A failed attempt - an introspective reassessment - a hero emerges

One minute to pitch Dasha. I so got this. As my turn was coming up I felt a nervous energy building up, shakes... fear? This was new. I got up front and all hell broke loose. I was the deer, these people were the headlights. I forgot what I was up there for, stammered through my pitch and slunked back to my seat like a yella dog. 

Thankfully this was not the big moment. This was the first day of a four day workshop organized by Visa to prepare Dasha and 19 other startups to pitch in the semi-final of the Visa Everywhere Initiative startup battle for which the 20 teams were selected out of 800 applicants. 

This pitch was very important to me, as this was my second week at Dasha. This pitch was very important to Dasha, as a win in the competition will open doors to a pilot project with Visa Inc. and all of their 16,000 client partners.

My failure surprised me because I have always loved public speaking. In my time in film I had been complimented by veteran actors on the way I hold contact with the audience. This time was very different. I wanted to shrug it off but I couldn’t kick the nagging thought of - what is wrong with me? What if this happens again at the actual pitch? I was determined to make sure that it does not. 

That first day I actively participated in the public speaking training sessions that were conducted for the benefit of the participants. Thank you Visa!

In the evening I reflected on what went wrong. Some time ago a therapist friend of mine said to me that in her opinion most of our problems stem from expectations. I expected to be a great public speaker and when my expectations were derailed by anxiety - all breaks were off and I kept falling further down the spiral of panic.

I made a resolution to keep an open mind to my weaknesses and to not fall prey to my own expectations.

For the next three days I spent a few hours every day with the public speaking coach and even met him up on the Sunday prior to the semi-final to run through my presentation and to train. Now that I knew I can get scared in front of a crowd I made peace with it and embraced the fear, should it come. I was also dead-set on making sure I’m prepared - both with the visual presentation and with the presenting technique. 

The semi-final day came. I was slotted to be the last presenter. Zero pressure. The event was meticulously organized, MC’eed by the amazing Bianca Lopes and with a very cool panel of judges and speakers with whom I found many points of congruity during the coffee breaks.

My presentation went off without a hitch and Dasha’s pitch was selected for the semi-final. A week later, after major prep and a presentation rehaul, I walked out on stage to a punk rock anthem, killed it, dropped the mic.

I took home the gold for Dasha. More importantly, made the first step on the road to engage with Visa Inc. As of today, I am working closely with Visa's VP of Digital to get us started on a pilot project. All in a month’s work. 

Will keep you posted on the progress we make on the road to general AI era!