I just finished a mini-tour of four rural schools about an hour outside of Ottawa.

Sometimes I think I must look like some sort of exotic iguana rolling my presentation case up to the venerable doors of these tiny schools.

I guess if I thought much about it, I’d get nervous, but you get a certain amount of confidence after twenty years of storytelling that calms down any butterflies that want to start fluttering in your stomach.

So much of presenting is simply about voice control.

Modulating your voice in such a way that the audience instantly recognizes that they’re in the presence of someone who knows what they’re talking about.

And behind that confidence, is the knowledge that you’ve done the presentation so many times to so many different groups that most likely the appeal is universal.

Use your voice to control the audience.

When they get a bit rowdy or carried away, that’s when you can raise your voice ever so slightly, even to the point of ‘slightly yelling’ just to get the group back under control and then as soon as they’re back with you, lower your voice and continue as before.

It’s very important to lower your voice, not to keep the presentation at a high volume because what a lowered voice does is it allows you to convey more nuance in terms of emotion.

By playing your voice, like an instrument, pausing at key moments, building the suspense, slowing down and getting very quiet at key moments, you’ll actually engage your audience much better than if you spend the whole hour yelling at them!

But that depends on ensuring that what you’re sharing is something the kids really want to hear.

Going into these rural schools I thought the best approach would be to do my A New Life/Coming to Canada presentation. It talks about my journey of becoming an author and contains a lot of wholesome themes of over coming obstacles and taking advantage of learning opportunities.

The coolest thing, is somewhere between about the five minute mark and the ten minute mark, the audience no longer sees the hijab, or my shalwar kameez, they no longer see me as exotic.

They’re right with me, on the journey that I’m taking them.

And that’s precisely what I’m aiming for.

Oh, I’m so fortunate! I love meeting so many interesting people in my travels!

And getting paid for what you love to do…that’s just the icing on the cake.