People DIS-Pleasing - A Rise Up Experience

I’m not a people pleaser.

I don’t think I’ve ever pleased anyone in my life.

People displeasing on the other hand…

I try very, very hard not to DIS-please anyone. I don’t want to bother, offend, burden, or intrude on anyone. Ever.

So, of course, on the first day of the Rise Up Conference (2024), I sit at the wrong table.

Twice.

With my VIP ticket, I peruse the tables with lanyards hanging out of swag bags and spot the perfect chair at a table close to but not directly in front of the stage where I’m sure to glean all the wisdom and inspiration I can from every phenomenal speaker, and set my stuff down. It’s only after I’ve plundered through the gifts in the swag bag that one of the founders of Rise Up comes over to move the sign that had reserved that table for Take Action Realty Group.

Shit.

Shit, shit, shit.

I totally didn’t see the sign among the bright teal swag bags and the stars in my eyes. I sat at the wrong table.

I resolve to move—even though Take Action Realty Group is already being moved instead—after I bring some things I don’t need out to my car. By the time I get back, the table has been reassigned…to the Becky Hurley group.

Becky Hurley, one of the guest speakers and one heck of a gracious woman, invites me to stay. They have an extra chair anyway.

In my bones, I want to leave. I want to retreat to a table in the back of the conference center. One that doesn’t have any swag bags or designations for any groups. One that is empty, where I can’t bother anyone by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

When I introduce myself to the rest of the table, I make sure they know—by way of awkward jokes—that I’m not supposed to be there. In my own way, I’m begging them to ask me to leave…or accept me and give me permission to stop obsessing. They smile and welcome me and tell me that I’m at the “right” table. Like it’s fate. There’s a part of me that has believed that from the beginning, but why is fate so inconvenient? Why did fate put me where I don’t belong—

Oh, right. It hits me as the first speaker takes the stage.

This is a lesson in my overwhelming fear of burdening, of being wrong, of not belonging. This is a chance to lean into the discomfort, the anxiety, the fear, and see what happens.

This is a chance to let that bullshit go completely.

It’s eight a.m. on the first day of the Rise Up Conference, and I’ve already faced my first lesson.

So it begins…