I hate public speaking. You have no idea. One of the ways I try to master my fear, beyond taking Xanax and Klonapin, is through practice. I also dream about running my car into a shallow lake.
So I presented at Ignite Raleigh 2 on Wednesday night. Do you know what Ignite is? You have five minutes and twenty slides to tell a story. It’s like a def jam poetry slam for geeky people who like social media & other topics.
Here’s my practice reel.
Here’s the presentation itself.
You can find me at 1:56 on the actual livestream. The quality isn’t great, but I opened my segment by saying, “I can’t believe I have to close this bitch down.”
That’s the benefit of going last. Then I got rickrolled.
I want to thank @kenruet for being such a scrubilicious photographer and @zachward for being the most awesome coach. I’d like to thank the team at @ourhashtag for asking me to be a featured speaker.
If you never hear from me again, it’s because I’m exhausted and I ran away to the Azores. (Fine, okay, I don’t even know where the Azores are… I’m American… geography is hard.)
Here are some pix, too.
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| Ignite2 Raleigh |
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Scrubby is adorable and you were awesome. What a way to end ignite.
Hilarious! I love laughing this hard first thing in the morning.
This is genius. Genius, I tell you!
Given your incredible talent and success, your custom cocktail of brain-melting tranquilizers and automotive water torture – along with the Greta “I want to be left alone” Garbo post-session decompression technique – is clearly working for you.
You should package this approach and sell it. Call it “PunkRock Public Speaking”. Fortune and fame await…that is, if you’re not too stoned/waterlogged/MIA to enjoy them.
ok, who’s the man in the tutu? he and i need to go out, as i have the same one.
f
Dude, excellent presentation, you had excellent cadence and timing, and got nice laughs!
I was most pleased to learn that Scrubby is a d-bag hater. I always assumed as much, but am glad it has been confirmed.
Great job!
I love Mr. Scrubby. Great preso, Laurie. Get’s me “fired up” for mine (Dude) tonight in the 801! For the record, I didn’t know you were speaking b/c you were not on the list of speakers!
http://igniteraleigh.com/2010/02/18/announcing-15-selected-speakers-for-ignite-raleigh-2/
(so there).
Kicked ass. Loved it.
When are you installing the plugin for me to subscribe to comments via email? How about Disqus? Dude.
DJ Waldow
@djwaldow
That was such a great presentation! Obviously I believe you that you fear public speaking, but I would NEVER have known had you not said so. You are an amazing speaker. I am glad you contributed to this event and to your community.
I’m glad you’re good at public speaking because I SUCK AT IT!!!
Is there any drug that stop’s uncontrollable shaking???
I just scrapped a presentation after watching yours!
made me realize how boring appt can be…
But I don’t have as fun a topic (change mgmt)…
Now I have some real work to do…
thx for sharing…
M
And you DID close that bitch down, girl. Way to punk it out, you and Scrubs. (Too bad S. didn’t appear live and scratch people bloody, it might have expressed a little of the crazed mental state I was in: nice show of restraint, Scrub.)
Truly, Laurie, you were awesome, funny, and utterly Laurilicious. So glad I FINALLY got to meet you IRL.
Lisa aka @glowbird, also a cat freak/slave (and boxing fiend).
@lisacb One of the highlights of my night was hearing your boxing presentation. You kick ass online and IRL. Adore you.
@lisa thanks!
@frank thank you!
@andy Brilliant. I’m on it!
@fran He’s zach ward and he runs this place: http://dsicomedy.com
@puf that means the world. thank u!
@dj I don’t even own my blog anymore. sold it to recruitingblogs.com — so you’ll have to fight the corporate powers-that-be for upgrades.
@SCG Thanks. I wanted to talk about my fears because I think it’s important for people to know that this. shit. doesn’t. come. naturally. to. anyone. It’s all about practice and patience.
@mattymat Yes, there’s a blood pressure drug that people take for that — before presentations. it helps.
@mark there was a cool presentation on how to make powerpoint better. i’ll see if i can find it.
Wait. Just re-read the post. You had a coach? Awesome.
DJ Waldow
@djwaldow
Move over Kathy Griffin! That was awesome! Rock on!
You. Rock.
Uproarious! Certification process complete: you are *bonafide* crazy, plaque’s in the mail. 5 cats? Lawd. Hail to Scrubby for maintaining his head honcho status.
AWE.SOME. Scrubby was adorbs and perfectly upheld his ranking as #1. And I gotta say…Raleigh looks fun!
@DJ You are my coach. You told me to stop being shy.
@Kirsten Thank you.
@Low Thanks!
@Geek Nah, I’m not crazy. I have 4,000 square feet. It’s either cats or babies.
@Robin We had a blast. Raleigh is a social media mecca, believe it or not.
THAT was the most awesome thing ever. Seriously whenever I’m having a bad day I’m going to watch that again.
ps. You looked freaking fantastic!
wow.
Thanks, Amanda. That’s really kind of you!
While skipping around to get to your bit I saw a slide behind a lady that said “I’m not a frakking cylon (or am I),” which pretty much made her my new hero. THen I saw the guy before you talking about zombies and he became my new hero. You guys are all so nerdtacular.
Also, if I tried to put my Kiyoshi kitty into a costume he would eat me. How should I rate his performance? Heh.
@Mouse Here are the peeps: @therab did the zombies and @cavaticat is the nerd girl. Twitter is awesome.
Laurie – You rocked the house. Sexy outfit plus awesome presentation plus amazing cat equal one kick ass Ignite Raleigh ending.
Maybe one day I’ll get Miss Chibi on Social Media.
Laurie- WOW! Took ALOT of courage to do that (Practicing your Public Speach to the whole WORLD)…. I commend you for it..
LIKABILITY… You hit the NAIL on the HEAD…
EnJOY your weekend…
Brian-
Your makeup looks great in your practice run video!
I told the Linkedin story to a friend that could not attend and they (actually) LOL’d.
I never would have guessed you hate public speaking. I was at #igniteraleigh and I was VERY impressed with your talk. You appeared comfortable, spoke conversationally and did a great job of including the audience. Maybe it was the Xanax but you did an INCREDIBLE job!
)
Does Scrubby have a video resume? Please make one… please
I’m on it, Richie.