Daredom is about trying
Falling Short
Pitching v Public Speaking v Acting
It hit me hard when I fell short. I try to do whatever I take on (okay, not housework) well—or at least to the best of my ability.
I was a finalist in the GWBC Perfect Pitch competition at Georgia Power. It was a great honor and it was a big audience, many of whom hold the ability to really change a company’s trajectory.
Practice—yes, I did—relentlessly. ALL the ways—reading, writing, listening, chunking, videotaping, recording, and even image cues (this needs more work).
When I went up (choked/lost my place/dried up/froze) during my pitch, I was so angry at myself.
People were kind. They were so kind. Many, many of them congratulated me on what a great job I’d done.
How weird is that?
My takeaways:
- I did want to be swallowed up by the Earth. Immediately.
- Why were people clapping during it? Because it was almost over?
- Why wasn’t I able to meet my own expectations?
No clue, really—at least not yet.
Pitching is different than public speaking; it is different than acting.
I am so grateful that the work I do is not pitching.
Looking for analogies, I’m thinking about someone who writes an essay for a class at school. Part of the grade is based on presenting it. Let’s say the person has a stutter. They wrote a great paper, but the delivery wasn’t perfect.
I remember assisting the grading of non-native English speaker student exams in English, and how shocked I was that the essays consisting of pablum were given higher marks than the ones where the writer took a stance and actually meritoriously debated a subject, albeit with more errors.
While I was running through one of my first final drafts, my dear husband, who doesn’t criticize me without good reason (he knows me) told me I had to stop “acting.” He rightfully pointed out that I actually had to say what I had to say to a person, and not ‘act’ it.
He was right.
A mentor told me, when I was fretting about entering a contest, that I’d already won because I’d entered it. That taught me a lot about Daredom.
I try to live in Daredom.