I had a discouraging experience this past weekend:
This past Saturday, I'd arranged with a brewery down in San Diego to do an event for my book, Beer Hiking Southern California. This event had been over a month in the making.
It was a brewery that was featured in the book, I had a conversation partner who was joining me, my sister came down from the Bay Area to attend, I got all dressed up for it, ordered lots of books to sell myself, and...no one showed up.
I sat there with my sister and a couple friends in the brewery's beer garden with the books all set up and watched the event time come...and go. There were three other people in the beer garden and none of them were there for the event. The music over the speakers never stopped. There was no announcement. No introduction. We didn't even end up doing the conversation — we'd be talking for virtually no audience. I was so crestfallen, but also still appreciative to have my sister and the couple friends who did come out.
We all got some beers and tacos, my sister took some pictures of me looking all dolled up, and I ended up selling a couple copies to people just getting a beer at the brewery, but it definitely hadn't been what I'd hoped for.
I write all of this for two reasons:
1. Because while we all love sharing the success stories and good times on here (and other social media platforms), I think it's valuable to also share the discouraging moments and setbacks. To understand that that's life and not all events go to plan.
2. This was a valuable learning lesson in recognizing that despite my best efforts, sometimes things still flop. Does that make me a failure? Absolutely not. It doesn't even make the book a failure. One flop does not have to define anything. It's simply one data point.
I don't know, maybe I should have been more assertive, asked for the music to be turned down, still done the talk to an empty/uninterested room, etc. But at the end of the day, I did get some really great promotional pictures like the one below!
P.S. Please don't let my event this upcoming weekend also flop — I'm running a guided hike with Earth Discovery Institute this Sunday morning with celebratory beers and book signings at Chula Vista Brewery of Eastlake afterwards, so if you're going to be in San Diego PLEASE SIGN UP AND COME and if you're not, share it with your network just in case. 😂 🙏 (but really...) https://lnkd.in/ge5vVAaa
Regional Vice President West at The Cooper Spirits Company
2moAmazing food and a great Manhattan made with Slow and Low! Thank you!