My first webinar had only 17 people on it

And how I snowballed that into countless millions of dollars

Before I became the world's greatest webinar presenter and trainer, before the hundreds of millions in sales and writing the best-selling book of all time on webinars… I was a newb.

The first time I announced I was doing a webinar was on September 1st, 2008, at 7:34 am central time. I wrote an email to my tiny list of customers asking if they would be interested if I were to do a free webinar training on time management. A few hundred replied, expressing interest, so I did my first webinar on the evening of September 7th, 2008.

Results? I'll quote the email I sent out after the webinar:

"I did the time management seminar Sunday, and it was a complete success! I had over 200 people express an interest in it. 36 signed up for it. 17 showed up."

These days I'd be depressed to get 36 registrants, but back then, when I was new and had zero expectations, I was thrilled that I could get anyone to attend!

And I think that gets missed for people just starting

…they compare what they think they can do (truthfully, very little) with what people like me can do, and then they psyche themselves out from ever doing a webinar.

You have to start small. The webinar I did first was a 100% content webinar with no pitch. I didn't know how to pitch. Heck, I screwed up the webinar tech, too, on my first attempt.

From the email I sent after the webinar was done:

"it was my first time using the technology, and I forgot to hit record (you have to do it manually), so my software didn't record the webinar.

However, I always have a backup. I also recorded it with Camtasia... but when I was done, I was so exhausted I somehow either didn't save it right or forgot to save it or deleted it, so I lost that webinar as well. So even my backup plan fell through."

But it was a start. I got a rep under my belt. The content came out great, and the few souls who were on loved it. That made me want to do more webinars, and along the way, I got better and picked up a new technique or two here or there. Then I'd add a layer of complexity here and there, and before I knew it - I became a big success. All because my initial expectations were so low.

The takeaway - get involved with something that, over time, can be life-changing if you stay at it but that you're okay with tiny, little results the first several times you do it. That's what success looks like.