Lighting Up Stories
I’ve always loved Charlie Brooker, I was an addict of his show Charlie Brooker Screenwipe – originally on the BBC and then moved to Channel 4: it was sharp, funny, satirical and analytical: everything I love. Black Mirror has made its mark in the TV …
“The question is not whether or not we are capable of making AI more intelligent than us. The question is, will we be able to live with it?” – Dr. Robert Ford, Westworld (2016). This line from the thought-provoking TV series Westworld perfectly captures the …
Who’s not afraid of talking in front of random people ?
And if I hear ‘Hey I’m not !’ It’s because you’ve done it before.
So here is the deal, you have an important pitch, an interview in front of a panel of people or even bigger…. a public speaking gig and you don’t know how the hell you’re going to survive this.
BREATHE. You’ve got this.
Here are 10 ways to get you started.
Oh gosh. There’s nothing worse than getting in front of people when you don’t know:
a) what to expect.
b) when you don’t know your subject.
So first, do some research. Find out what you have to talk about.
Secondly, ask for how long you’ll be interviewed for.
My best interviews are the ones when the host told me as many details as possible beforehand. Then I know what I will be talking about. I can get my bullet points ready. When I say BULLET POINTS I mean it. I don’t prepare a speech ever. I prepare KEYWORDS.
For an interview, I try to prepare all the questions they could ask me.
For a pitch or a gig, I prepare all the major points to highlight.
Prepare your subject inside out. Know it. Own it. Breathe it.
Before going to a new classroom, I FEEL the space.
I send greetings to it and to the people to come.
I become one with the walls, the desk, the stage, the mousepad and the computer. I prepare a magic bubble.
When my energy settles in, that’s it baby, I’m in.
But what if you don’t have access to the room beforehand?
Can you google the room or place? Can you arrive a bit earlier?
If you can’t, simply close your eyes and visualize the space, the people, and see yourself completely at ease in it.
If you have a pitch, pitch it to everyone you know.
Let them ask you questions and answer them.
If can’t answer their questions, do your homework and get ready.
Make an effort for your audience as if you were going on a date. Because it’s kind of a date anyway.
However you don’t want to wear something that is not you. If you never wear high heels, it’s not the time to try them out. Just be the best version of yourself. Enough to breathe confidence.
Don’t think too much of how you look though. Focus on what you are for, on the message you need to deliver. Focus on your audience not on how you look.
Before you get dressed, blast some Led Zep and dance, get some steam off.
Enough to feel so damn good. You need to have a high level of energy.
Have you ever come across a teacher or a speaker that has no enthusiasm whatsoever? It sends you right to sleep or make you think of your to do list. The last thing you want is to bore your audience.
Enthusiasm is contagious. Remember this.
Don’t say ‘I’m nervous’. Your brain is listening and as a result, it will make you sweat and stutter.
Instead tell yourself: ‘I’m so excited’. Your brain will also be listening and will help to go through it with ease.
They’re not your enemies. They want to learn from you.
They want to be inspired, to be motivated, to be enlightened. They want to spend a good time with you and you with them.
So send them love, you’re on the same page.
If you can, make eye contact with them, smile, send them good vibes. I promise you they’re going to feel it.
I teach a lot. And as it happens, I really love my 100+ students each year and the former ones too. I love their beautiful bright minds and as a result, I get brilliant results from my students, no one drops my class and they send me so much LOOOOve.
Boredom is your worst enemy.
The brain is sensitive to contrast. Therefore, in your speech, try to be lively.
Speak slow and then fast, crack a joke, be thoutful. Change your tone.
Mix your presentation. Have slides, film extracts, games, jokes and try to improvise if you can.
Don’t bore them with details or long anecdotes about your life. They don’t care. It’s all about them baby.
Be respectful in your speech of course but also with their time. They’re hear to learn something. They want a takeaway.
Figure out what they need and give it to them. They need to come out of your speech totally transformed.
One of the best seminar I have assisted in my life was ‘Breaking into Script Reading’ with Lucy V. Hay. I was a different person when I came out of this. Life changing.
My first live gig, I’m not going to lie to you. I was awful.
My first class, I was nervous as hell, my body was shaking, I was stuttering and sweaty. A nightmare.
Fortunately, I had no choice, I had to show up every week, so after a while, the shaking stopped. It took me years to feel at ease. Now I can say that I am a truly blessed teacher who has a blast with her students.
After my awful first gig, I had another one and another one and another one. I started to chill. Even better, I started to enjoy it. A few years back, no way I was going to say that!
Practice makes it perfect they say. I say practice makes it better.
And also, don’t forget that those events are wonderful opportunities to meet wonderful people. They can create new openings, new job opportunities, new luck in your life, so go for it!
By the way, here is my last gig and gosh I loved doing it. I hope they’re going to call me again next year!
Some of my friends told me they wanted to give up on their writing career. I know that they have been working very hard for more than 15 years. They wrote screenplays and published some novels. Yet, they don’t see the light at the end …
Photo by Jan Vasek @ Pixabay ‘I have an idea for a film, a book, a play’… ‘Great! When do you start writing your first draft?’ Silence… Usually followed by: ‘Ah, it’s a complex story, I need to do more research’ or ‘Yes when I …
I have never liked January and its New Year resolutions time. I don’t see the point. Each year is what you DAILY make it… for 365 days.
Many times, I saw people making plans and giving them up after a few weeks…
‘Man makes plans… and God laughs’ wrote the Author and Screenwriter Michael Chabon.
Why do we expect so much from ourselves?
Is it to justify our presence on Earth?
I often find answers in Nature.
I love observing Nature around me, trees especially. In shamanism, they are called ‘The Plant people and the Standing People’.
Trees grow tall and strong knowing their purpose. They don’t ask themselves ‘What should I do with my life?’
They just are. They exist and make the world better (by providing oxygen for instance).
Us, the human kind, we have a brain and a heart. With these gifts, we should know what to do. Yet, we probably are the only species on Earth wondering what our purpose is.
Life is chaos.
I know what I’m talking about. Within two years, I lost my home, my beloved country, some close friends, my dignity, and my husband. None of these events were planned or thought. None of these things were part of my ‘plan’. They just happened to me.
Yes, life is chaos and any form of co-creation (coming from the heart) is a way to express or explain this chaos.
When you lose it all, you see everything clearly.
First you see who are ‘your allies’, to quote my dear friend and mentor Lucy V. Hay (Bang2Write). The allies are the ones who pick you up when you fall but also help you to fight back. ‘You can’t do without them’, she says. She is right. As always.
My other Friend and mentor, Kary Oberbrunner, wrote it in his life-changing book Unhackable that there are three types of people:
The Consumer, the critic, the creator.
The consumer consumes, probably to feed their emptiness with stuff.
The critic critics. Spotting the mistakes in others reassures them.
And Creators create. To me, this type is never reassured. They try, they test, and stumble often but they know their purpose. When creators let go of expectations, they become unrestricted and inspiring.
When you hit rock bottom, your needs become simple: food, shelter and love.
If you have those three things in your life, it’s a blessing. Millions of people on Earth do not have that.
When you fall, you realised that friends and family are what count in life.
On your death bed, the number of zeros on your bank account or your job title will do nothing for you. People make the difference.
People you love are the ones who are going to make your life meaningful.
That’s why I have changed the name of my website. It used to be called Inside the Writers Bubble but I felt quite lonely inside my bubble.
My friend and Shaman Catherine Maguire (https://www.inlightenment.it/) said to me,’ your gift is to light other people’s light, you’re a pilot light’. From there, another dear friend – the author Sally Bibb and my brother-in-law – Daniel helped me to put the pieces together.
And that’s how Pilot Light Writing is born.
We can’t do it on our own.
I am not interested in consuming or criticising.
I’m interested in bringing love into everything I do, so I can help other people who love what they do, to shine too.
We can’t get rid of the darkness or the shadow in this world. We can only bring light inside it.
So be shiny my friend. x
This post is dedicated in loving memory of my late husband, who will be missed forever.
Photo montage by Daniel Gardiner Dot 1: Books are Magical Things It’s not you who choose a book, it’s the book that chooses you. Have you ever come across a book that matches exactly how you felt? Or answered a question that you had in …