My palms are sweating, I feel like I've drank about 5 pots off coffee and I can't sit still. I'm excited, a little nervous and really anxious. I find myself in this position from time-to-time and it never changes. Really- I hope it never does.
This is the feeling I get before adding new people to an online community I've built. Part of my last job as an online community manager was to introduce and eventually subscribe the company's customers to the online community. Usually they'd be in small groups but on occasion they would be hundreds of folks at once.
Right before each big subscription, I'd get what I can only describe as stage fright. What if they don't like the community I designed? What if the email fails to reach them? What if they get confused? What if they see me as some over-anxious tool who takes the community thing way too seriously? No matter how confident I am, the feeling remains the same.
Today about 5 folks from one of my new clients are checking out the Workspace on this site. It's the first time anyone outside of my little circle has seen what I've been working on for the past few weeks and I definitely have that feeling again. Sure, it's just 5 people, but I can't help it. The anxiety has me amped. Maybe I need to go walk the dog or something.