When I am first invited to speak/workshop/speech-ify anywhere by anyone, I usually say yes before the other person has even finished his or her sentence.
4) Go on stage and smile a lot. Speak and present, pause and listen.
(I have learnt now to take my time, to delay answering the e-mail, to ask a few questions on the phone…but I know I have agreed way before I give away the fact that I have agreed.)
It is a childhood fantasy, as well as an adult fantasy to be on stage with a microphone, talking and smiling. (I should smile less, I tell myself, as I try to learn to be more like others who seem more successful at this sort of thing. Who are more serious-faced and seem to be taken more seriously!)
So here are my 5 stages of public speaking:
1) Agree immediately. Think of what I will wear.
2) Do nothing much to prepare. Scribble some notes in my phone, which I will later forget to look at.
3) Become unable to sleep/eat/talk/socialise just before the event. Feel nauseous, ill, stricken, headache, lose my way to the airport/venue and get late. This is what the descent to hell must feel like…
4) Go on stage and smile a lot. Speak and present, pause and listen. 5) I’m a born-again human being! I can eat a little. I am alive. I am good! Hello world, I made it to the other side.
My Daughters' Mum 
Love the coolness the saree seems to be emitting. What a lovely color combination and absolutely love the jhumkas. Would like to hear your talk one day.
Ha ha.. this is me before doing anything out of routine and of the slightest importance 🙂 All 5 steps! You look lovely in the pictures. With a smile like that, you can get away with any content;) Is there a recorded presentation that I can watch?