Public speaking can be frightening

When I got invited to give a live talk in front of 500+ people and 3000+ joining online, I did not hesitate a second to accept it.

That's a lie. I hesitated a lot. "Who am I to give a talk in front of so many? Do I even know how to give a keynote? I've never done this before. What if I mess up? That's gonna be recorded and on YouTube for the rest of my life." Those are just a fraction of the thoughts that passed my mind at the time.

But I also thought that it would be a great first time experience. I have been working in the presentation industry for close to ten years now, and I work with people every day who have to give some type of talk in front of an audience, so it would surely be useful to put myself in the same situation? So I accepted the invite. Fast forward a couple of months and there I was minutes away for stepping up on the stage. Here are my learnings.

Learning #1: Assume you will have tech issues and prepare for it

My presentation clicker was not working well from the very start. Nothing happened when clicked. There was some type of interference between the clicker and receiver which was at the back of the room (with a big audience in between). It worked well during rehearsals but that was in an empty room.

These things happen and you just have to work with it. What I wish I would have done: take a one minute break right at the start, call up the tech guy to have it sorted, before I go on. During that break I could have talked about the power of silence or similar. That would be fun.

What I did instead: tell some jokes and just go with it (see video below). Although it ruined my flow, the audience seemed OK with it and told me afterwards that it made the whole thing more human and authentic.

One colleague of mine who gives lots of keynotes said that she always become BFFs (best friends forever) with the tech guys before her talks. That way she knows they will have her back and jump in if anything goes wrong. That's a good tip!