I’ve landed in HOTlanta; the first thing I did upon landing back in the USA was shove a Five Guys burger down my gullet and it was an incredibly enriching experience. In all seriousness, its nice to be back in some familiarity – despite the fact that I’ve never been to Atlanta before.

Moving on to the topic of presentations, there are a few points I’d like to touch on. First, my strengths. I think in general, my communication skills are pretty good. While often goofy in nature, I think that I can hold conversations and communicate my thoughts. It terms of presenting, I think I do a good job of not reading word-for-word off the slides. Often, I try to engage with my audience, which is good too.

As hard as it is to admit, I don’t think that I am great public speaker overall. First off, my memory is horrendous. Any preparations that I make for my presentations before hand are almost always thrown right out the window. This really causes me to lose my train of thought. Also, and I’m not sure if this is a strength or weakness, I feel like I make my presentations personable. This is bad in terms of a professional presentations because I often find myself not hitting key points.

If I could improve something with my presenting, I wish I’d be able to just slow down. Though it seems like this could never be the case, I do get a little nervous presenting. I think if I were able to slow downs, all of my wrinkles would iron themselves out.

Overall, being able to go into a company, do an information reconnaissance, and present my findings was a really unique experience. I think my big take away is my knowledge about the steps for creating a great presentation – all of the stages, all of the mishaps. Collecting info. Learning, adapting, and changing. It was an awesome experience.

Last, a quote from one of the best comedians of our time, Jerry Seinfeld:

“According to most studies, people’s number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two. Does that sound right? This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you’re better off in the casket than doing the eulogy. ”