Avoiding the Most Embarrassing Mistake as a Public Speaker

Speakers are exposed to some of the most uncomfortable and sometimes harrowing experiences.  Some of these experiences range from just annoying to the most frightening!  And why do we speakers allow ourselves to be subjected to such nightmares: because we care about our work, our performance and our clients.  We put everything we have into our content and our presentation.

Hearing about other speakers’ nightmare experiences (or seeing for ourselves) can be valuable learning lessons for the rest of us.  Case in point; I sat in a speaker’s presentation one time and learned a valuable lesson that I will remember forever.  The speaker wore white pants and a print shirt, and he moved actively about the room.

Unfortunately for this speaker, he had a horrible stain on his pants and everyone could see it… except for him.  All of the audience was now focused on the awful stain and not his message.  I felt so uncomfortable that I nearly left the presentation.  What I learned from that incident was to always check, re-check and double check my appearance, and don’t wear white pants!

I compiled this eBook so that others could learn from the mistakes, mishaps and unfortunate instances

experienced by some of the top speakers in the industry.  Although some of what you are about to read could not have been avoided, many of the stories will help you prepare for the next time you are the speaker.

What follows is an entry from the ebook I compiled, "Speakers' Worst Nightmares," a compilation of the nightmares submitted by speakers who answered my call for stories from some of the top speakers in various industries. It's my own contribution to the ebook and an actual experience I had that affected me for a long time and taught me some very critical lessons. To download a copy of the ebook containing all of the harrowing experiences, click this link.

I moved from New England to Tennessee and began to develop my speaking business in a new territory.  Thanks to a referral that had seen me speak in Nashville, I was hired by a large social service agency in Chattanooga, TN to speak to their membership.  The audience size was projected to reach nearly 100 practitioners, counselors and therapists and they were paying me well.

On the day of the event, I set out on the nearly 2.5 hour drive from Nashville to Chattanooga with my presentation ready to go.  I had spent the 2 weeks prior to this day, crafting a unique Power Point and lecture that was sure to educate the large group on the reasons behind classic challenging behavior in young children.  I was feeling very confident that the event would be a success.

The long drive down Interstate 24 was a comfortable ride and one had I had taken a few times before with my family on vacation.  It was a long and straight road and it gave me the opportunity to review my note cards for my presentation, practicing my lecture in the privacy of my car.

Some construction along the way slowed traffic down and it ate up all of my extra time that I had set aside to relax at a coffee shop near the location of my final destination in Chattanooga.  My presentation was set to begin at 6 p.m. and a quick look at my wrist watch told me that it was 5 p.m.  I had another 30 minutes of travel time before I would arrive at the facility.  That would put me there with a fairly comfortable 30 minutes to set up my laptop and begin my lecture.

But then something awful happened.  I suddenly saw a sign that read NOW ENTERING THE EASTERN TIME ZONE!  I was 30 minutes outside of Chattanooga and I had just lost 1 hour of time, crossing the time zone from west to east.  My relaxed state of knowing that I would arrive 30 minutes before ‘show time’ was instantly replaced with the dread that I would instead, arrive 30 minutes late!

In a sudden state of panic, I stepped on the gas, well exceeding the posted speed limit, speeding down the highway.  I was very lucky not to have passed any police cars as I flew down the road, finally pulling up in front of the building.  I was 30 minutes late as I rushed into the room where the lecture was to be held.  At the back of a huge room filled with empty folding chairs, two women were covering dishes of food that was spread out on a long table.  They stopped their busy work and looked up at me as I walked in.  I instantly saw immense disappointment on their faces.

With incredible embarrassment, I apologized profusely for being so late.  I blamed it on the time zone change and then realized they didn’t care.  I offered to do the lecture at a later date and free-of-charge  for my huge error.  They accepted and I headed back out on the road for the long and depressing ride home.  I returned 3 months later to conduct the presentation at no charge to a group one third the size of the original group.  I paid close attention to time zone changes for the rest of my speaking career.

Bill Corbett is the author of the book From the Soapbox to the Stage:How to Use Your Passion to Start a Speaking Business.  He is an award-winning professional speaker who has been speaking since 1995 and has been on stages across the U.S. and abroad for everything from brief lectures, to keynote speeches, to multi-day training events.