How do you react when your plans have to change?

Welcome to the eighth edition of Ignite Confidence! I wanted to start by saying hello to my existing subscribers, I'm so pleased you are here with me and then to welcome my new subscribers.

Here's a quick reminder of what I promised you each month:

1. Tips, insights and strategies to help boost YOUR confidence
2. Changes to LinkedIn and what they mean for YOU
3. Q&As: Answers to questions you've asked (either through the DMs, via the comments or from coaching or training sessions) and of course real-life stories
4. A bit about what I've been up to since I published the last edition

I wanted to start by following up on last month's edition where I talked about community over competition and how practising gratitude can help bring it to life.

I asked you to take a moment and think of 3 people you are grateful for and who helped you get to where you are today and to send them a message to thank them for their support. If you didn't get around to doing that, then this is your reminder.

Tips, insights and strategies to help boost YOUR confidence

Picture the scene, it was 6 am, still dark and it was about 10 minutes before we were setting off to Heathrow for our trip to Jersey and I was zipping up my suitcase. I picked up my phone and spotted a WhatsApp message in our group chat with our friends. They were asking if our flight had been cancelled and if we'd been moved to a flight that evening!

Holly crap!

I hadn't thought to check my phone. We had so nearly left the house!

Our flight had been cancelled (fog at Heathrow apparently), and we'd been rebooked to the following day. So...we suddenly had a FREE day on our hands!

My first thought was that I could catch up on some work, but then I paused and had a word with myself to say - No, let's enjoy our unexpected day.

We started with a leisurely breakfast, Mr A went to the gym and I went to my favourite ladies' clothes shop to spend my birthday vouchers. Then we went for a long lunch at one of our favourite restaurants and in the evening we went to the local pub to watch the rugby (we'd given our season tickets to our neighbours).

I wanted to share my delayed holiday story and ask: How do you react when plans change at the last minute? Or when something doesn't go according to plan?

It can be unsettling and often a bit scary.

Self-doubt can creep in. You can start to question your choices and plans

For a good hour, Mr A was contemplating going into the office as he felt that he "ought" to. But then realised he had done a comprehensive handover and there wasn't really much he could do.

What would you have done?

Here are a few things I do when things don't go to plan and wanted to share as they may help you when this happens:

💫 Accept what happened: Instead of dwelling on the situation, I try to focus on what I can do next. I can tell myself, "I accept what happened and now I'm going to focus on where I go next or what I can do next". Instead of rushing off to Heathrow I enjoyed a leisurely breakfast and came up with my alternative plan for the day.

💫 Look for the silver lining: I know it's a bit of a cliche, but I often find that there is usually a silver lining. Depending on the situation it may not always be clear at the time. A free day when I was expecting to be occupied can be a good thing. Look at me, I relaxed and spent some quality time with my husband and also indulged in some retail therapy and it felt so good, yes don't get me wrong I did have a momentary lapse and think I could be catching up on some work, but as I've got older I realise that wellbeing is often more important. So I embraced it.

💫 Consider rescheduling: Often meetings or events get rescheduled which forces me to change plans. I say something like, "I understand these things happen. Hope we can reschedule this!". In my case, the rescheduling was done for us by British Airways. But I don't always know the full story. The key is to be understanding and offer a solution. I was booked for a 1/2 day training recently, but it was postponed due to a restructure in the business. I could have reacted and been annoyed but I was calm and said something like, "I understand and have been there myself, let's catch-up in a couple of weeks when you know more." I ended up being booked for 2 full days of training.

Things often happen on LinkedIn which can have you questioning what you are doing and why you are doing it. I apply the same approach. Here are a few examples:

🔷 An unkind or controversial comment that upsets you (remember we can all get upset by different things and can react differently depending on how we are feeling)

🔷 Spam DMs received in your messages

🔷 Your follower numbers drop - you might jump to question why are people unfollowing me, what am I doing wrong? But often a platform (not just LinkedIn) has a tidy-up and closes inactive accounts, reported accounts or bot accounts. So please don't think it's something you are doing wrong or not doing.

🔷 A post doesn't get the results you were expecting.

I hope you found that helpful.

Changes to LinkedIn and what they mean for YOU

• New user agreement effective from 20 November - To check out what it means, I'd highly recommend you have a look at Kevin D Turner's article where he has summarised the differences. It's worth knowing what you've signed up for.
• Share a quote from an article or newsletter - A new feature for you to share a quote (think content or message) from an article or newsletter. I really like this, as it's a simple way of repurposing long-form content into a post. Especially useful for those days where your inspiration might be lacking.

Maz's Tip you could encourage your audience to share an article or newsletter with their audience by using this.

• A reminder of scheduled posts - last month I shared that you can edit your scheduled posts (as a reminder you click on the clock icon to the left of the post and you can also click on this to review and amend any scheduled content. If you had previously been worried about scheduling content and not being able to edit it) a new feature is that you now get a reminder in your notifications of a scheduled post.

• NEW Languages: LinkedIn has announced that 10 new languages have been added, which brings the total up to 36. So if you speak a second language remember that you can set up your profile in another language too. Handy if you work with clients in other languages.

Q&As: Answers to questions you've asked (either via DMs, comments or from coaching or training sessions) and real-life stories

Featured Section: In a recent audit feedback session with a client I was showing the featured section and they weren't sure how to add a new section to their profile.

From the Add to Profile section, featured is in the recommendation section. Add it and then add your preferred content. There are several options to choose from.

Uplift LIVE - the UK's ONLY conference 100% dedicated to LinkedIn.

Stay up to date with LinkedIn tips and strategies.

• Thursday 27 March 2025
• at Millennium Point in Birmingham.

Get your early bird ticket by midnight on Halloween (31 October) YES that's today.

Tickets go up to £299 on Friday 1 November (tomorrow) so don't delay - grab yours and save yourself £60. (You can also pay in instalments via Klarna, with 0% interest – that's 3 payments of only £𝟳𝟵.𝟲𝟲.)

For a full day of learning and networking with some of the best LinkedIn specialists from around the world, visit uplift-live.com and click Tickets

If you can't make it, don't worry I will be sharing highlights after the conference.

A bit about what I've been up to:

• I've been to Jersey with some good friends to celebrate their wedding anniversary. it was my first visit and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. But then I suppose I wasn't really sure what to expect. But there were beautiful beaches, ports that reminded me of Cornwall and amazing food. You should go if you haven't.

In doggy news, we are looking after a friend's black Labrador called Dave, he and Humphrey are keeping us on our toes that's for sure. For those that don't know, we lost Murphy at the ripe old age of 14 years and 2 weeks 7 months before Humphrey arrived in our lives.

I'd love to see some of your dogs. A few of you who have been on calls with me this week may have seen him making an appearance.

Marianne x

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