Fear of Public Speaking

Recently, I was honored to present an Agentforce Agent as part of the Agentforce Keynote speech at SalesforceCon. The Amazon/Salesforce conference took place in Seattle on the Amazon campus. It was an honor. A terrifying, nightmare-inducing honor that I avoided thinking about in the weeks leading up to it. 

For those of us with social anxiety, I mean full-on, panic attack inducing social anxiety in which our brains go cold when asked a simple question like “more parmesan on your salad?”, public speaking is an absolute nightmare. 

My world is one fraught with internal anxiety (fortunately I’m one who has benefitted enormously from the miracles of modern medicine). Having a full-on panic attack, with a heart beating so fast my Apple watch says, “WTF?” and my necklace actually jumps off my chest was a frequent occurrence for me in college and grad school. The experience of panic taking over in public, thinking death is imminent while hanging onto the podium for dear life, sweat pouring down while gasping out the location of the capital of Michigan before an audience, is horrifying and memorable. 

If you’ve had a panic attack, you know what I’m talking about.

I also have a lot of imagination, so when I’m asked a direct question without a script I never know what’s going to pop out of my mouth, and I’ll only vaguely remember my answers later. This makes one-on-one work lunches with managers pure agony. When I’m put on the spot, my brain loses the ability to filter, and nothing pours out but sheer honesty. I would be a terrible spy, but a great prison snitch.

Given this background, it’s understandable why the presentation was such a concern for me. Speaking in front of hundreds of people live and virtual, followed by a Q&A has the potential to be a career-ending train wreck. In my mind, there were three things that made this adventure in public speaking more bearable.

1. I was given an Agentblazer hoodie to wear which was lovely and shiny and also meant I didn’t need to worry about wearing high heels and tripping or just falling over unexpectedly. Gravity.

2. I took time to practice my presentation so I could go on autopilot if my anxious brain took over.

3. A manager joined me on stage prepared to jump in on any questions that left me like a deer in the headlights.

The result was a successful presentation. When I told the audience to say please and thank you when chatting with AI to prevent the technology from turning on us I heard glorious laughter. Apparently everyone thought I was joking.

In another post, I’ll describe more about the epic presentation that left me flying high for a week or so. For those of you who hate public speaking, I hear you, I feel you, and I totally support you.

What are your tips to get through a public presentation?