The Green Room

This morning, I appeared on Good Day PA to talk about Lead Yourself First.

It was my first television interview as the author of my own work.

I’ve been on television before. Those appearances felt different because I was representing something else—a company, a university, an organization. There was a “role” to step into.

Today, there wasn’t.

Just me.

As expected, I was nervous. Not “I forgot how to speak” nervous. More like “I’ve rehearsed these answers a hundred times in my head” nervous.

So, while the other guests and I waited in the green room, I did what many first-timers do.

I stayed in my own head.

One of the other guests was a young boy with autism who had come to share his story about being involved in community theatre. I wish I’d spent less time rehearsing and more time listening and getting to know the people around me.

Preparation gets us to the moment.

Presence lets us experience it.

By the time the cameras rolled, I was fine. The interview became exactly what I’d hoped it would be: a conversation.

But the green room taught me something the interview couldn’t.

When we’re doing something new, we often believe our biggest job is to get everything “right.” We rehearse. We anticipate. We edit ourselves before we’ve even opened our mouths.

Sometimes that’s necessary.

Sometimes it’s also what keeps us from noticing the people sitting right beside us.

I suspect that won’t happen next time.

Not because I won’t prepare. I’ll probably prepare even more.

But I’ll trust that once the preparation is finished, the work is to look up.

To introduce myself.

To ask someone else’s story before worrying about how I’ll tell my own.

That’s a lesson I didn’t expect to learn on a television set.

But then again, the best lessons rarely come from the cameras.

They come from the green room.