A short first-person anecdote by Vince Reed about his first speaking event. He describes intense nervousness—worrying attendees wouldn't show and that the software might fail—refusing to leave his hotel room until his right-hand man convinced him to attend a meet-and-greet, where attendees greeted him enthusiastically, easing some tension while he remained focused on delivering a strong event.
This was my first event. I didn't even send emails out to verify, to check if people were going to show up. Now I remember when we got to the hotel, right, I was already nervous about this being my first event. I was nervous because I didn't see the software. And most importantly, I hope people actually show up. And I remember my right hand man, you know, he said, hey, we've got a meet and greet. And I remember being terrified and I literally refused to leave the room. And finally my right hand man is like, man, you've got to go. He's like dragging me out and. And I finally leave. I'm so nervous because in my head, no one is going to be at this event. All of these people kind of come around this corner and you know, they're like, vince, what's going on? You know, we love the company. We're so excited that you had this event. Literally at that moment, my tension went from up here to down here. I was still in the middle because I still had to produce and deliver on an amazing event that I, you know, had promised. And also, you know, in the back of my mind was, man, is this software going to even be what I expect it to be?
