I hate public speaking. I absolutely detest it. I know these are strong words to describe something that I do quite often, but a myriad of things run through my mind every time I am about to stand up and speak. The running monologue in my head goes something like, what if you trip and fall on your face (physically and metaphorically)? What if you lose your voice in the middle of your talk? To be fair, I’ve already experienced this during my last minute panel appearance at London’s Calling where I squeaked my way through answering questions by Erica Kuhl. Regardless of the amount of times I do this, I still get a queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach and want to run far away and hide.. But yet.. I continue to do it. Why?
My reason for doing this is my desire to share my experiences and give back to the community that has given me so much over the years. That is what propels me on stage and to do just that. When I put together a talk for a User Group, World Tour or Dreamforce, I am sharing a piece of me and my experiences. My goal is that even a small bit of knowledge that I can impart can help someone else. That is why I put myself through this crazy rollercoaster ride of emotions.
So now that I’ve shared why I do this, does this motivate you to want to speak at events? If your answer is yes, keep reading! (If it’s no, keep reading anyway!)
As one of the co organisers of our local Salesforce Women in Tech User Group, I get a lot of comments when asking others if they would like to speak that run the gamut of, I have nothing to say all the way to, I couldn’t possibly stand in front of people and speak. I have challenged them and asked why they thought they couldn’t speak and how they could overcome these hurdles. To all of the people that said they didn’t think this was something they could do, we have come up with the perfect solution!
The London WiT User Group and Salesforce will be providing a 6 week course to be able to do just that… deliver a talk at a User Group. At the end of the 6 weeks, attendees will learn tips and tricks on building and delivering a talk, practice their new skills and then at the end, speak at the London Dev User Group!
The 6 one hour sessions will be held at Salesforce Tower in London and cover the following topics:
- Getting Started with Public Speaking
- Delivering a Talk
- Choose a Topic
- Building Your Talk
- Dry Runs / Feedback Session
- Present at the Dev User Group
The sessions will be taught by Keir Bowden, Pauline Dufour, Antonina Romanova and myself. They may even include a “graduation” present at the end!! This should definitely sway you now!
If this sounds like something you would like to do and can commit to the 6 sessions starting on 12-July, please sign up here.
Force of Anarchy 
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