Public speaking is a pretty common fear, but how do you feel about it?
Have you ever done it? If so, what's the biggest crowd you've ever spoken in front of?
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Never had a problem with it. Though I am curious to try the now-famous "slack armed pose" that is capable of riveting millions. I tend to use my hands, bent elbows and all of that. But if Marty has deemed "slack arms" to be cool... gotta go with the trend. The last time I spoke in front of an audience, it was a couple hundred or so healthcare and IT professionals. The projecting system broke and my presentation was pretty data-loaded, so I couldn't just "talk and wave my arms trying to describe the documents that weren't showing". So, we paused for "water and bio-break" while the host's "tech guy" tried to get the projector back on line. I didn't realize it, but I started humming and my lapel mic picked up what I thought that I was humming to myself. It's a odd habit of mine, when technology doesn't work, I tend to hum the song as a way of verbally "twiddling my thumbs", and watching this poor guy trying to fix this, I didn't even know that I was doing it. As soon as I realized that I was being heard by the audience, I was mortified and stopped. What was amazing/funny is that a few members of the audience were singing along, and so I rejoined and we finished the song to a round of laughter and applause. It was REALLY weird. The song above is was I hum when I am working/waiting on technology to "get with the program".