Hey everyone!  So, I’ve been doing a lot of autism videos lately, but I used to talk about other things on my channel too.  This week, I am actually getting ready to go give my first autism presentation of the season.  It is today that I am filming this.  It is March 27^th.  This video probably won’t be out for a couple weeks.  April is Autism Month.  April 2^nd is a big day and I will be out in force, doing a lot of public speaking – starting today and through April – and sitting on panels all over.  And YAY! I’ve got my “Red Instead” bright red gear on and my bright red shoes, and I’m ready to go walking red instead and all of that <<Ow! I just hit my ankle on the table. I am so clumsy!>>

In this week’s video, I just wanted to talk about something related to public speaking and being a presenter because these videos here, this is one thing.  This is actually much less prepared.  When I go deliver a presentation, what people don’t realize is there are hours and hours of work that go into that presentation.  There are goals and outcomes that go into that presentation.  Even before I start to put anything in the computer or on paper or in a Word document, there are hours that go into the brainstorming and figuring that out.  And then, once I start actually writing my presentation, I’m not winging it.  I’m going to spend hours typing up a draft, working with the draft, speaking through the draft a few times, reworking it, and then eventually I’ll put it on notecards.  This is just 30 minutes here.  50 pages of notecards is 30 minutes.  I have them on notecards while I memorize it, and I spend hours upon hours upon hours upon hours listening to myself recorded over and over again.  And then recording myself at least a couple times a day and even up to five times a day sometimes when it’s really close to a presentation.  So, it’s not like I’m just going to go up there and do a presentation for one hour.  There are so many, many hours that go into delivering a presentation.  And so, that’s what people really don’t understand sometimes – it’s a lot of prework that goes into the deliverables.

For a bigger presentation – I have one that is an hour and fifteen minutes long coming up in April, I’m actually doing that one twice on the 6^th – that presentation will have a PowerPoint because it’s a really long presentation, and so there will be visuals.  I will spend hours, multiple hours, creating that PowerPoint, although I did buy a really awesome PowerPoint template for, I think 18 or under $20, from a website called SlideCow.

(Shout out to another Neurodivergent business person out there.  SlideCow – this is not a plug … he doesn’t know I’m plugging him.  But SlideCow – that guy can do things with PowerPoint that I didn’t know PowerPoint could do.  I saw him doing a GoTo webinar tutorial talking about how to make better PowerPoint presentations, and then I went to his website and saw the templates I could download, and I had to have one when it was only $18, because it’s going to make my presentation look so awesome.  It would have taken me a lot of hours to do something like that, and I probably still couldn’t have done something that good.  So that is my new tip – PowerPoint templates, and so far, SlideCow seems to be a really great deal.)

And notecards, seriously!  I’m working on this, and I’m still changing it, but I’m changing it in my head now. This is just kind of like … I keep it in my hand to make sure I’m on track, but I’m not really reading it anymore.  I’d say this is 85% memorized right now, and after I get done with this video, I’m going to go through this maybe five more times – okay, I don’t have that much time, but I’m going to read through this at least two or three more times and I will have it 95% memorized by the first time I do this today.  And then I’m going to have two more of these for April 6^th to memorize AND the PowerPoint.  So that’s the thing you don’t see.  So that’s what I’m up to behind the scenes when I’m not doing videos, and why I haven’t been on social media nearly as much lately.  I’ve been trying to at least schedule posts so there’s things for people to read and enjoy, and the information and educational stuff is still coming out there.  But I haven’t really been around that much – I haven’t been reading as many comments and things because I’ve just been really pedal to the metal, ready for April, rockin’ and rollin’  So that’s what I’ve been up to.

Anyway guys, thank you so much for hanging out and peeking a little bit into the behind the scenes of my world as a presenter and content creator.  <<I gotta do that… I gotta go do that, so I’m going to log off>>  Anyway guys, thank you do much.  If you like this content, I have even more content on Patreon.  Members can subscribe for only $1/month.  I hope to see you next week.  Don’t forget to subscribe and turn on that notification so you don’t miss my posts, because otherwise you may never see it.  Bye guys.  Talk to you next time.

If you like what I do, and would like more, please consider subscribing on Patreon. Transcriptions above paid for by the Patreon Subscribers.  I truly appreciate you!