From Nervous Rookie to Confident Public Speaker – One lesson I’ll always remember!

I was 22. It was the second day at my new job. My boss asked me to make a presentation.

😐 I was nervous so I spoke really fast.

😐 I was shaking. All of me. My voice, my hands, my soul.

😐 I couldn’t control my body language. My hands went haywire.

😐 I didn’t pause to give the audience a second to breathe.

😐 I didn’t know how to handle difficult questions, so I stuttered “I don’t know”.

You know what my boss said at the end?

She told me:
“Not bad. You handled that well on short notice and not knowing too much about the business. Maybe you could slow down next time, and your hands were a bit distracting”.

This was amazing. She could have told me about 20 things that went wrong.
Instead, she chose to stay positive. And tell me 2 things to work on.
That have stayed with me for 16 years.

Be like my boss. Speak as a leader, so it impacts people long after you’ve said it.