Oh c**p, I couldn’t load the program I needed… Here I was for my carefully prepared talk to the Association of Women In Science in Palo Alto, CA.

Since this is a science group (and because it’s really fun), I had planned to use my Voiceprint program to demonstrate the acoustics of voice projection towards the end of my presentation.

My regular slideshow was up and running on my Macbook just fine. But the Voiceprint program (a spectrograph representation of the frequencies in the voice) lives on my old PC laptop, which is still running Windows 7, and hadn’t been booted up in about 6 months.

I DID boot it up the day before so it could do that interminable Windows Update thing. Unfortunately, the next day, it had 78 MORE updates to install, which took FOREVER, and it was still slogging through that as I began my talk. Aaarrgghh!

I was about to let this really throw me. Instead, I remembered one of the things I teach my clients about presenting – people remember the unusual. And then I reminded myself, the audience wants you to succeed.

So, I made a joke out of checking on the PC several times during my talk.

By the time it finally finished updating and allowed me to load the program, some people were already leaving. I had a great time anyway, and the audience loved the presentation anyway. The people who stayed got to play with Voiceprint, and actually SEE when they were projecting their voices.

When something doesn’t go as planned, be up front about it with your audience. Improvise, make a joke about it, and keep going. Because people remember the unusual, it will actually make your talk MORE memorable and probably even more successful.

My clients are able to do this easily, because they understand how to Voice their Value with confidence, no matter what happens.

If you’d like to do that, too, let’s talk.

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Client Rave:  “Ariana, thank you for being my guiding light, my beam of hope for speaking with power, authority and confidence, and for helping me unblock my greatness. You are SO multi-talented, and I’d recommend you to everyone!” – Josephine Hanan

If you ‘d like to talk with me about the possibilities of working together, book a Voice Your Value Breakthrough Session! My treat. We’ll explore how to empower your authentic voice, reclaim parts of yourself that have been shushed and silenced, craft your compelling story, and brainstorm opportunities for business and personal growth, so you can step into YOUR greatness.