I have been trying to prepare them as much as I can, trying to describe the exciting, exhausting, exhilarating week they are about to experience.
Walking into my 5th Summit, I am surprised by how many things haven’t changed. I still over pack. I am still a little nervous about each of my sessions and continue to tinker with my PowerPoints, knowing I likely won’t make peace with them but will just run out of time and have to present them as they are.
It is a mix of nerves and excitement. So many things I still don’t know. The old fears of looking like an idiot or putting my foot in my mouth haven’t gone away like I hoped they would. It seems becoming an MVP does not silence Imposter Syndrome.
Some things are better now:
I know how to say "I don’t know" and be perfectly ok with that. I now understand that not a single person in the building has all of the answers and if any of us are in enough conversations we will run into questions we can’t answer, and that is kind of the point right?
I am excited by what I don’t know instead of afraid of it. In years past, I would look at topics on the agenda I wasn’t familiar with and become overwhelmed by how far behind I felt. Now I get giddy.
I know to pace myself. For anyone, this week is a marathon, and for introverts like me, it can feel like an Iron Man. I've learned how to sneak away, soak up the beauty of the city we are in and recharge before going back in.
I know that I'm in a safe place to network and I can walk up to someone, anyone, and start a conversation about software I know we are both excited about. Of everything I wish I knew earlier, this may be at the top of the list.
I know every single one of us has a right to be here, no need to justify our credentials or hide our inexperience (and I can include myself in that). We are learners, here to learn.
So look out Nashville! We are on our way. Don’t worry, we are a nice group, and we are all here to learn
