Create your Public Speaking Go-Bag

I’m what you might call a black-hole of self-knowledge.

I start each day with a pretty clean slate. So, without sufficient prep time, I’m hard pressed to recall what I’ve done in my life, my accomplishments or what I care about.

This makes impromptu speaking - like an unplanned introduction to a large group - a hairy challenge. Now add to that my general anxiety around public speaking.

The result: A soul-cringing scenario of “intro blackout”.

Which me do I introduce?

What’s my job?

Should I mention my job?

I’m a parent - is that relevant?

When this happened – and it did – I’d panic-plan my introduction while others spoke. My hands would sweat, my face would flush and I’d silently rage that I wasn’t notified.

And it didn’t matter if it was just an intro to a school’s prospective parents. The reaction was the same.

The thing that changed everything for me was this: I made a public speaking go-bag.

Now, it’s not an actual bag – but rather a mental bag of things I remind myself of in advance of an event. Like the basics: Who am I? What do I care about? As well as What’s a scene/story that conveys who I am? (that’s an advanced one but I highly recommend it.) I don’t memorize these things but I think them through, again and again. Like really.

The goal is to get your go-bag intros and stories “on-tap.”

Here’s an analogy: Imagine of a wine cellar that’s deep underneath a restaurant. Every time a diner orders a bottle of wine, the waiter has to go down to the cellar to find it. Now, what if the most frequently requested bottles were brought up to restaurant ahead of time? (They are.) See how much easier the waiter’s job becomes?  

So, what’s inside your go-bag:

2 intros that capture who you are - know these by heart and practice them out loud

2 easy stories/experiences you can riff on - these are not memorized but they are super fresh in your head.

Bonus: 1 recent bit of relevant news (so you don’t feel like you’ve been under a rock)

The most important thing about introductions is your presence: You can’t be present if you’re racing down to the cellar to find what to say. Try connecting and making eye contact with your audience while you introduce yourself and share a snapshot of your story.

Fortunately, once you’ve done this a few times, there’s a cumulative effect on future events.

So, if you know you’re an anxious speaker, be a good friend and prep yourself a go-bag.

And tell me how it goes!

Photo by Artem Beliaikin on Unsplash