Last night, for the first time since Covid happened, I spoke in front of a live audience, face-to-socially-distanced-face. I was facilitating a sales training for a local women's business accelerator, helping six women think through and solve sales problems they are seeing in their businesses. It's a training I've been doing for years, and I always enjoy it—working with other business owners gives me juice to go back and work harder on my own businesses—but last night was different. Last night was F-ing Awesome. (I even texted that to Brian after I finished, but I spelled out the F-word because that's who I am.)
It shouldn't have been awesome. We were doing the training in a warehouse, so we could all be many feet away from each other. The air conditioning was questionable at best, so I sweat through my shirt, and I'm not someone who sweats much (seriously, sweat was running down my back like I was in the middle of a four-hour workout.) The acoustics were terrible, and not helped by the 14 fans that were running (see above about the air conditioning), and the sound from the mic I was using almost reached the back of the room. The class was smaller than it had ever been, with only six women, one of whom who was on Zoom. They were trying to get the class done in as few live sessions as possible, so I was sharing time with three other presenters, and had just 45 minutes to cover about three hours of material. And, because of meeting-size limitations in Kentucky, I had to leave as soon as I was done, to make room for the next presenter instead of sticking around for follow-up questions. With all those considerations, it should have been a train wreck.
But it wasn't. It was glorious to be in a room where I could walk around and make real-life eye contact with other humans, instead of being pinned to my desk and webcam. It was wonderful for them to be able to raise their hands and ask questions and us not talk all over each other, which happens in every Zoom meeting I have. It was beautiful to feel the fellowship among the women and the organic discussions that came up, even if they had to be shouted over the hum of box fans. It was everything I remember loving about live, face-to-face presentations, and more, because it felt so precious after so many months without, and I knew it could be a long time before I had this opportunity again. I left that warehouse, sweaty and hoarse, soaked with sweat and practically vibrating with energy and excitement. I'd gotten to do what I loved again, and it felt F-ING AMAZING.