Geeky as it may sound, one of my big goals for the end of 2013 was to set up a Free Webinar to share the basic concepts behind my “Hip Harp Toolkit” Course.

And how hard could that be?  It should be simple, eh?  It seems like everyone and her cousin is giving free webinars in something-or-other these days …

But I could NOT figure it out!

I tried and tried – and I felt so frustrated, so stupid. Not with the webinar itself but the logistics of delivering it.

Wait!  Isn’t the hard part supposed to be creating the content?  The easy part is supposed to be delivery!

For everyone but me, apparently.

The content of this course is a long-standing passion for me:  to give people – other harpists especially – the fundamental tools to create impromptu arrangements.

It’s the foundation of everything else about improvisation and jazz that I want to pass on, so I keep working on ways to share it.  And a free webinar to kick off the next session of my “Hip Harp Toolkit” course just seemed so perfect!!!

Soooooo perfect …. and sooooo perfectly impossible for me to figure out how to simply register people for and then send them reminders with a link to the webinar itself.

And don’t tell me this is easy.  It’s NOT!  And don’t tell me its intuitive.  Apparently I have no intuition.

So … “Enough!” says I after weeks of trial and frustration.  “I will hire me an expert.”

And I did.  I hired THE “Systems Chick,” Natasha Vorompiova.

After a 90-minute Skype session (she lives in Belgium) where I sniffled and whined about my chronic inability to achieve video webinarity, Natasha wrote out a 4-page bullet list of everything I needed to do to deliver a webinar.

I love bullet lists but … something wasn’t working. Somewhere, somehow, there was a big disconnect and the more I tried to make it work, the more it didn’t … until I realized I am tragically webinar-delivery-incapable!!!

“No, no, no,” Natasha says … “We’ll figure this out.”

And then  finally we found the disconnect.

It turns out there are webinar companies set up to automate the whole process and integrate with my mailing list service.  Probably someone will comment on this blog with a list of them.  They do everything: the signup form, the thank you page, the reminders …all the stuff I couldn’t figure out how to do.

Yaaay!!

….but wait …

It turns out that the only ones that play nice with my mailing service … are audio only webinars.

But I wanna do a VIDEO webinar!  I need to talk to people face-to-face, even if their face isn’t there.  My courses are all video-oriented.  I, personally, need to see to learn — so I, personally,  have to show to teach.

I don’t even know what I’m talking about if I can’t see what I’m saying.  When I learn, I stick my greedy eyes right into everything that’s happening.  I LOVE things you can see.  Especially if you can see how they work.

So is there a video webinar service that integrates with my mail-list service?

Nope. Nobody could even figure out why I’d WANT one.

(Why why whyyyyyy do I always fall into the crack in the system???)

So …. whut-EV-ur … I was determined to do this!!

Natasha and I re-vamped the bullets. And over the holidays – finally, I did it!  I achieved Webinarity!!!!

And now – finally – you can “Join me online for my FREE Webinar this Sunday Jan. 5th!”  Just click on this link.

Yaaaaaay!

So where’s the FISH???

Ahhh … right … the Fish.  Well, the fish made it all possible.

The fish was the “sillement” (the element of silliness) that lightened up the learning process enough that I could have a breakthrough. 

When I couldn’t figure out how to use the opt-in process for the webinar, I finally just decided to create an opt-in that would give you a free fish (not just any fish … a singing, harp-playing fish).

And once I could see how that worked, I was able to go on to the webinar.  So … if you want a free fish, click on THIS link – or on the fish below.

Seahorses are standing by to receive your call.