Finally, my belated post about my experience at MoMondays. I was invited by the lovely Stephanie Staples, at a week’s notice, to come and speak. Of course I was quite terrified, but I had wonderful help from my coaches Berni Xiong and Anna Coleshaw-Echols.

I practised all week, wrote out bullet points, compressed and expanded them and recorded myself. My patient coaches listened and counselled and suggested improvements. All very exciting.

Monday came. My husband, son and I went to Sam’s Place, the bookstore/drop-in centre/restaurant where most of the MoMonday events take place. A wonderful local musician named Dan Deurbrouck played (and I calmed my nerves by going up and harmonising with him for “A Horse With No Name” – yes, seventies nostalgia was very much on the menu!).

I was the first speaker. I came up, put my notes on the stand, and launched into a completely different talk from the one I had practised so faithfully.

The main points were the same, of course. I talked about the Resistance and the Lizard Brain, about some salient points in my life (apparently my comment “when in doubt, have a baby” struck a particular chord with some people), about conquering fear by catastrophising – what is the worst that can happen? And how likely is that worst case scenario to come true?

My audience was wonderful. You do meet the nicest people at MoMondays, and they are the best audience ever. They laughed and responded and were engaged every minute. My husband told me afterwards he had no idea I was so funny. Clearly I need to do this more often!

I would be remiss not to mention the other speakers. I was highly honoured to be sharing a stage with Ingrid Reid, who lost 100 lbs; Theo Heineman, who dropped everything to spend a year as a volunteer on the Mercy Ships; and last but not least, Tim Hague Sr., winner of the Canadian version of The Amazing Race. You can read all about these wonderful people on Stephanie’s blog. If you are local, you can get tickets there for the next MoMondays – if there are any left. MoMondays ALWAYS sell out.

Yes, public speaking can be an addiction, and I drank the Kool-Aid deeply that night. Who knows where this new-found passion will take me? Stay tuned!