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Daniel Mackey's avatar

I appreciate the honest vulnerability here. I get in my head about my work too. Yesterday, I finally received a link to watch a presentation I gave in early January. In between, mind you, I’ve been in my head about how it went, whether I came off confidently or arrogantly, and many other questions. Basically I was worrying the whole time that I had messed up and I was dreading that the video link would confirm to me just how bad my presentation was.

I watched the whole thing with bated breath- in fact I couldn’t bring myself to look at myself on camera, so I just listened.

And to my surprise everything sounded pretty good. I did sound confident. I didn’t sound arrogant. I sounded like I believed in the topic of my presentation - in other words, I came off as authentic.

BUT…when it came to the last page of my presentation, I realized that I accidentally skipped a sentence that was extremely important and crucial to my overall argument! At first I thought “oh no! Dan, you f’d it up!” But as I kept listening, I tried to put myself in the seat of one of the audience members (not myself). They didn’t know I skipped a line. They didn’t know I missed a beat. And if they suspected it, it was quickly forgotten.

The biggest takeaway I had was that, in the end, my message came through. Yes, maybe I could have stated it a bit more clearly, had I not skipped that sentence, but…I live and I learn. I’ll try to do better next time. But this was still a success.

Now I’m checking out of the head-hotel on this one…Cheers, D.

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Antonella L Lucente's avatar

I figured it out and realized just in time for the start. Shit happens, and you recovered well. I took away so much great content. Thank you Darius! Oh, just so you know…..I’ve done worse.

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Christine Clark's avatar

Darius, I attended the workshop and loved it! It was a splendid save on your part.

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Rainbow Casey's avatar

I have so been there. The trick is to get out of the head, and into the feelings and give them their say. BUT man, that is hard to do! Love you, Darius

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Julie Freedman Smith's avatar

Oh man. So sorry that happened. Good to know you are human. Chair dancing is the way to go!

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