Good Jobs #73: Public speaking
You want me to talk coherently for 20 minutes in front of all these people? Yeah... nah.
In both high school and college I took public speaking classes. Not by choice.
Stand up in front of a room of 28 strangers and give a contrived speech on some famous person or a personal hobby for 10, 15, even 20 minutes. Truly miserable.
The thing is, I knew I wasn’t a great public speaker. I also knew that format wasn’t making me any better at public speaking.
Fast forward to 2016. I just started a new job. A couple of coworkers are joining an improv 101 course. I sign up mostly because I like the idea of making people laugh.
The “funny” part of improv is in fact just part of it. The instructor, Sean Hancock, taught me about storytelling, taking my time, listening, responding, and not overthinking things. It was a blast.
Fast forward (again) to 2022. I’ve now been doing improv for 6 years, taken multiple classes, performed in dozens of shows in front of hundreds of people. I’ve given presentations to executives at big uppity companies and spoken at conferences and meetups.
Am I an amazing public speaker? No, but I’m way better than I was a decade ago and I’m not as scared of it anymore.
To summarize:
There is more than one way to get better at something
You should try improv
Thank you for coming to my TED talk,
P.S. The 1st annual Boise Improv Week is happening in a couple week. I’m running a session on Tuesday 10/11. You should come. It’s free. Sign up here
DEV
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PRODUCT, DESIGN, RESEARCH
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From last time: Product Designer at Stripe
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SALES, CX, MARKETING
Sales Representative at ConvertKit
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Still hiring: Business Journalist at TextExpander
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