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.