Too much or not enough…!?

It all depends on your goal!

The Challenges of Public Speaking

I love sharing knowledge, I love connecting with people. But public speaking, whether online or in person, isn’t always simple. There’s so much to think about, like:

- How do I find a stage?

- How far do I want to travel?

- What do I put in the submission?

- Which topic do I enjoy presenting most?

- Who wants me as a speaker?

- How should my slides look?

- Should I give a demo?

- What remote system is being used?

- Will the tech cooperate?

- Is my English good enough?

- How do I remember to mention x, y, and z?

- Don’t forget to thank the sponsors, organizers, and audience.

- And so much more...

Realizing I Needed More Practice

In August, I realized I wanted to keep going but knew I needed more practice, especially to feel more comfortable speaking English abroad.

So, I went to Sessionize, a site where you can find events where they search for speakers, and started looking for online user group sessions worldwide. I went through the steps I just mentioned, and to my surprise, I was really successful ??. Every submission was accepted, and a few are still being evaluated. Below are all my upcoming sessions, complete with banners, since August.

The Preparation and Time Investment

Submitting takes a lot of (free ??) time—it’s a hobby! I don’t usually do this during work hours. And for a control freak like me, getting my slide deck and Power BI demos just right also takes a lot of time.

Still, I love making my presentations event-specific. Yes, there’s some repetition, but I always incorporate lessons learned from the last one.

When It All Has to Go Right…

This week, I had two sessions. One was a 45-minute recording for DynamicsCon Virtual on Monday evening, and the other was a live stream with Maven Analytics Maven Analytics. Unfortunately, I just got a new laptop. For the recording, I had to use Zoom and Riverside simultaneously, and my camera didn’t like that. On top, we had a provider outage here in the Netherlands—right during recording!

I was already super nervous, and this definitely didn’t help. It was too late to try again that evening, so we rescheduled for Wednesday.

More Stress with the Live Stream

On Tuesday, I had the live stream with John Pauler and Aaron Parry . After Monday’s issues, I was even more stressed out. I was so excited to talk to them about my superpower—Power BI—but yep, more problems. My camera wouldn’t work no matter how much I tried. Thankfully, the mic worked, so we carried on with the live stream, but it wasn’t the experience I had hoped for.

The Retake: A Success!

Then came Wednesday’s retake of Monday’s session. Honestly, I wasn’t feeling optimistic. I thought, “This just isn’t going to work. I’ll try, but I’m prepared to give up.” My husband and I had checked the laptop, camera, and mic the night before, but still, I wasn’t confident.

But when I logged into Zoom, everything went smoothly! Thanks to the fantastic folks at the Dynamics User Group (DUG) , who helped me set it all up, there were no nerves, and it went super well. You can catch it on the 13th of November—check out one of my latest posts.

Growth Through Challenges

So, back to the “it depends” thing. Yes, I’m speaking a lot right now. No, I don’t enjoy every single moment. But I’m learning, growing my self-confidence, meeting lots of amazing people, expanding my knowledge, sharpening my skills, figuring out all the different streaming tools, and getting less nervous so that in-person speaking will become easier.

So yes, I’m speaking a lot, but I’m also growing—and that’s something I’m really enjoying and will continue ??.