Catwalk Classes Recap x Lessons I Learnt From Hosting It.

By now, I’m guessing its no news that I recently put together a catwalk class.
I blogged about it and the inspiration behind it all here and if you’re signed to my mail list, you probably got a bit more of the low down.(Sign up here)

It didn’t all seem real till I put out that first post on social media and I knew I just had to see it through.
Thinking about it and planning it though, it honestly didn’t seem like it would be so hard to pull off but I knew I was going to have to step up my organizational and creative skills if I had to make it work.

I picked out the dates, created a passable flyer design with canva (that I didn’t end up using) and scoured the lagos streets for a suitable venue.
This bit drained me out because I couldn’t find anywhere I liked that could accommodate my budget but I eventually settled on a venue hoping that when people started signing up, I’d be able to foot the bills.
It didn’t all work out as I imagined but fast forward a month after and I’m glad to say that I pulled through regardless. It was also a learning experience for me as I learnt a few life lessons along the way and I’ll be sharing them in this post

1. Always Believe In Yourself.
We humans place one of the biggest constraints on ourselves with our mindset. I knew I could do this because I’ve done my own share of runway shows but there was still some fear of ‘what if I’m not a good teacher and they don’t learn’? But I eventually had to shake off the self doubts and remind myself with affirmations.

Its like the quote I shared on my instagram recently that says : You can do more than you think, You are more than you think”

2. Start Where You Are, Do It Afraid.
I was waiting for everything to be a 100 percent before putting the word out plus also the fear of how it would be received held me back from putting it out, but my friend Laiza adviced me to just start proper, put it out while still trying to perfect the other things.
If I didn’t do that, I doubt I would have ever done the workshop because the search for venue was too real and the only thing that made me keep going was the fact that I had already put it out there.
Sometimes it’s better to jump in with both feet and shore up the details as you go. Although this depends on the nature of what you’re planning to do.

3. Its okay to ask for help.
I’m the sort of person who just hates to be a bother to anyone and I feel funny about requesting for support so I try to do the best I can do and avoid asking people to help/for favors.
I delayed asking for reposts because of this but when I eventually did, I got so much positive replies. Of course, there were some people who still didn’t give me face but at least the positive replies outnumbered the negatives.
I also eventually got help with my graphic design, thanks to Bella Alubo (someone I haven’t even met in person!!) who introduced me to her graphic design friend @onaziogaba
And some of my friends came through for me on the first day and I was able to secure a cheaper venue because I asked my friend to help me with bargaining.
I honestly wouldn’t have been able to pull it all off without all the help I received from everyone when I eventually decided to ask for it.

4 . Things don’t always work out as planned.

I thought it would all go well but it didn’t at all! I almost cancelled it at some point but my boyfriend just wouldn’t let me do that.
I had to be calm through it and try to move on quickly to the next decision/damage control.

5. Always have a Strategy/ Plan to how you’ll achieve your goals. 
Its not enough to just put it out and rely on the universe to do the work. Even though I had a sort of plan, I agree that it wasn’t a properly detailed one and I kept on thinking that I just needed ten people so I didn’t need to do any deep advertising for that. Wrong! I’m sure I didn’t reach my full target audience because of that assumption .
If I had to do it all over again, I’ll make a proper plan for both promoting it, branding it and all.

6. Celebrate the small victories.
Even though I didn’t exactly reach my goals : ended up with less than the number of students I wanted and little profit, I still gave myself a pat in the back after the last day.
It was an awesome experience and I thoroughly enjoyed teaching ‘my girls’ and watching their progress.

Do I plan to have another edition? Maybe, I just might!
Follow the journey on Instagram @cassiedavescatwalkclasses

Are you putting together any project, event, business? Hopefully one or two of these lessons I learned can help you out.
If you’ve done something similar also, please share some of the lessons you learned as well.