I delivered a 20 minute 401(k) enrollment presentation to my company today at our staff meeting. This was a trial for me, because my boss wants me to start doing this for our clients, but I needed to prove that I would be proficient at it before he "lets me out into the wilderness," as he put it.

It may sound odd, but I was waaaay more anxious to present in front of my coworkers than I would be to present to a roomful of complete strangers. The fact is that the people at my company have about 150 years' combined experience in the retirement planning field, so I was more than a little intimidated to talk to them about something they already know so well. Conversely, I know that if I deliver the same presentation to a roomful of factory workers, secretaries, or hairdressers, I'm pretty much guaranteed to be the only one in the room who is well-versed on the subject of retirement investing.

Let me tell you, I've been practicing my ass off for the past two weeks and I have never been so glad for that fact as I was today. I don't think I've ever felt so panic-stricken in my life, but I did it! Granted, for about ten minutes just leading up to my piece, I was almost totally convinced I was going to have a major panic attack right then and there in our conference room. Either that, or I was going to get up in front of everyone, all eyes looking at me expectantly, and then completely forget every word of what I planned to say. Oh, yeah---they filmed me with a camcorder, too. And you know how much I love being on film, right? Ugh.

The good news is I didn't have a panic attack, though I had to really fight the urge to start hyperventilating just as I was asked to stand up at the front of the room. I also remembered all my lines. After numerous rehearsals, my mind was pretty much on auto-pilot today. I just opened my mouth and everything came out as planned. Everyone came up to me after the meeting and commented on how poised and well-prepared I was, which was lovely to hear, because I certainly didn't feel poised on the inside!!

The bad news is my boss planted some really hard, obscure questions with my coworkers for the Q&A session after my speech, which I didn't realize until after the meeting. They HAMMERED me with questions, some of which I truthfully had no answers to. But that's actually a good thing, because I learned how to handle not knowing the answers. It's not the end of the world if I don't know it all, and most audiences won't expect me to know it all. I simply said, "I don't know the answer to that, but I'll look into it and get right back to you, okay?"

I would even go so far as to say that I feel positively euphoric now that this "trial" is behind me. After my presentation, I met The Huz for lunch at one of my favorite restaurants to celebrate the fact that's it's OVER!

Also, I know he carries a can of deodorant in his gym bag, and believe me when I say I desperately needed a few quick sprays of that shit. Because today I had sweat dripping out of places on my body that I didn't even realize COULD sweat!

Labels: accomplishments, marriage, work