I remember in high school, in my speech and debate class, I had to give a short talk on a subject of our choice. I picked cockroaches because I wanted the crowd to be as uncomfortable as I was throughout the entire thing. I told myself that I would never, ever do that again.
In 2017, my big scary goal was to overcome that fear and be able to speak in front of crowds. I joined Toastmasters and signed up for every conference I felt qualified for. For every single one of them, I spent days ahead of time trying to talk myself out of doing the presentation, and I would give in, do it, and find myself still alive at the end.
I kept speaking, mostly about imposter syndrome, systems and processes, and WordPress. I was a backup speaker for WordCamp Asia this year and will talk at WordCamp Buffalo and WordCamp Canada. I am very proud to be given these opportunities and to know that I put in the work to reach a point where I could stand up and speak about what I know about sharing, teaching, and learning.
Here’s to overcoming your fears and conquering the world!