I pinched myself. Was someone pranking me?
Months ago, still heady with excitement after PSS 2025 in Mumbai, I, a novice speaker with no international professional speaking experience, had applied to speak at Trailblazers 2025, PSA NZ’s annual conference scheduled in September in Auckland.
Once I had filled out the form and clicked submit, I nearly forgot all about it, focusing instead on my nascent career as a standup comic and Co-CEO of Humor911, a humor collective which helps businesses use humor to enter new markets.
So, that email in my inbox telling me I had been selected as a speaker set my spidey-senses tingling.
But, after asking around (and checking the email headers to make sure I wasnÃt being scammed), I decided to take the plunge and make the trip to Auckland.
And let me tell you, I would have been kicking myself if I had not made the trip!
Even knowing that I was going to speak at Trailblazers made me get out of my comfort zone and reach out to companies with the offer to test my material with them in return for candid feedback. Almost everyone I reached to was very gracious about allowing me to speak to their teams.
The first half of September was spent fine-tuning my material and worrying about collaterals like my headshots and collecting copies of my book to share with conference attendees.
As luck would have it, I was delayed en route to Auckland due to a weather emergency in Hong Kong – which is a story for another day – but I reached the conference venue in the second half of Day 1, having missed the networking drinks the previous night.
That, though, was no barrier to making some amazing connections with speakers and leaders from Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and Germany who had made the trip to Trailblazers.
I learnt so much about the art and business of professional speaking – from finding our mission to establishing our brand to the relative merits of positioning oneself as a keynote speaker who offers training versus a trainer who does keynotes.
I must highlight the warmth and camaraderie of PSANZ who gave so selflessly of their time and energy to make us attendees from overseas feel welcome and loved. Every night, after the conference, we attendees would take over a portion of the hotel lounge and chat for hours about any and every topic. Those hours were as valuable to me, personally, as the time we got on stage to share our message.
Now that I’m back home, I find myself looking forward to seeing photos and videos that people are sharing on LinkedIn and the conference WhatsApp group.
In conclusion, if you are serious about growing as a speaker, just go to conferences like Trailblazers. The learnings and relationships you will build will far outweigh any imposter syndrome or worries you may have about the trip.
