The Creative Bodega | Content Marketing and Instagram Growth for Solopreneurs

47: How My Community Carried Me Through a 20-Minute Zoom Blackout

• Emily Connors

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My worst live event nightmare came true—and I'm sharing the raw, unfiltered story while it's still fresh. I got kicked off my own Zoom workshop four times in front of 300 people during a live event for Canva World Tour. We're talking audio failures, connection drops, and me literally sweating through my clothes while 1600+ registrants watched the chaos unfold. But here's what happened next: my community held me together, I made three tiny pivots that saved the workshop, and I learned how to let go of control in real time. If you've ever been terrified of tech failing you during a live moment, this episode will show you exactly how to recover with grace (and why redundancy beats perfection every single time).

Check out the full show notes for this episode, CLICK HERE.

Things I cover inside this episode:

  • The 3 tiny pivots I made in the moment that saved my workshop when everything was falling apart (including the unthinkable move I made as an over-preparer)
  • Why redundancy beats perfection every time—and the specific backup systems I wish I'd had in place before going live
  • How to let go when control is completely gone (and why gripping tighter actually makes you slower to respond)
  • The mindset shift from "perform" to "serve" that calmed my nervous system enough to keep going
  • Why your community is your safety net—and how to build that culture long before you need it (shoutout to Deb and Nicole!)

Resources & Links mentioned in the episode:

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Em Connors:

I love live teaching so much, it brings me so much joy and now in front of my face, 20 minutes has gone by evaporated into nothing. While I am ping ponging in and out of my own workshop, I actually feel like I'm gonna break out in a sweat right now talking about this Hey friend. Welcome back to the Creative Bodega Podcast. Today I'm sharing a very fresh story, like it's still a little bit of a wound, to be honest. It's not necessarily a scar, but it's about the day my worst live event nightmare came true, and today is Friday, and it just happened on Tuesday. But I was like, you know what? So many people actually DMed me and were like, there's a podcast episode in here. And I was like, yeah, you're probably right. But I just gotta like, still let myself calm down from it. And honestly, my nervous system took a hit. It took a big hit. So we're talking Zoom, chaos, audio problems, dropping off the call, and me literally sweating through my clothes and the way that my community. Specifically one community member and my VA slash community manager held it together for me while I learned in real time how to let go of something that was completely out of my control. If you ever worry that tech snafus will ruin your credibility, this one is for you. And yes, I've got a replay link for you at the end of the workshop that I did, and I fully expect you to watch it. And tell me that it didn't suck. I almost redid the whole thing. I'll, I'll tell you about that in a little bit, but I decided to just go with it and cut out all the really bad 20 minutes parts in the beginning. So let me just set the scene. the Canva World Tour was happening and I'm a Canva verified expert. One of 41 43. The number changed, but it's very few in the world. Okay, so they reached out to us and they said, Hey, if you guys wanna host a free event. We will help promote it. let's go like submit your ideas. So I've submitted an idea. I wanted to talk really specifically about creating carousels in Canva. So it's this free event that I'm hosting and over 1600 people registered for it, which was awesome. I upgraded my Zoom plan to allow more people into my room. So I went from like the 300 that I was allowed to 500 just in case, even though I really didn't think that many people would show up. So in the end. I would say just shy of about 300 people ended up showing up live and there, there had been a huge CloudFare outage earlier that day. I was actually at the orthodontist with my kids and I am just on stories. And somebody posted, or actually, no, I was on the feed and there was a reel and it was like canvas down. Chacha, BT is down. Payment processes are down. And I was like, wait, what? stop like that. Not today, right? Not today. I need Zoom. people were still registering for the event, so people were telling me my form wasn't working, which wasn't my fault. And I needed Canva'cause I was gonna actually show a ton of stuff in Canva. So. Oh, heart rate spikes. I'm like, all right, let's just, let me just get through this orthodontist appointment, see how much this is gonna run me to get my kids some straight teeth and get them back to school. So by the time I got home, it sounded like things were calming down and my event was at noon and like by 11, 11 ish. I'm like, well, my canvas working okay for me. Sounds like things are getting back to normal. So noon comes, I open zoom, I take a deep breath. And I try to start my presentation. I actually tell people, I have so much to go over and I don't wanna waste your time. We're gonna jump right into this. And within minutes, all of a sudden my zoom shuts down, like completely goes, dark window closes done. And I'm like, oh, sweet mother. please don't even tell me. So now being kicked off just once is annoying, right? I get back on. I am suddenly people are saying, oh, you know, we can't hear you. We can't hear you. And I'm like, wait, what? And it goes black again and everything shuts down. And I'm like, no. So my stomach drops, right? And I try to get back on again, and I'm having a really hard time connecting this time, it's like the wheel of death is there going around and around and I'm like, let me on this freaking call. Again, I get back on and I'm talking, but they're like, we can't hear you. We can't hear you. I'm like, what is happening? And it wasn't like that my mic was off or anything, it was just that my connection was so bad. And here's the funniest part, you guys, I made my husband leave the house for it, so he works from home as well, and sometimes his systems that he uses, hogs the bandwidth with the wifi. So I was like. Plus, I just don't even want you here. It makes me nervous. So you just need to leave. You need to leave. So I actually gave him like all these returns I needed done. I was like, go to, J Crew, go to UPS, like all the whatever. So bless his heart. He took all my cards and he took all my crap and he started doing returns for me. So he's not even here. So he can't even like blame it on him, right? Because if he were here, I would've been like, you need to get off the wifi. So. I get back on and I'm like, you guys, I'm embarrassed. I'm so sorry. But on that third time that I guy got booted off and it was taking so long to reconnect, I thought to myself, well, sometimes Canva and Zoom do not play nice. They both require like a lot of bandwidth. From what I know. I am not techie you guys. So if that's not true, just whatever, let's just go with it. So I'm like, okay. I am going to, instead of presenting my presentation that I made in Canva, duh, with my notes, I had all these presenter notes figured out. I'm like, okay, just forget the notes. Let's download this as a PDF, the slides, and let me close Canva and see if that helps. So I'm waiting to reconnect to Zoom. I am downloading my PDF, which takes a while because there were a number of slides. I finally get that file on my desktop and I get back on the call. So I'm like, okay, you guys like, I'm so sorry. I downloaded the PDF. let's see if this works. And. I get kicked off again. You like, you can't make it up. You actually, this has never happened to me in, in all my four years of doing this. I've never been kicked off a call four times in a row, ever. And I'm like, is it because there's so many people on the call? Is it because of the cloud fair outage? What in the name of God is going on? and how do I gain control of this situation? So. Oh my God. It was like the internet was just like personally trolling me. And if you know me, you know I'm an over preparer. Like I don't just have presenter notes. I have sub-bullets for my sub-bullets, and I pride myself on creating a. A plus experiences for people when it comes to me live teaching and I love live teaching so much, it brings me so much joy and now in front of my face, 20 minutes has gone by evaporated into nothing. While I am ping ponging in and out of my own workshop, I actually feel like I'm gonna break out in a sweat right now talking about this like. Ah, I was in that little like tunnel vision place where your brain goes. This is the part where we should just cancel and crawl under a blanket and cry and hide for the rest of the day. Like, well, the fourth time I got kicked off, I was like, m just give it up. Just give it up. But my perfectionist protector, you know, it really wanted me to shut it down so no one could see me, like not in control. I'm being really honest and if I really think about it, I do think my need for control comes from like my childhood, where there was very little control over where I was or whose house I was at. My parents were divorced, we'd have to go to parents' houses. Like even if I didn't want to, I had no control over it. And it just, it felt outta control. And so as I've grown older, all I want is control. I want to know what's gonna happen and I want to feel in control. Well, what I haven't told you is that about 10 minutes, in my mind, it was 10 minutes before I kicked off this presentation. I was in my dms and one of my coven membership ladies, Deb was like, Hey em, like I'm sure you have everything under control, but if you just wanna like make me a co-host just in case like do it. And I was like, you know what Deb? I'm going to because I have my va. Community manager Nicole, who's gonna be a co-host, but it's a lot of people, so what the hell, Deb? Yeah, I'll make you a co-host. I, I trust you completely. So, right when I got on the call, I made Nicole and Deb co-host, and thank God for that, because that means each time I got kicked off, it was still recording because they were there. So. Deb is now managing my call for those 20 minutes that I'm gone. Nicole, bless her heart. She's not looking for the spotlight, and so that would've been really hard for her, and I don't pay her to do that. Deb took it like a champ. I can hear her, they can't hear me, but she's like, hang on. Oh, she's back, she's back. Everybody like, let's give her a round of applause. Let's give her some love, like. She was so good and I even heard her being like, would you guys care if she sent the replay? Alright, she's trying to connect. Let's see what's gonna happen. And I'm like texting Nicole. Anyways, it was simple but it was leadership and it gave something to kind of do besides leave. And I could hear everyone like giving me ideas like Turn off your video and do this and do that. And I'm hearing these snippets. And, you know, poor m, this is her nightmare. She's probably freaking out the people that who know me and I was, but people stayed. But a hundred people absolutely dropped off, at least, if not more. And afterwards, my dms were so full of kindness and support. Like it happens. You still delivered. I would've just not gotten back on the call. Like, don't beat yourself up. I learned a ton on the workshop and that feedback matters because Yeah, like the numbers and the whole experience stung. We started at, you know, under 300 and I lost over a hundred during that 20 minute. Shit show. You know what I mean? And I felt like a failure in that moment. But here's the reframe that kept me from spiraling, right? Drop off doesn't equal no value, right? Maybe those people were like, you know what? She's having issues. I'm kind of busy right now anyways. Or there's other things I could do. I'll watch it later. And I am seeing the replay numbers and they're quite high. So, you know, the drop off doesn't equal no value. It just equaled like tech. Friction. Right? Which is a totally different metric. So I wanna walk you through the tiny pivots I made in that moment because these are the kind that save you when your perfect plan evaporates into abyss. First I ask myself, what is competing? For resources on my machine, I had Canva open in present mode so I could use notes. I suspected Canva and Zoom were fighting, so I did the unthinkable as an over prepare. I closed Canva down and then I reopened it just in case that didn't work. And then I downloaded my slides as a PDF and decided to present without my notes. Was it ideal? Absolutely not. Did it smooth things enough for me to keep going? It did. Zoom stopped shutting down after I did that, so it gave my system a breather and gave me one more variable that I could try to control. Second, I really leaned on the structure. I already knew, even without the notes. I am an over preparer. I had this thing done for a few days. I had run through the entire presentation that morning, like pretending I was live, right? So I mentally anchored to my three big beats. The core concept, the examples and the action steps. And if you ever get disoriented during a live, having like that simple structure that you can kind of follow in, your sleep will carry you. And then third, I made a micro promise to the room. I said, I am gonna deliver as much value as I can, and I will follow up with a clean replay. In the chaos that people didn't need perfection, they needed the confidence. You know, plus the next step, right? if this doesn't work, don't worry. Not all is lost. I will just record it in my little office with nobody there and I'll send out the replay. And Deb really helped set that tone. And I kept going once my audio was stabilized and. I actually had to run out the door right when it was over'cause I had acupuncture. And she like does not tolerate lateness. And so then I knew by the time I got home from that appointment, my kids would be getting home about 20 minutes later. And I'm like, I actually don't have time to rerecord this. So what I did was I watched the beginning, I forced myself to watch it, and I edited the video in Loom. To take out all those parts where I was kicked off. So in the end I'm like, you know what? The majority of the presentation, 45 minutes of it was solid. I don't need to redo it. So if I can just clean up the beginning as well as I can, and then give people a little disclaimer, like if things get a little weird in the beginning, here's why. I think that's good enough. Right, like done is better than perfect. I really didn't have the time to redo it and I didn't really want to, I was exhausted from that whole experience. So. Let's zoom out a little bit to the lessons.'cause I think there are three mindset shifts that you can steal from me the next time. Things don't go as planned, whether you're teaching or hosting a webinar or like whatever, onboarding a client. So lesson one is redundancy is gonna beat perfection. So perfection tells you to build the perfect slide deck with the perfect flow and the perfect presenter notes. Redundancy tells you to have a. Simpler, uglier backup within arm's reach, right? Two designated co-hosts who can keep the room open. If you drop, like huge, ask a friend to do it if you need to A PDF version of your slides next time. You better believe I'm downloading A PDF before my next presentation. Yes. Ideally I want to just have Canva open and I wanna present with my notes and share, you know, share my screen and be able to see my notes, but. I'm gonna put that on my desktop next time, and that's just, I don't know, I, I need, I'm, I'm scarred, so I'm definitely gonna do that. Lesson two is let go when control is gone, right? I, I certainly do not like uncertainty. I do everything I can to tame the variables to give everyone the best experience. I don't wanna waste anyone's time. I know how busy all my people are. But the paradoxes, the tighter we grip, the slower we're able to respond. So the second I said to myself, my control is gone. The next best step is to record this and just send out the replay. My nervous system calmed down like just enough to let me think clearly. And that was a huge moment for me. And, uh, I, I really couldn't see it until I let go of like the, this has to run perfectly moment and letting go isn't giving up, right? It's shifting from perform to serve. And my number one goal is always to serve. And if you're serving, you'll always be able to find that workable Next step. And lesson number three, and this is just a shout out to everyone that was there and the who's in my community. Your community is your safety net. Deb didn't do anything flashy. She didn't run my full on production. She didn't do it for me. She did three really powerful things. She reassured. She offered an acceptable alternative, the replay, and she enrolled everyone in this tiny act of generosity, like showing me love when I was able to connect. And then, my God, all the dms I got, like you guys just rallied around me like it was no one's business. And my gosh, that's culture. Culture's built long before you need it. And if you show up consistently and teach generously and admit when things are messy. Your people will hold you up when the room wobbles or when your tech fails miserably. And you guys did that for me and I'm still a little, like, emotional about it to be really honest. So, uh, now if you were registered and you, uh, want the clean version without me being booted, uh, you can still get it and you would just go watch the replay. I'll put the, link in the show notes. It was called Canva, carousels that Convert. It's solid, it's practical. There's a whole workbook that goes along with it when it comes to structuring your carousels, and I think it's like four pages long, and it's gonna help you design those Instagram carousels in a lot less time and let them do the heavy lifting for you. So go check out the link. Make me feel better and tell me it wasn't awful. You know, reply to the email with your, you know, the biggest takeaway you have. I read all my emails, Emily, at the created bodega.com and final reminder. We don't have to be perfect to be valuable, you have to be present and adaptable, right? So prep your backups, invite your community to help. And when the gremlins, when the tech gremlins show up, just choose the next best move. And I'm telling you, people will really appreciate you for it. So I'm proud of us for staying in the room together for all those who stuck around throughout those 20 minutes. I just, I appreciate you more than words. So Deb, thank you, Nicole, thank you. And to everyone who hung in there, I see you and I appreciate you. I will see you on the replay. Hopefully,