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The 10 things I learned from speaking in public 5 times over the last year
Public speaking is utterly terrifying, right? The fear starts the moment you take on the assignment. Your boss tells you it’s good for the company, or you’ve got to stand up in front of the board, or you’ve been approached and aaaargh don’t they understand that you know nothing?! * hyperventilates *
Strangely, I’ve never really felt those things. Ask me to memorise a script and pretend to be someone else, and yes, I’m running screaming off that stage. Ask me to go up there as myself and speak for 10 minutes plus about something I know? I’m there. Mic me up, please.
How? I guess I’ve always felt this to be true: the audience wants me to do well. They want you to do well, too, if you’re the one up there. They want to learn from you, they want to enjoy your bit, they want to applaud you at the end.
It’s a tricky, slippery thing to analyse knowledge that feels innate. I’ve tried to with this, though, as the same question kept coming up as I documented the speaking events on social media: “How do you have the confidence to do it?”
It isn’t really confidence in myself, but in the story I have to tell. The subjects I’ve been asked to talk about are diversity in journalism and the first podcast I made. Anything I know about the former subject — a…
