Thoughts on Critiquing Your Own Speeches

What’s harder than public speaking? Watching yourself public speaking.

Whenever I give a speech, I get a recording of my presentation. I then work up the nerve to watch. There’s a part of me that really doesn’t want to know how I did. Before I watch, I am in a state of blissful ignorance. And then I roll the tape. 

Watching is a form of self-torture. Remember “Mean Girls,” the Tina Fey comedy from 2004? Suddenly, I am my own mean girl. Like Regina George and her high-school clique, aka The Plastics, I relentlessly critique, judge and pick at everything. 

There is no such thing as hitting below the belt as I critique the sound of my voice (if that’s how I really sound, may I never speak again) and my weight. (Please, let it be true that the camera adds pounds that aren’t there.) Oh, and that belt I am wearing — not loving it! 

Mercifully, the video ends. The images dissolve and with them goes my confidence, and any desire to ever stand and deliver again.

Still, I routinely arrange speaking appearances for myself. I get the recordings and I force myself to watch. There is no getting around it. If you want to promote yourself, your ideas and your business, then get better at public speaking.