Earlier this year I had the honor and privilege of standing before a large crowd of people at the JDRF “Unmask the Cure” Promise Ball in Scottsdale, Arizona with my daughter Emma to present our Fund a Cure speech.
This was the largest crowd – by far – that I’ve ever spoken in front of. It was an incredible experience from the get-go with creating, editing, practicing and finally presenting my speech. I learned a lot about myself in the process and was successful at pushing aside normal public speaking fears in the process.
The live video stream doesn’t begin until about 42 seconds in, but you can listen in the meanwhile. My sweet daughter introduced me and unfortunately part of her speech is missing.
She started by saying: “Thank you for coming tonight to this event which is near and dear to my heart – and even closer to my pancreas.“
She got everyone laughing for me – plus, I spoke after happy hour and everyone was in a jolly mood. At any rate, it’s less than 10 minutes if you have the time to give it a gander. You’ll learn more about me, my family and my take on Type 1 diabetes.
In the end I was humbled by the standing ovation I received – I wasn’t even aware it was happening because I was blinded by the bright lights on the stage.
