From time to time things come together last minute and in a hurry. I can’t say i’m against this because clients typically that do this know what they want and are ready to make things happen and have all their ducks in a row. This was the case for NMAPC which stands for National Maintenance Agreements Policy Committee they work hand in hand with some of our nations largest unions. They contact me after seeing my TEDx talk and wanted me to stand before all of the unions and help break stigmas surrounding substance use and abuse.
First off, let me say this. The venue was hands down the nicest venue i've stepped inside. I’ve attached a few pictures for you to see. NMAPC put on a very professional event that honored unions who have had continuous days with no injuries on the job. My parents are in the trucking industry and I know from them that safety is always the top priority and not having any injuries is extremely difficult to accomplish. I got to meet some people who were very familiar with the Central Valley of California where I am from.
The speech portion was actually extremely difficult for a couple reasons. As beautiful as the Washington Cathedral is, it being such a tall and entirely concrete building the acoustics were not ideal for giving a speech. One thing i’ve learned over time is when you have a room that is brick or concrete the sound will bounce off of every wall and you will hear everything 2-3 times and it ends up blending all of the words together and it makes it extremely difficult for the audience to focus. As a speaker you can feel when a crowd is engaged to you or if they are in and out or not even paying attention at all. When I can’t read the audience it makes my timing and cadence extremely difficult. When a crowd is loose I usually speed up my cadence to get attention, when they are super focused I can slow down and take more time and don’t have to emphasize different portions of my speech to engage them.
When I started my speech the biggest struggle I had was the noise coming from away from the audience. The waiters and waitresses were talking and clanging plates and silverware the entire time. Again, the Cathedral being concrete all of their conversations and clanging echoed through the hall while I was speaking making it even harder to engage the audience. I could definitely tell that the front of the audience was locked in for most of the speech but with the lighting setup I could quite see past the middle section. I know that I left there feeling like I was not able to do my best. I don’t think that means I didn’t do a good job or that people weren’t listening, it just means I wish it was at a conference hall and it wasn’t a night time event where people have been drinking. It’s very rare for me to walk away wanting things to have been better. I’m so hard on myself when it comes to that because I take my message so serious. I’m so incredibly grateful for the opportunity that I was given by the NMAPC. The event was by far the nicest run event and the venue was incredibly beautiful. I hope that we work together in the future on some more substance abuse related issues.
Thank you NMAPC
