Some of you may or may not be aware but I was a terribly shy child, you could even say I was pathologically shy. I can clearly remember in primary school the first time I had to speak in front of the class. My topic was pets. I thought because I loved cats and dogs it would be easy to ad-lib and so didn’t prepare any notes. However, when it was my turn to speak I literally died on stage. I stammered and muttered until the teacher couldn’t bear it any longer and asked me to go back to my seat. It felt like I was sinking into the carpet. That memory is deeply etched into my memory. The next time I had to present I was ridiculously prepared. I spent hours making extra props and researching my topic so I wouldn’t run out of interesting content. It felt fantastic to have turned around my most dire experience into one that made me feel proud and more confident.
So you could say that presenting in front of others is actually not something that comes naturally to me. Throughout my life I have been forced to face this fear through a series of situations. In high school I did very well in English and creative writing but could barely communicate my thoughts out loud. So my teacher put me on the debating team which forced me to rise above that sinking feeling. I learnt to forget about what I couldn’t do and focused on what I did well, presenting my arguments and making people laugh. I even presented a debate in front of the whole school, and gave the end of year speech in year 10. On both occasions I didn’t get hit by lightning or wet my pants, I actually rose to the occasion, was coherent and made people laugh.
Fast forward, and I still remember experiencing a series of presenting disasters in the workplace. I then spent many years learning from mentors and professionals to better master this skill, and I am still learning. When I was quite young I remember someone once told me, “what’s the worst that can happen?”. This phrase still helps me put things into perspective when I feel nervous and need to make a decision to move on. I also consciously decided to just step into the space and have fun.
So here I am sharing my vulnerable self with you. Why? Because it’s taken me five years to actually make a video to be shared on social media. It’s far from perfect, but rather than agonise over what I could do better and never launch it I’m proud to just give it a go. You can view my first video below, encouraging mums to join our amazingly talented Mama Creatives community. There’ll be more, I’ll learn along the way, but as they say, you gotta start somewhere! And feel free to share you feedback with me.
This video was filmed at ikonfilm micro studio, perfect for budding entrepreneurs and creative startups.