9 Comments

I sooooo relate to this. I once had to accept an award for my sadly deceased uncle at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. I had to come up with a speech (!!!!!), give this speech live in front of an audience of 10,000 people that included Ringo Star and Paul McCartney, and the whole thing was recorded for HBO. I crowd sourced some amazing quotes for the speech from very dedicated fans of my uncle and cobbled something coherent together. I was so nervous I pulled a muscle in my neck from tension and couldn’t turn my head in one direction. A friend who often has to give speeches in front of important people (she works in politics) suggested I take a beta blocker. I did, and I honestly don’t think I could have done the event without it. What a wild experience public speaking is - and I say this as someone who used to want to be an actress!!

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OMG this sounds terrifying! And also so cool. Good for you for getting it done!!

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Love it! I do a fair amount of TV/radio and I always just want to no show just before. Our comms team keeps offering the full on BBC media training and I swear, if I had to record myself and watch my silly face in a room full of people, I'd never speak again? So for now, I just wing it and keep getting invited back, so I must be halfway decent.

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Haha I totally get that - I will admit I haven't been able to bring myself to actually watch one of my segments yet...

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My husband and son were watching me on tv one day and I literally had to leave the house. I’ve been in Scotland for 12 years but not lost any of my california accent, a fact I only remember when I hear my voice on recording

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Agreed. I wish we could push past the sound bytes and move ourselves to more action. I find media formats to be one of the most important factors for determining the impact of a message and these shorter form mediums just down allow for enough time to truly dive deep into the nuances of things. Sometimes, short is necessary and helpful. But where we go wrong is assuming that because attention spans are shrinking we should unilaterally resort to short form. Regardless, big congrats on the interviews! And thanks for the tips.

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Thanks! Yes definitely - not all content can be long and detailed of course, but at some point, it does feel like the "sound bytes" are not all that helpful!

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Congratulations on interviews! I love your 15 step how to! I will keep this for future interviews.

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Thank you!

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