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June 16, 2014

Kidspot Voices of 2014: Sydney Masterclass


A few weeks back I was asked to speak at the Kidspot Voices of 2014 Masterclass - cue public speaking panic attack. I was to join a panel talking about using Facebook as a blogging tool and my first instinct was to delete the email and pretend I never saw it. Instead in a rare moment of courage I decided to face my fear and say yes. The surprising thing? I actually enjoyed it.

Now no story like this would be complete without a ridiculous incident to go along with it and this is exactly what happened the morning of my talk. I had prepared notes and had a stress free morning to calm my nerves. I was ready to look this fear head on and share my knowledge. I was ready to go for it - and that's when things started to go downhill. It started out slowly when the iron wouldn't heat up which was frustrating as I had a silk shirt to wear that was in desperate need of some help. Then the iron stopped working altogether, it broke. Not to worry, I ran upstairs, turned on the shower and steamed my clothes so they were wrinkle free. I breathed a sigh of relief and continued to get ready. My bag was packed and I was jumping out of the shower rushing to finish up as the iron incident had made me run behind schedule and I was very close to being late, a poor habit of mine. 

My hair was soaking wet but I knew I could dry it quickly, that is until I realised the hair drying wasn't working. In fact nothing in the apartment was working as the power was out. I tried the fuse box, that didn't work and anyone with a fringe knows that without a hair dryer a straight fringe is nearly impossible. If this was any normal day I wouldn't have cared but in 20 minutes I was expected to present in front of 100 strangers and a slicked back, sopping wet bun wasn't exactly the look i was going for. I thought I might cry and then in a panic i just grabbed the hair dryer and jumped in the car. I ended up drying my hair in the bathroom of the event venue - which was filled with ladies giving me strange looks - but luckily all worked out within a minute to spare. Just as my fringe was perfectly straight I was able to dash into the room, grab my name badge and have about 2 seconds to breath before heading up to speak.

The hair incident made me laugh and was a lucky distraction as it took my mind off any fear and turns out was a pretty good story to tell afterwards. The rest of the weekend was a breeze with lots of lounging around the house and savouring a simple weekend at home.

2 comments:

MarkSindone said...

Good to know that you managed to get your nerves out of storage and conquer your fear! Looks like the talk went well in any case and that you've got a good story that'll help you remember not to be so worried the next time peple ask you to speak in public!

Mark Sindone said...

I hope that you managed to get through everything alright. I remember once when I had to appease a customer about a mobile self storage pod he ordered. Same feeling. Just get through it!

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