You may have picked up, if we are connected on LinkedIn, that I ran a successful Webinar for CIMA in October.

I have never done a webinar before and so I was quite nervous about the whole thing. Not only because the participants could see me but I could not see them, but also because I was not sure I would get the timings right.

An hour is a long time to be talking for but time can soon run away with you if you don’t time things right – so preparation is key.

Fortunately I did not have to worry about the material as I have written, talked and run courses about how accountants in practice can move their businesses more towards the work they love – and clients really value.

I also did not have to worry about the techie side as Emma Bailey from CIMA was my partner in crime and dealt with that side of things.

On the day itself, however, I was surprised to learn from Emma that 350 people had registered to take part! I knew not everyone would be listening live, but had registered to get the recording of the webinar to watch later – but I still found it a little intimidating to have so many listening (either live or later)!

In the end I could see the counter of participants gradually increase until it stopped at 180 people This was far more than I had bargained for.

Once the webinar had started I did find I got into the swing of it pretty quickly and the hour sped by – and I did not run out of time or material!

The feedback has been great and I came away from the experience with a spring in my step and a desire to do more webinars – and to restart my workshop programme for accountants.

What this whole experience re-enforced for me is that it pays to be brave and try new things. Our comfort zone is stretched when we do (something I wrote about last month), and we are more likely to continue trying even more new things.

Incidentally, I was also asked in October whether I wanted to do a wing walk – but I am not feeling quite that brave yet (or ever!!).