Henna Pryor

Number one is preparation.

That one thing that will help you feel less awkward about anything where possible is prep.

There's going to be unexpected moments that we'll have to deal with in real time.

Then we work on our comeback rate.

But for the things that feel awkward that we can prepare for, a presentation, a difficult conversation,

preparation is underused, even though it's obvious.

But the second thing, your story reminded me of, there's a great story that Simon Sinek tells, and this comes back to our asking for help.

He tells this story about how he was speaking on stage and in the middle of his remarks, blanked completely, just blank.

He forgot what he was supposed to say next.

And you know what he did in that moment?

He asked the audience for help.

He said, this is embarrassing.

I have just completely blanked out.

I completely have forgotten what I'm talking about, what I'm supposed to say next.

Can someone remind me what I was just talking about?

So an audience member shouted out and said, you were just talking about this.

And he said, ah, yes, it was that.

And he got back on track.

He then goes on to share later, that was one of his most highly rated speaking events that he's ever done.

The audience loved that he had this human voice