Quick Confidence

6Harness High-Stakes Moments

A journalist once asked me my best advice for anyone getting ready to give a TED talk.

I said that preparing will feel like a three-month-long fever dream.

Ha! That might sound like an exaggeration, but I wasn't kidding.

Delivering my TEDx talk felt like the Empire State building of high-stakes moments for me. Going after this goal meant I could put an amplifier to ideas that could help people being marginalized at work and make a difference. And given the video format, it meant I'd be seen and heard.

At the time, I was bursting with determination to share my practical ideas for stopping gender bias at work. I applied to six or seven events around the world, and following a series of auditions, I was invited to speak at TEDxHartford.

Can you say #lifegoals?! What a high and an honor to be part of this world.

But the talk was intimidating, I won't lie. It was without a doubt one of those “put on your big girl pants” moments.

As the big day got closer, it turned out all of the days, weeks, and months of flipping through my floppy, dog-eared set of index cards on a metal ring paid off. There I stood, on a red dot, on the most beautiful stage I'd ever seen—in my fiercest blue dress—ready to give an 18-minute presentation by memory.

And I did it.

The talk was a success and, for me, it was a pivotal point that taught me the power of grabbing hold of a high-stakes opportunity and turning it into a real growth moment. While I don't have the craving to do ...