Have you ever been in a dark room or other situation that frightened you a little bit?

You could not see what was there and the unknown makes you shiver a little. However, once you fumbled around and finally found the switch on the wall everything lit up and you felt so much more safe and secure.

That is my goal when I am speaking and teaching people. To flip on the switch.

This past weekend I had the privilege of being invited to speak at a meeting of the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition by one of their directors Kelsey Karper (p.s. If you ever want to meet a wild hybrid-driving vegetable eating lady look her up). I was able to join Kelsey, Adrienne Nobles and Jennifer Barron as we headed south to the OVAC meeting. I learned on the drive to Chickasha that these three awesome ladies pretty much know everybody in Oklahoma City.

For over an hour I took the time to explain to people the power of an online strategy (including social media) and what it can do for their business and their brand. We did not dig into anything complicated, and we stuck to the easy things that you can do to get started quickly. I could tell by the looks on people's faces that the lights were finally coming on. They got it. They understood that as complicated and wild as the internet is it is also a great inexpensive place to market yourself. If people walk away with nothing from my presentations that is one thing that I hope sticks. When it does not stick, and the light does not come on I have failed in my job as a speaker. But how do you know for sure when it sticks? How can you be absolutely sure?

After my presentation on Saturday one of the artists approached me and said "Thank you so much. This was amazing. I learned more from you in the past hour than I have in the past several months on my own."

It was a good day. The light came on.

My work there on that day was complete.

Have a great day.

(Feel free to share your thoughts below in my blog comments about how you know when the light comes on.)