his eyes, Nicholas took a deep breath and willed himself to move. “Fake it until you make it.” That had always been his approach to conquering this particular fear. People told him they didn’t have a single clue that he was nervous up there, but inside, he felt like a child, presenting a report to his class without having prepared.
This time, seeing the audience only made it worse. Sure, it was a small group, but that didn’t help. The people gathered there were staring at him like they expected great things from him. That was the very type of pressure he didn’t need.
“Good morning, everyone!”
Did he sound as loud to everyone else as he did to himself? Maybe he should take it down a few notches.
“Good morning.”
It was hard to make out those actual words in the chorus of responses from the audience. They weren’t in sync, first of all, but they also were said in varying levels of enthusiasm. Some stared at him with wide eyes, but many more looked bored.
And then there was Charlie. She sat next to Justin’s girlfriend, Brooke, who was also the marketing person for TravTech. Justin sat way in the back of the room, staring down at his lap. Nicholas would bet good money he was looking at his screen again.
“I built my first piece of software when I was twelve,” Nicholas said, blurting out the words he’d uttered so many times, he had them pretty much committed to memory. Everyone always seemed to want to hear his history. “Do you know what software was like fifteen years ago?”
Nods. Of course, they did. Many of these people were developers, so they’d probably grown up around computers.
“There was no such thing as a smartphone, at least not at first. It wasn’t like today. But many of us saw a way that software development could be made easier. That’s the world I’ve always envisioned. Do-it-yourself, drop-and-drag editors, out-of-the-box software, configurable canned solutions… You guys know the drill.”
Nods again. They knew where he was coming from. Everyone wanted to be the innovator who developed the next big thing. They just didn’t want to be the ones who were put out of work by that very thing.
“I realized something, though.” Nicholas stepped around the podium, standing in front of the group. Podiums were too formal, too much like a speech. “The last thing we want to do is make a bunch of professionals obsolete. So I pivoted early on, changing my goal. I wanted to make things easier for you, not the customer.”
No matter which way he directed his gaze, he couldn’t stop staring at Charlie out of the corner of his eye. Was she judging him? Maybe deciding she didn’t find him nearly as attractive as he found her?
“The work you’re doing here is similar.” He paused, waiting for the confused looks, then added, “You build apps that help students learn. But you aren’t going directly to the students for that. Your work gives educators work. See how it’s similar?”
Some nods, although not enthusiastic ones. He was losing them. He’d been brought here to inspire, not bore, them. He needed to step things up here.
He knew what to do.
“I’m going to need some assistance with this next part.” He let his gaze slide slowly across the group as though carefully deliberating which person to choose. When his stare finally landed on Charlie, his eyes widened and he took a deep breath. “Ms. McLaughlin, could you help me out up here?”
Now it was her turn to widen her eyes. She looked legitimately surprised. After a quick glance at Brooke, she stood and came to the front of the room, taking her place next to Nicholas.
Nicholas had done this exercise many times before, but for some reason, this time, he felt nervous about it. Probably because he’d just assigned himself to be Charlie’s partner.
“Now I need you to pick someone from the audience.”
Charlie frowned, a look that pushed her bottom lip out a little. It made her even more beautiful, if that was possible. She looked out at the crowd, then pointed at Justin. “Justin.”
The man whose head had been down the entire time Nicholas had been up here suddenly looked up. His expression made it seem as though he’d just been awoken from a nap. He had no idea what was going on.
Nicholas could hang him out to dry, but his college roommate had definitely saved Nicholas’s butt a few dozen times over the years. The least Nicholas