About a week ago, I got an e-mail from someone who randomly found Beyond Mommying. It’s not unusual for me to get random e-mails from brands, writers, PR companies and others. What was different about this particular e-mail was that it asked me not about my website or social channels, but instead asked if I wanted to appear in a TV spot for a local South Florida news station and talk about family travel.
Well, you can probably guess I did it. Monday morning, I got up and for the first time in a long time, I curled my hair and put on make up and jewelry (while screaming at my kids and trying to keep my toddler from killing himself because getting ready when home alone with kids is the worst!)
My parents came over to manage the kids and I headed to the studio. Despite my feeling completely unprepared and the experience being very nerve wrecking, the spot (apparently) went very well though almost 9 year-old Honeybun who watched from home said I seemed nervous.
Friends, family and acquaintances commented on Facebook that I was “poised, confident, articulate,” “demure,” “impressive” and did “good,” “great,” “awesome,” “fantastic.” I can’t say for sure, though, that I was any of these things. Because I haven’t watched it. And I almost didn’t even do it.
I think most people would be excited to get invited to be on TV. It’s a pretty cool experience and something that doesn’t come along every day. But it’s totally not my thing.
In addition to being a classic introvert, I’m not a fan, at all, of public speaking (taking selfies is also totally not my thing!) It seems like with my long history as a dancer and being up on a stage in front of hundreds of people and now as a writer where I can articulate my words so easily that speaking should be no problem.
But the difference is that neither of those things (dancing or writing) require speaking, at all. In fact, I find speaking in public very different from performing a dance.
I have no problem expressing myself through my body and movement, but opening my mouth and using my voice is terrifying. The words easily spew through my fingers onto paper or the screen but opening my mouth and uttering cohesive sentences hasn’t ever been my thing.
I distinctly remember doing an oral presentation in my 8th grade English class. I don’t remember the exact topic but I vividly remember donning my pointe shoes and doing a short ballet demonstration within my presentation. I practiced my dance routine a handful of times but rehearsed the three paragraphs I had to speak over and over and over again. And when it was my turn to present, I remember my heart racing and my throat getting tight as I bumbled through those three spoken paragraphs but once I turned to the dancing part, the nervousness melted away.
You would think, now as an adult person who spends 90% of her time talking to little people in addition to my years teaching which involves nearly non-stop talking, that I’d be more comfortable with public speaking. But, nope, still not my thing and probably won’t ever be.
The only thing that gets me through public speaking engagements now is reminding myself that if I can lead a meeting of 50+ women with Sugarplum on my boob (as I did once while running a membership meeting as the president of the American Women’s Club in Dublin), then I can survive any kind of public speaking!
Watch my TV spot on Family Travel and let me know what you think!
