Public Speaking (on the Internet)

I’ve posted enough videos on this blog that you all know how nutso I am. I speak fast and look around a lot. I mumble, stutter, and ramble all at once. Coherency is the antithesis of my extemporaneous speaking style.

So that’s why I over prepared this time. For a fifteen minute talk, I spent over 8 hours defining my idea, creating effective slides (with GIFs!) and adding notes to the presenter tools of those slides. I did a dry run with someone whom I trust. I asked myself questions people might ask and iterated time and again to make my unclear moments more clear. Most importantly, I slowed the hell down.

It still wasn’t perfect, but I survived a bout of public speaking in front of a group of peers. Peers whom I hold in the highest regards. And they actually took that time from their (very busy) day to listen to me yak on for a bit. It was thrilling.

Over prepare. It’s so worth it.