I Had to Serve the Audience Soup

I Had to Serve the Audience Soup

It was pumpkin soup too. Oh, lovely. I just know this is going to end up all over me.

I’m one of those people who usually avoids white shirts because they never seem to stay all white. Whether spaghetti sauce or coffee splatters, it will find its way to my shirt. And today, I am wearing, you guessed it, a white shirt.

The event manager pointed me to the giant pot of steaming pumpkin soup and showed me a pan of tortellini. Some of the guests would want tortellini in their soup and others wouldn’t.

Meanwhile, the stage manager is handing me a headset and a wireless clicker. Thank goodness I won’t be expected to use a handheld mic to deliver my presentation. It’s bad enough I have a clicker in one hand and a soup ladle in the other.

As the founder of Innovation Women, an online "visibility" bureau, it's my job to connect speakers with speaking opportunities. While I do a fair amount of speaking myself, I’m more focused on getting our Innovation Women members onstage. But in this case, I’m thankful it is me, and the soup, and a rather demanding audience.

The audience is completely invisible to me. They are on the other side of the Automat wall. Like a giant vending machine, an automat is a row of windowed boxes through which customers get food. I’m in the industrial kitchen behind the wall. I’m scooping pumpkin soup out of a giant pot and dumping it into white bowls. Approximately every third or fourth bowl, I’m setting aside the ladle, picking up a set of silver tongs and adding tortellini to the soup. Then I set the bowl in the box and move on to the next order. A customer retrieves the soup by opening a window on their side of the wall.

And, all the while, I'm trying to keep up the running commentary on digital marketing. No one can know that I am juggling a speaking engagement and dishing out soup.

The tortellini are blue.

Welcome to one of my speaker anxiety dreams. I’m an introvert and speaking is vaguely uncomfortable for me, often manifesting itself in bizarre dreams. I’ve also had dreams where I show up at the wrong place, in my pajamas, have the wrong presentation or forget what I am supposed to be speaking about. And yet, I keep booking these speaking engagements because…

-- It’s the right thing to do. We need more women to get onstage at conferences and events, to serve as inspiration and role models for the next generation. In the past few months, major conferences like CES, JPM and now RSA have all needed more women speakers. And, gosh, supposedly can’t seem to find them.

-- Speaking is good for my credibility and my career.

-- It’s one of the best ways I have to build my business.

Soup’s on.

Bobbie Carlton is the founder of Innovation Women, an online visibility bureau designed to connect awesome speakers who just happen to be women with event managers and conferences looking for more diversity onstage.

Gillian Brouse

Strategic change leader

6y

Love it, Bobbie! Thanks for sharing. (Now if I could just get some soup to go with that....). 😉

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Simone LaPray

Growth Director at Statera

6y

Ha ha Ha! Thanks for making me laugh on this snowy day! :D

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Great article! Let me know if you would like an extra hand serving the customers! Good stuff!

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Kate Pickle

Owner of KLPickle Consulting

6y

This is great, Bobbie! Thanks for sharing, and we need to connect soon...

Pradeep Aradhya

CEO, Investor, Speaker, Author, Board Member, Mentor, AntiFashionista

6y

I distinctly ordered mushroom soup!! :) Very entertaining Bobbie and so apropo! In my speaking anxiety nightmare I usually lose my voice. Thanks for sharing and for pointing out how important it is that women get out an speak!!

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