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15 Comments

How was your first talk as a speaker?

Hi Indie Hackers!

I'm from Russia and on the last sunday I had the first talk (https://meetfeed.co/meetup/the-first-talk-on-meetup-about-meetfeed) on the international area.

My talk was about caring of your community. I gave some tips about how to improve your community and engage the attendees more. I shared my current metrics.

So, I felt nervous, of course. But this kind of challenges get useful feedback and improve your social skills!

How was your first talk as a speaker?😅

  1. 1

    My first talk went horribly wrong, I picked up the wrong notes from the other end of the room, and I couldnt talk, so I froze then tried to get a friend to help me. Not great!

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    Congrats on your first talk, Kirill!!

    My first talk as a speaker was back in 2014, at a small tech conference. It was really nervewracking. But I prepared a script which I rehearsed; I didn't memorize it but I knew the points I wanted to hit. I didn't use any slides (this was a tech culture talk that didn't require visuals) and it allowed me to be more engaging and interactive with my audience. I learned an incredible amount since but I've never stopped with outlines and scripts—they've helped me tremendously :)

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      Cheer sis!😊
      I think a prepared script never be superfluous😁 It was really helpful for me too.
      May I check your previous talks?

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        I don't have any recordings unfortunately!

        But some things that can help:

        1. Do a run-through with a friend or trusted colleague and ask for feedback
        2. Record yourself giving the talk and take notes afterwards, highlighting areas that can be improved
  3. 1

    Congrats on your first talk!

    If you only felt "nervous" then you did better than me!

    I had such a severe stomach ache and couldn't eat anything because I thought I would puke 🤣 To be honest I still get insanely nervous before speaking, especially for new talks.

    From talking to other speakers, most people still have this experience, even years into their speaking careers. The main thing that helps is practice and giving the same talk at multiple events.

    Have you planned your next one yet? :)

    1. 1

      Thanks!
      I prepared a script which I rehearsed repeatedly so as not to humiliate myself😂😊
      I have not received any other invitations yet😄
      Anyway, I had a new feeling and I plan to talk in public more in the future.

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    Congrats!
    I've held a number of talks so far - progressively sucking less each time!

    It seems that talks are like MVP's - if you're not nervous about it, you've waited to long to give that talk..

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      Thanks!
      With experience,confidence in performing is increasing, of course, but still every time, like the first time😅

      Yep! You right I was invited to talk about my product and myself, what motivated me to start building it as a side project.

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    I started my public speaking activites almost four decades ago, so I unfortunately no longer remember my first talk.

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      Haha! Cool👍 You are so experienced in this area!
      What do you motivated?

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        I work in astronomy and space outreach and education and I get to speak a lot at lectures, guided tours, telescope observing sessions, and so on. This is also my passion, so it's a big part of my motivation.

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          Very interesting! Do you publish it to the public access?

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            Thanks. I'm not sure I understand what you mean by publishing to the public access. Publishing videos of my outreach activities?

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                I don't do video recordings of my otreach activities, but sometimes the organiations or projects I work for do. Like this video showing me doing astronomy lecture as part of an art exhibition I worked for. I'm the guy with eyeglasses and, um, not much hair next to the whiteboard and the telescope.

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