Last week, I came across this article. It’s about ‘the secrets of success in life’. According to this article, if you want to have success in life, you should get out of our comfort zone. I don’t know if it’s true, but this week I did get out of my comfort zone… Big time!

I had to give a presentation about a design I made for mega church Bethel (in Dutch: Vrije Baptistengemeente Bethel, Drachten). During the past, I gave many presentations, but none of them had an attendance of 400 people. And none of them were filmed by five cameras. This one did. Oh, there was an official photographer also.

As the title of this post suggests, I don’t like the spotlight. At least, that’s what I thought. This is one of the reasons I’m director. I enjoy being backstage. But as (soon to be) architect, it’s important to be on stage. To give presentations. To be, sort of, a public figure.

Anyway, since I was quite nervous for this presentation, I decided to go for a bike ride during the entire afternoon. This cleared my mind and allowed me to prepare my lines. Which, I believe, went well. That evening, the moment I stepped on stage… after I did my first line… and second line… I started to really enjoy being on stage. I saw the audience was engaged. Overall, time flew by and the presentation went great! Maybe I do like the spotlight after all…

Below are some video stills (from the video recording).

Moment of truth… first seconds on stage…

…I’m still a little nervous…

… and more relaxed already…

… I even had a couch to sit back and relax…

… I gave a live virtual tour of the new design…

… And time’s up… Questions? Anyone?…

…Body language during the Q&A…

…More body language.