Most people fear public speaking. Me too! Not only public speaking but having to gather socially in large groups is exhausting for me. I’m a massive introvert, I’d prefer to stay home most of the time.
That said, each year, under duress from my team, I get up at our Christmas party in front of hundreds of people and do the ‘CEO Presentation’.
What would be your worst public speaking nightmare?
Would it be the microphone not working? That did happen a few years ago, although it didn’t happen this year.
Would it be the PowerPoint file not displaying, so the screen is just a blank screen? And you stand there waiting. And you ask several times for the PowerPoint to be displayed. But nothing happens. And you feel like crawling into a deep hole while about 1,000 eyes stare at you? Would that be your worst nightmare on stage? That happened to me this year during our recent Christmas Party!
Eventually, the file displayed correctly. But the clicker didn’t work. It was unresponsive. It lagged several seconds, but nobody told me before the presentation that it might lag. So, I kept clicking it, while nothing happened. Then it would jump forward several slides. Then jump back. And I stood there, again, looking for a big hole to crawl into.
And by the time I got a small degree of control over the presentation, the smooth transition between discussion points was just a clunky mess. Jon and Cherry joined me this year, but in that moment, there was nothing anyone could do to save me. I was standing in the middle of the stage, microphone and clicker in hand, and wanting to be anywhere else in that moment.
I would guess that’s probably an experience most people fear when doing a public presentation. Having either a personal meltdown and brain freeze, or the technology fails you.
It was the worst public speaking experience of my life…
BUT…
I had to do it again six days later!
I didn’t get any time to process this trauma!
And the next speech was not in front of 500 people…
It was going to be in front of 5,000 people at the 79th PICPA Annual National Convention for the Philippine CPAs in Davao, about a 90-minute flight south of Manila.
This was such a big event, even the Vice President of the Philippines spoke the day before my speech.
When I arrived at the event, I was also informed my presentation would be the final presentation of the day. It was the ‘grand finale’.
‘Oh no, more pressure!’ I thought.
What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right?
At this point after the Christmas party, it was 0-1 in the Cottle vs Technology battle.
I wasn’t going to be beaten twice. And certainly not twice in the same week. So… I did what any intelligent, old school, person would do. I printed my entire speech on paper. I had about 30 pages of paper up on stage with me. Pen and paper have always been my favourite technology.
We walked into the venue, and I tell you, I have never seen a room this big and full of people.
It was daunting knowing I was going to have to get up on the stage in front of all these people and talk.
My team were awesome. Despite mocking me without mercy, they tried to help ensure I was ready to take on not only the speech, but also the associated technology.
They prepped me by explaining this clicker also has a delay. They even got a photo of the clicker so I knew where the buttons would be!
Before it was my turn, I watched the other speakers struggle with the delayed clicker.
‘I know what’s going on here!’ I thought to myself.
So, when it was my turn, I got up, made a joke about the paper I was holding, and then proceeded to speak Tagalog to the audience.
My presentation was the final one for the day. So, the audience was tired. But, having an Aussie dude that looks like Santa, get up and speak Tagalog woke everyone up a bit!
I felt completely comfortable in my battle with technology. I felt comfortable in the long pauses as I waited for the clicker to respond to my command.
I shared a small part of my accounting journey, from working in a supermarket with no education, to travelling the world talking to accounting firms about the amazing talented people in the Philippines.
I felt the audience were receptive to my message. Despite not being able to see them properly due to the bright lights, I felt like it was a friendly crowd who appreciated my effort to not only speak their language, but also dress in the local formal attire, "barong tagalog".
After the speech, my fellow speakers and I sat on a panel to talk about AI and how it might affect the accounting industry.
We were given some gifts from the Philippine CPAs, which was really cool. I now have an Eagle sitting on my shelf here. The team named him Dave the Davao Eagle!
Seconds after getting off the stage, people were coming and asking for selfies.
While I had to be the public face of this adventure, it was a massive team effort.
I also accidentally walked through a group taking a photo. They called me back and asked me to join them. I spoke Tagalog with them for a second, and they got a shock ‘Hey, he’s still speaking Tagalog!’ which was pretty funny.
The other cool thing about this trip was we got to hang out with a bunch of employees from the Davao area. One of them even travelled two hours to hang out with us for dinner. We will now plan to do something similar in 2025, maybe for the team down in the Cebu area.
And on the plane ride home, the young ones struggled to match the old man’s energy and stamina!
So, in the space of six days, I went from the most humiliating public speaking experience of my life to the best public speaking experience of my life. I desperately did not want to travel to Davao and do that speech. Especially after my terrible experience the week before. I was honestly terrified of making a fool of myself in front of thousands of strangers.
But with my team’s encouragement and help, we pushed ahead and smashed it.
You can knock me down, but you will never keep me down.
Cottle vs Technology is now 1-1.
Comments