![]() ![]() I wasn't interested in talking much back then. How will you do that as a job?" The rest of the class agreed, so 11-year-old me scratched that career off my mental list I decided that maybe I could just be a writer because that's the part of journalism that appealed to me the most. Then, my teacher responded, "But you don't even talk. I told the class I was thinking about being a journalist or a news reporter. One time, my teacher asked us what careers we wanted to pursue when we got older. I didn't speak that much in middle school I continued to do the same thing in other church performances, and people eventually stopped asking me to do anything on the church stage. She essentially sang alone while I cried in the background. Once my mom signed my little sister and me up to sing in front of the church. The church I attended loved having events that involved the kids doing some kind of presentation. They often get a little carried away with religion, but I digress. It's just a Christian denomination that goes to church on Saturday and observes the Sabbath. I grew up Seventh-day Adventist Christian. Okay, maybe you watched the video and thought, "This girl is not scared of the stage." I can prove that I'm not cosplaying as a shy, introverted, awkward black girl through a few anecdotes. This is advice I wish I had found in an article years ago. This is practical advice from the perspective of someone with actual stage fright. This isn't your average "imagine people in their underwear" advice because that's never worked for me. So, I'm writing this blog post not to brag but to share tips on speaking in front of people, even if you're scared. This experience helped me to see that I can speak on stage in front of many people and do it well. The person in the video seemed calm, knowledgeable, confident, and fun. The person in the video had traits I've always wanted but felt I couldn't achieve. I almost couldn't believe the person in the recorded video was me. I re-watched my segment days later, and honestly, they were right. I concluded that folks were lying to make me feel better or that maybe I did a good job. I favorited a few of their tweets and then closed the app. I went on Twitter to see friends and mutuals cheering me on. I continued to tell everyone backstage that I did a bad job, but oddly everyone fervently disagreed. "I messed up," I whispered to the team member. Once my segment was over, I walked off the stage with one of the production team members as directed. I ruined it, and lots of people saw me ruin it – or so I thought. Until I made a mistake and suddenly became very aware of my existence. Although I was nervous, everything was going well. The lights were blinding, my mouth was dry even though I had drank water earlier, and I went on autopilot – mindlessly repeating the words I had practiced. I could challenge myself to speak for a few minutes, right? When my skip manager asked me to join the keynote, he assured me that I would only have to speak for a few minutes and I would share the stage with other Hubbers, including the CEO, so I hesitantly agreed. Thousands of people would watch, and I was announcing one of GitHub's most innovative products – "Hey, GitHub," a voice-activated AI pair programmer. Prior to that, I delivered four in-person presentations and a myriad of virtual talks. Most notably, I delivered part of the keynote at GitHub Universe, GitHub's annual conference. In 2022, I did something I never thought I would do – stand on a stage and speak to a large audience. ![]()
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