So...just got off the phone with 100 of my co-workers. And I had to present a slide to them. I truly hate public speaking with PowerPoint slides whether it is to 5 or 500 people. I don't know why. If you want me to go to a client and stand up in front of them and talk about our product I can do that all day. And you can throw questions at me in that situation that I don't know or expect and I can think on my feet. But give me some PowerPoint and I start sweating and my voice quavers and I start wondering if it's possible the world might conveniently end before my presentation comes up.
This one was initiated this morning by my boss emailing the team leads saying "I can't make the meeting - which of you wants to volunteer to present this at the global team meeting?"
I thought it would be clever to deflect that one by saying "I volunteer so-and-so." Be careful what you say because on a teeny-tiny blackberry screen you boss only sees "I volunteer..."
Anyways. I got all my words out without choking or sneezing or more than 25 ums or 50 sos. [ "So we put 5 things on the um agenda because they're super-important. So first up is um..." ] Minimal add-on comments were needed by the big boss. So I would say it was a marginal success.
And the world didn't end. That I know of.
I was thinking about how far I've come (if I do say so myself) in my "career." "Career" is quoted because I have no idea what I want to be when I grow up. If you could make finger-quotes in the air while reading this, it would be good. I most often picture myself as a sort of James Bond spy who flies in, assesses the situation, figures it all out, fixes it and then flies on to the next cool spot. I did want to be a spy when grew up. Or a detective. Or maybe a veterinarian.
I've always wanted to travel internationally for business. I actually got my first taste of that earlier this year. Granted it was "only to Canada" and they speak English... But it was a start! I realized when I got back that I did it all wrong too. I did my typical fly-in-the-night-before-at-midnight-so-I-don't-miss-any-time-at-home and then I was only there for a day and a half and flew right back out. Because of the time change I was so wiped out that I didn't even got out for dinner my one evening there -- I just had room service and worked! That's ok behavior if you're being sent to places like Bismarck or some small town in North Carolina or even Cincinnati. But not if you have to take a passport to get to your destination! Clearly I have some learning to do about how to do it right.
It was weird to answer at immigration the question "What is the purpose of your trip?" "Business meeting with a client." "What client?" And I don't think I was very convincing because the guy asked me like 10 more questions.
The sort of funny thing was that I didn't really even think about the fact that this is a teeny step in the direction of being an international business traveler until a month later. But I did think about the fact that there were literally 100 people on the phone today from different places including Europe, Australia and all the time zones in the US.
Anyways, those were my 2 big unexpected events so far in 2011:
- traveling internationally for work
- presenting to 100 people around the globe.
Sounds way more glamorous than it was. I still don't like presenting PowerPoint slides either.
I've always wanted to travel internationally for business. I actually got my first taste of that earlier this year. Granted it was "only to Canada" and they speak English... But it was a start! I realized when I got back that I did it all wrong too. I did my typical fly-in-the-night-before-at-midnight-so-I-don't-miss-any-time-at-home and then I was only there for a day and a half and flew right back out. Because of the time change I was so wiped out that I didn't even got out for dinner my one evening there -- I just had room service and worked! That's ok behavior if you're being sent to places like Bismarck or some small town in North Carolina or even Cincinnati. But not if you have to take a passport to get to your destination! Clearly I have some learning to do about how to do it right.
It was weird to answer at immigration the question "What is the purpose of your trip?" "Business meeting with a client." "What client?" And I don't think I was very convincing because the guy asked me like 10 more questions.
The sort of funny thing was that I didn't really even think about the fact that this is a teeny step in the direction of being an international business traveler until a month later. But I did think about the fact that there were literally 100 people on the phone today from different places including Europe, Australia and all the time zones in the US.
Anyways, those were my 2 big unexpected events so far in 2011:
- traveling internationally for work
- presenting to 100 people around the globe.
Sounds way more glamorous than it was. I still don't like presenting PowerPoint slides either.
