Stepping Up

Some Things Are Worth Doing Because They're Scary

So on July 8th I'll be one of the presenters at the fourth round of Raizlabs lightning talks. Having attended the third round shortly after starting working at Raizlabs, it's both thrilling and a bit scary to know I'll be joining the stage with my co-workers, and some presenters from outside.

The thing that makes it scary is that I've been various degrees of terrified of public speaking as long as I can remember. The best thing ever done to me to help with the subject was when a boss at a former job just handed the the microphone during an awards ceremony where I thought I'd be standing in the background with the rest of the team rather than talking. I can't say I did a great job with it, but just having to do it and managing to not completely screw it up did wonders for my confidence. Having to plan and have a good five minute slide deck on a topic is slightly scary, but the sort of slightly scary that feel conquerable.

Now I just need to think if I can come up with a hook half as clever as Spicing Up Xcode.