This morning I was sharing with you guys how I use to have this fear of speaking in front of large groups, right? Well even as a principal, I always felt a little anxious when getting up to present or even talk during our staff meetings.
When I met Jon Gordon, one of the things he asked me was going out to speak to groups of people. I remember the first time he asked if I could take a gig at a university in Texas, I was so scared, but I never said no. Thank God the person booking the event needed someone with videos and since I had not been speaking professionally, I had no videos. Whew! So I was off the hook at the moment.
The funny thing about this whole thing is, 2 months prior to Jon asking me about public speaking, I had placed a sticky note on my bathroom mirror that said " I am a public speaker!" I didn't place this sticky note there because I wanted to be a public speaker, in fact, when I placed the note in my mirror I had not even met Jon Gordon yet.
The reason I had placed the note there was because I had been invited by my district to attend an event at Southwest Airlines with my superintendent. The district had invited me and one other principal to study culture and bring back tools/strategies to our district that we learned. They informed me that I could go on the trip under one condition - I had to come back and present what I had learned to all the principals and district leaders. I was scared out of my mind!! Our district meetings were no joke! Let's just say there wasn't a lot of positive energy in those meetings - but I LOVED culture and I definitely was not going to let my fears get in the way of this amazing opportunity.
So in January 2016, prior to me attending the Game Changers session with my superintendent, I placed a yellow sticky note in my bathroom mirror that read "I am a public speaker!" I placed the sticky note there as an affirmation to give me courage to present at my district meeting.
So I attended the Game Changers session with my superintendent and had the most amazing time!! I took lots of pictures and tried to capture the experience so that I could bring it back to share with our district/campus leaders.
Well in March 2016 me and the other principal that accompanied me on this trip, put together an amazing presentation and presented it to all the district/campus leaders at our monthly meeting.
After a successful presentation, I never removed that sticky note. I'm not sure why. I had never dreamed of becoming a public speaker, but that sticky note remained in my mirror for several more months.
In then in April of 2016 I meet Jon Gordon who gave me the opportunity to develop a program for schools and to go out and share this message with the world. He even placed my photo and bio on his website introducing me as one of his speakers - unreal!
I now speak to hundreds and sometimes thousands of people and I get amazing feedback! I really come to life on stage!!
The moral of this story- be careful what you ask for you just might get it!!!