My Life as a Public Speaker

From piano recitals to keynote addresses, a career 'on stage' that has taken twists and turns

I credit my training as a pianist and as a musician with making me fairly immune to stage fright. (Although I am not wholly immune. I peed myself—only a dribble, but still!!!—out of stage fright as recently as a few years ago. And I’m in my forties.)

Piano recitals in my tween years led to performing at open mic nights in my teenage years and then playing on concert stages throughout college. This all helped me to feel quite comfortable being in front of a large audience doing my thing. The trick is to be extremely confident in what you are performing or presenting, and not worried about anyone’s reaction to it.

As a writer, I only started sharing my ideas publicly maybe fifteen years ago. I remember speaking at one of my first academic conferences. My 15-minute paper presentation was completely trashed by those academics in the audience. They ripped apart my …