A young lady recently commented on my FB post to help her publish her book in 30 days. I reach out via messenger to find out more about her and her publishing goals. She wants to self-publish a poetry book and was unsure if her book was formatted properly. I offered to help her format her book on a zoom call. If she was satisfied with the formatting, I would ask for her feedback and we would discuss the next steps to get her published. I mentioned that I did have a paid mentorship and that we would discuss on the zoom call but the formatting was totally free. She is a member of my FB group in which I will also be sharing tips with how to self-publish. Anyway, the day prior to our scheduled zoom call, I sent a friendly reminder of our call the next day. I saw on FB messenger that my message was not seen. I started thinking that she may not show up since she never saw my message or replied. Then I pushed those thoughts out and tried my best to remain optimistic. Fast forward to the day of the call, I sent the template that we would be using 15 minutes prior to our call. Again, she still did not check her messenger. I send the zoom link at exactly 11 AM EDT. I waited in the zoom for her to show up. As the minutes ticked by, I kept repeating to myself, “she’ll show up. She’ll show up.” I waited on that zoom for 15 minutes and she was indeed a no show. I closed the zoom room and laptop slightly disappointed. At the time of me writing this blog post, she still HAS NOT checked her messages. So she had no intentions of coming to the zoom call. I realized that I did my part. I showed up for myself. I put my time aside to help someone and if they chose not to show up and value my time or services, then that’s on them. From this experience I learned the following: I must request a copy of their manuscript prior to the call to make sure they even have one. Charging for calls may be a good idea to increase show up rate. Don’t take it personal. All I did was try to help. I didn’t do anything wrong. SHOW UP ANYWAY. The right people always show up when they are ready. Could it be your turn to self-publish in 90 days or less? If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me in the Tarafied Tribe. Love you for reading! |
