About a decade ago I stopped doing any public speaking at all. I stopped hosting podcasts. I stopped conducting interviews with awesome people. I stopped giving talks and presentations. I had reasons and I always intended to start back up again. At some point. When I felt ready.

Ready came and went. I did a few panels here and there when invited. I was a guest on a couple of podcasts when asked to. But other than that, silence. It wasn’t until last year that I started seeking out opportunities to start speaking again. It was just like riding a bicycle in that it had been years and I’d sat out in the rain and was rusty and wasn’t quite sure how to regain my balance or if I had hand breaks or needed to back-pedal.

But I did it. I remembered what it was like to submit talks, to build decks, to stand in front of a bunch of people and share with them something about which I am deeply passionate. And this year I was ready to go for round two. To add some finesse to what I was proposing and how I was presenting. To remember that I’m only scared until I get up and start sharing what I can with those who will listen.

And then… the global pandemic put us all on house arrest. Events were cancelled. People stopped planning. Opportunities to share my learnings seemed to fall back inside the magic hat of isolation covered with haze and sparkles.

Never one to let mystery stand in my way, I’m super excited to say that I’m going to be part of a few online experiences in the days and months to come.

First off is a Q&A on distributed community management hosted by PIE (Portland Incubator Experiment) co-founder Rick Turoczy. We’ll be chatting and answering questions from attendees Tuesday, April 14 at 5pm Pacific. If you’d like to come and hangout, watch, and chat, or if you happen to have a question I hope you’ll join me in my illustrious return to the world of live streaming content. It’s been a while. Let’s see if I can find my footing.

There are a couple of other fun talks in the works, if I’m feeling like a glutton for punishment I’ll share those here when I have them locked in.

Maybe.

Featured image by BRUNO CERVERA on Unsplash