Frankly speaking

I had to give a presentation today for the Governor's Recycling Task Force. It's a group of around 25, appointed by the Gov (kinda - I think underlings actually carried out the inviting stuff), stakeholders from all walks of recycling.

There are people from the beer distributors (gots to loves talking to the beer peeps), grocers, Association of Counties, a couple folks that run recycling businesses and more. Unfortunately the wine corkers (or whatever they go by) rep decided to resign already. They may need to replace her with someone from the Jeremiah Weed Vodka bottlers, but that's just my suggestion...

So I was a bit nervous. Public speaking has always been hard for me - starting with speech class in high school. I tend to get all rosy necked (blotches), and swallow in the middle of words. Deardorff used to give me so much crap. My speeches back then tended to be tendered in a monotone, after all, how does one give a passionate speech about such things as wrapping gifts?

Speech was also a requirement for my major, Public Service and Administration, at ISU. Again - I sucked. More of same - swallowing, lack of inflection. I've got to face it - I had no balls (translate - self confidence) back then. I was a wimp at all types of communication with professors too. The only prof I was comfy talking to was my advisor, Eric Otto Hoiberg (yes Fred - the former Cyclone and pro bball star's father).

Lucky for me, jobs during my early years in the working world required no public speaking (see blogs on my employment history written a few months ago). Over the years, I gradually gained confidence. Birthing children really seemed to grow me some nuts, ironic as that sounds. I found my voice!

When I took my first trashy job, public speaking was a requirement. Yes, I was nervous my first time at the podium (and at the Kiwanis meeting, school program, and tour), but it wasn't torture. I was even asked to talk at the Iowa Recycling Association conference in 1999 about my Trash Trunk. I found it was easy to talk about my passion. Garbage.

So now I've got the new job. New stuff to learn - terms, phrases, people, statistics. Sure I can use some of the stuff from my former job as fodder. But the rest is fresh. I put together a PowerPoint, and made notes. Tuesday I went back to Joan's house early (there isn't any place at the Wallace Building to talk out loud practicing, without driving other cube dwellers wild) in order to practice. But it didn't seem to be flowing. Yesterday I planned to practice at Joan's again after lunch.

Not so fast! My boss asked Jeff (a veteran at his Pollution Prevention Program) and me to do our presentations for him in a conference room. Yikes! That sounds worse than talking in front of 30 people! But I could hardly say no could I? I sucked at several junctures in my spiel, but got through it. He had one friendly (he's a very nice, very tactful guy) suggestion about content. Phew! I listened to Jeff and decided I was trying to say too much.

So I got to work early and practiced (inside my head, not talking aloud) today in my cube. Then at the meeting I was asked to go first. Yay - get it over with, less time to squirm. I did okay. Not great but okay. There were several questions, indicating an interested audience. I even got a laugh - something none of the other speakers got. Self Grade = B. I'll never be an A speaker (I'm not dramatic enough), but I can do better.