I've always been a natural on stage - as a dancer (as a child, through highschool, and in college (although that was a different kind of dancing)), as an actor (drag king, burlesque), and as a musician (in a band). I've always been terrified to go on stage, but I know once I get there, I'm fine and the fear melts away. But when the organizers of 360iDev asked me to speak at their iPhone developer conference in Denver last year, everything in my body wanted me to say "no way, no, I don't really feel like I know anything about programming". So I said "yes, I'll do it." I knew this would be great for my career - to get more recognition in my field, if I could pull it off.
I spent months researching and preparing my talk. I did okay - not great, but okay. There were several people in the audience who thanked me afterwards and told me they learned a lot. Other people, in reviews they submitted to the organizers, said I could definitely use more practice developing more comprehensible and cohesive slides, and that a lot of my content was obvious and unhelpful. Oh well. I'm glad I did it because it really was a valuable learning experience. A few months later, I was asked to speak at another conference. I declined - the first experience was enough for me.