2min chapter

My Morning Cup cover image

E39 - Mark McKnight’s Morning Cup

My Morning Cup

CHAPTER

Navigating the Pressure of a Large Speaking Engagement

This chapter details the unexpected journey of preparing to speak at a major global sales event, emphasizing the emotional and logistical challenges encountered. The speakers share key takeaways about the significance of venue familiarity and the importance of preparation for impactful presentations.

00:00
Speaker 2
Because you drew their attention. They all of a sudden said, okay, we got someone who understands this and let's test a new product.
Speaker 1
Exactly. And I had time and because I wasn't working at Visa or whatever, uh, I had the time that I could play with new things and do things in a, I mean, it was small stakes. It wasn't like a million dollar campaign. Yeah. I could put a couple hundred dollars into something and try it. It was the culture that we had that we could do that. And then at some point, they asked me to come speak to their global sales team. And I said yes before I really thought about it. And then we got on a call with all these people talking about what it was going to be. And it became clear that it was a bigger deal than I thought it was. So they were flying me to their headquarters in San Francisco. It was going to be about 600 people in the audience for this thing, which is more people I had ever talked to you and it turned Out great. It was on the stage where Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone at yearbook way in the gardens And so one of the things that I was not really prepared for is that there is no hiding like you you're just on the stage You can barely see the audience because the way they have the thing lit So you have no idea if you're connecting with the audience where you had a podium or did they have no podium? No, there's no podium. You're just kind of like a TED talk. It's yeah. Wow. That's intimidating.
Speaker 2
I bet when they asked you, you think, okay, I'm going to go talk to a sales team and you're in an airport conference room.
Speaker 1
You're in a room with a table, like people around a table. That's what I was thinking. 100%. What a welcome to San Francisco. Yeah. It was a speech, it was fun. I got probably halfway through it and realized that the clock at my feet was counting down, not up. And so once I figured that out, I was like, okay, I'm okay. Cause I thought I was going too fast and then I thought I was going too slow. And I'm like, okay, I get it now. So a little more prep. I mean, and now one thing I definitely would recommend anybody going to talk to anybody is see the place. I always show up early if I'm talking, which is good. I got a flat tire on the way to one speech. I didn't have time to fix it, but I got somebody to pick me up.

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