My biggest insecurity
Kreator Letter #6. The founder letter I write for our Karisma community. The raw journey and the learnings.
This is a more vulnerable one.
Make sure to read until the end to find some hidden treasures :)
You know what I was MOST scared of
when I launched Karisma back in 2022?
(when we used to host retreats)
PUBLIC SPEAKING!
I was TERRIFIED of the idea of standing in front of all the new faces
and suddenly being out of breath.
My heart would start racing
just from thinking about it
months before it even happened,
leading to more and more self-doubt.
The week of my first retreat arrived and
not fcking it up was all I could think about.
My initial fear of public speaking
had turned into full on anxiety
and impostor syndrome.
I had to do something about it!
The guy I co-hosted my first retreat with
put me in touch (online) with a hypnotherapist
on the same morning of my launch.
After my session, I didn’t really feel much...
Did this even do anything?
There was only one way to find out.
The time came to stand in front of 12 entrepreneurs
who had traveled from all over the world to be there,
most of them almost a decade older than me...
Once I finished the onboarding,
I couldn’t believe what had just happened.
I fucking nailed it! WTFFFFFF 😱
This was a big big big deal. Woaaah!
Since then, I’ve still gotten nervous many times,
lost my breath a couple more and even
frozen in front of a group while giving a tour this year.
The difference?
I lost my fear of putting myself out there.
Last week, I gave my (by far) biggest talk yet at Itnig
in front of a huge crowd with 5 business titans.
I felt relaxed, excited, playful... in the zone.
I SMASHED IT!
… (according to my mom)
You can decide for yourself:
Oh, and here’s some nice pics:
Now, let’s get back to it!
Hypnotherapy helped, but...
what really the biggest factor was REPETITION.
Here’s the truth:
No one is perfect at first, and that’s OK.
You gotta get out there, be patient
and not focus on the final product.
This is what our events looked like...
just a little bit over a year ago:
Yes, I know... truly feels like another lifetime.
I cringe just looked at these pics but
it was this work in the “shadows” that
made me not even flinch but rather
look forward to standing in front of everyone.
These times laid the foundation for us to
fill up a whole space with members only,
book jaw-dropping speakers or
partner with Itnig for their iconic venue.
This new expert panel event format
marked a before and after for our business events.
We plan to host these twice a month
with bigger and bigger speakers
ONLY for the members of our community.
This is a huge milestone in so many ways
and I can’t wait to get back on stage.
We’ve just launched the Karisma YouTube channel,
where we’ll post these biweekly talks with the best highlights.
A huge thanks to Peel Creative for
making it happen and helping us out with
the recordings, production and posting.
Much love! Life is good :)
Marc