In order to graduate at my high school, you had to take a public speaking course. Just before 10th grade, I decided I’d take the course just to get it out of the way. Most of my classmates were upperclassmen, people I didn’t know, people who put off taking the course until the very last minute possible. I was literally speaking to a group of strangers each week.
Although I was nervous entering the class, I quickly learned that public speaking wasn’t so bad. Terror slowly changed to panic slowly changed to a slight anxiety each time I took the podium. Speech after speech, I got a little more confident. I was actually half decent up there.
Going up there and speaking actually became really energizing. Unfortunately, opportunities to speak aren’t as easy to come by anymore now that I’m out of school. I decided I’d speak at this year’s Podcamp Pittsburgh, a great unconference run each year, teaching people about social media.
So I did. I spoke about building an audience online, borrowing a title from a speaker I really enjoy (and use as an example in the speech). And while I do think I have a lot of room for improvement, people seemed to enjoy it. I’m really glad I did it.
I’d like to do more. Someday, I’d like to do a speaking engagement professionally, even. For now, I’ll just focus on thinking of a topic for next year’s conference and improving my ums and ahs.
Here’s my talk:
