I left work in an ambulance. Then I gave the presentation anyway.

A few days before the biggest presentation of my early career, I left work in an ambulance. Three days later, I came back and gave that presentation anyway.

This episode breaks down what that moment taught me about handling high-pressure situations at work, preparing for important presentations, and recognizing the moments that actually move your career forward.

In this episode, I break down:

- How preparation reduces anxiety in high-stakes presentations

- How to identify high-leverage moments in your career

- Why confidence is built through action, not mindset

- How one performance can change how leadership sees you

- What to do when you feel like you’re not ready

If you’re trying to get promoted, improve your performance at work, or handle pressure better in your career, this will give you a practical way to think about it.

New Game Careers is built on actual experience. From entry-level to leading 100+ people as a 3x director, everything here is focused on what actually gets you promoted. It comes down to 2 main rules:

Rule #1: Identify the skills that make you promotable & hirable.
Rule #2: Take specific daily actions to build and prove those skills.

On this channel, you’ll learn how to:
• Earn promotions
• Build proof for your résumé
• Deliver results your boss actually values
• Make yourself more attractive to employers
• Navigate critical relationships
• Stop guessing and start executing

Start Here:
Website: https://newgamecareers.com

Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/new-game-careers

Topics: career growth, promotions, promotable skills, proof of value, leadership development, workplace strategy, resume strategy.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

So I'm sitting in a chair in my work lunchroom. My chest had been hurting me for two weeks. My heart's pounding. I'm sweating. My vision is blurry. And I hear my colleague who's on the phone with 911 say, no, I don't know where the defibrillator is. And I'm like, oh shit. Like, this is it. I need to call my mom one more time and be like, hey, I love you. I'm sorry for everything that I've done across the years because I'm about to die in this lunchroom. My name is Bobby. I'm the founder of New Game Careers, and this podcast is about the things that make you more promotable and more hireable. Now, if you want to know exactly how to do those things and yes or no actions, I have a system for that. You can find out more at NewgameCareers.com. But today we're going to talk about an origin story that was very formative for me. And more importantly, the three takeaways from that story that I learned that I think could benefit anybody in any career. So let's work back in time about a decade ago. It was 2015. And I'm a lowly program account manager. I'm way over my skis. I really didn't know much about what I was doing at that job yet. And honestly, the fact that I got in there was a miracle. And so I have my first big presentation coming up about my accounts. It was about my financials, my sales, my game plan, all that. And this presentation was in a room called the Pit. It's called the Pit because there's a half circle of chairs staring down at somebody in a recessed floor who has a 120-inch screen behind them who's presenting, and they're all looking down at you, and you're standing in the pit. It's intimidating for me, especially because I don't like presenting and I didn't have a whole lot of experience doing it at that point. And so this room is going to be full of directors, vice presidents, colleagues, like everybody. These are like a really big deal. They happen once a year. And so leading up to that point, my presentation was on a Monday. Leading up to that point, I had had chest pain for two weeks. Didn't know why. And the Friday before my presentation, I called the doctor from my car on my lunch hour because I'm starting to get pretty concerned about this chest pain. And they're like, uh, you're not making an appointment. I'm like, what? And they're like, yeah, you're going to the emergency room. I'm like, uh, what? And so, of course, that starts to make me panic even more. But I'm like, Bobby, you have to hold out. Just get through this presentation. It's in three days. You can go after that. So I walk back into the office. I'm walking down the hallway to the big bank of desks where I sit. And my vision starts closing like an old school TV where it's a circle that starts to collapse on itself. And I start sweating, and my heart starts pounding. And I'm bopping into the walls like a pinball. And I'm like, uh, this is not normal. So I grab the first person that I knew that I worked very closely with, and I'm like, yo, you gotta help me out. Like, I think I'm having a heart attack. So then we walk down the hallway into the lunchroom, and he's on the phone with 911. And people start to hear about this. And people see the ambulance coming down the entryway, which is like this big long strip of road that like everybody in the office can see. They put me on the stretcher. There's people gather around. The guy in the ambulance tries to put in my IV. He misses the vein, and there's blood shooting everywhere. Bloody murder. Like, kid you not. So I got blood all over me. I'm like, what's happening to me? I get to the hospital. They give me a bunch of different tests. And my boss's boss shows up. And he's a really good dude. And he's like, hey, you don't have to do this presentation on Monday, needless to say. And I'm like, let me chew on it. I'll think about it. And so later on that night, I'm like, you have to do this. You absolutely have to do this no matter what. I don't care what it takes. I don't care if it kills me. I am doing this presentation in the pit. And I made that decision. And so fast forward two days later, it's Monday. I'm getting ready for this presentation. It's right after lunch. My heart's beating. It's getting faster and faster. And I'm like, oh my God. Like, please let this not be happening again. So I'm taking deep breaths. I'm getting ready. I get down in the pit. And so I look up at everybody and I said, Some of you may or may not know. I left here in an ambulance on Friday, and people gasped. Like, oh some people knew, but like a lot of people didn't. And they're like, Are you okay? And I said, Yeah, you know, I uh I still don't know really what happened. The doctors are looking into it, but they just said, take it easy, do things like read books and you know, watch your favorite movie and do a presentation in the pit in front of every director and vice president of your company. And the entire room burst out into laughter, and I was like, Oh my god. And that was a moment where it was just like my stress level went from 70,000 down to uh, you know, eight or nine. So I was still pretty stressed out, but it was good. And so I like legitimately blacked out the first 20 minutes of that presentation, just like I do for every presentation, because I'm still scared to the day. I'm a little bit better at it now. But after that presentation, everybody clapped and I was on autopilot, and there was a lot of laughter during that presentation, and I knew, I knew that I had practiced enough that I was doing a good job. So once it was done, three different directors had pulled me into their offices. The first one said, I want you to know, I just told my team that's what they need to shoot for for presentations. The second one said, I just want you to understand how impressed I am by the things that you knew and the level of detail and the understanding you had of your account. And the third one was my boss. And he said, I could not be more proud of you. And honestly, like you keep doing things like that, you're gonna be sitting in my chair one day. And he said that to me twice. That was one of the two times. So let's talk about my three takeaways from that experience. Here's number one. If you come to the table as prepared as you can possibly be, you are never going to regret it, no matter what the outcome is. You might suck, it might be terrible, or you might be somewhere in the middle, which is probably gonna be most scenarios. Or you could have the best presentation you've ever given in your entire life. But I will promise you this, I will promise you this. If you come to the table completely prepared, your nerves, those are gonna go way down. And you're also gonna look back on that and you're gonna say, even if you did screw up, be like, look, I did what I could. Nobody's perfect. It happens. I get extraordinary anxiety about presentations, things like that, but I know, I know that if I'm prepared, it really doesn't matter. My preparation going into the pit that time, for some reason, I had this arbitrary number of 20 times in my head. I practiced that presentation 19 times. I remember being disappointed in myself because I had only practiced 19 times. Now, that's probably some diagnosable borderline obsessive personality character trait of mine. But like, look, I knew it so well that I was down there and I was clicking through the slides, and one of the directors said, Were you clicking those slides because you had memorized them? Because they were synchronized with what you were saying. And I said, Yep. And he's like, Damn, I'm really impressed by that. And I'm like, Well, fear is a great motivator because that's why I practiced so many times. I was scared, right? But also, too, I wanted to do a good job. But at the same time, after that, I was like, man, you can get pretty damn far if you take the time to come correct and be prepared. And no matter what the outcome is, you're never going to regret it. Another thing I always say, I regret some things in my life, but the things that I regret way more are the things that I didn't do. Always. So, number one, come to the table prepared. The second thing that I learned there are high-leverage moments in your career that are going to give you results that outweigh your effort. Did I put a crazy amount of effort into that presentation? Yes. But the result was life-changing forever. That was the springboard for all my subsequent promotions there. Like very shortly after I got promoted, they put people underneath me, and it was like that was honestly the starting point for me when my career really started to take off. And so what I would say to you is this look, if it involves like senior leadership, or it involves a presentation with your customers, or if it's a big project that there are a lot of eyes on, understand the more people involved and the higher level of leadership there is, whether it be in your organization or your customers, those are high leverage moments for you. Those are like the bonus round, where instead of taking a shot gives you one point, those give you 10 points. So you should focus such a ridiculous amount of time and energy on those moments because those are the ones that give you leverage to move up. Yeah, sure. You can sit and be a warm body in a chair and keep your head down and do your thing every day for six months, and that's great. People value consistency and reliability 100%. That is absolutely valuable. But having the ability to shine on a big stage or a big project or have your customer be like, they are irreplaceable, that gives you more leverage than any amount of time than just sitting there and going through the motions. So, what I would say to you to put a bow on that, rule number two, understand there are high-leverage moments in your career that you should absolutely spend an insane amount of time preparing for, because those are gonna be the difference between you staying where you are and reaching the next level. That's what this whole thing is about. And the third and most important thing I learned from that day, you're gonna hear me get real excited and passionate about this because it's true. But if you can prove yourself wrong when you doubt yourself and you show yourself that you can do it, that gives you the gift of confidence. And the gift of confidence will change your life. And you know, people think you're born with confidence, but like, and some people are, but you can earn confidence through taking action to do things that you didn't think you were capable of doing. I didn't think I could get down there in the pit and give that presentation at all. I I thought I might be following the light and fasting to the other side. Like, definitely not going down there and doing a good job, right? So when I did do that, when I forced myself to do it, when I got out of my comfort zone, when I showed up prepared, when I understood that was a high leverage moment, when I got over my crippling fucking fear, I was like, I'm doing this. Man, that just changed it changed my life. And I'm not special, I'm not smarter than anybody else. I don't have any natural gift that makes me better than anybody. I genuinely, genuinely believe that. But I am always willing to try. And I attribute a lot of that to that moment. And every moment in my career that I've had after that, it was like, yeah, I'm probably not gonna leave in an ambulance with blood squirting everywhere. So how bad can it really be? Right. And so when you prove yourself wrong once, when you get out of your comfort zone and you go after that thing you're really scared of, and you can go out there and you can do your thing, that will give you an extraordinary amount of confidence. And when you believe in yourself, you're gonna try to do things you would never do otherwise. The value of believing you have a chance at doing something is absolutely going to affect your ability to go out and try things, or whether or not you'll try, even to begin with, right? And you're never gonna make a shot you don't take. And look, sometimes you're gonna go out there and you're gonna suck and it's not gonna be good. But sometimes you're not. And you know what? Most people understand you're not always gonna be perfect. And I don't think you're really judged by doing something and giving it hell and it not being the best thing ever. But the people who have the confidence to go out and do the things they're terrified of doing, like people respect that. People respect courage, and courage is not the absence of fear, it's being like, I'm terrified, but you know what? I'm gonna do it anyway. And when you can have the courage to try the things that scare you, those are going to be the things that make a difference, not only in your career, but in your life. Because that moment in time, or that hour, it did change my trajectory. It did change the fact that I was getting promotions. It did change the fact that they put people underneath me and I had the opportunity to work with other people, which was humbling. You know, and when you can continue to climb because you believe in yourself, like you can't show me somebody who just got a$10,000 raise and a promotion that doesn't come home with a smile on their face, that doesn't tell their family, hey, look what I did, that doesn't call their friends and say, let's go celebrate. And that's not the only thing in life. But if moving up in your job brings you confidence, makes you feel like you have purpose, and makes you feel like you can do things, there's more value to that than people give credit to. Because I'm a walking example of that. I'm not somebody who naturally walks around and thinks, uh, like I can do any and everything. But I know now, after having done that, and after having gone through my journey, and after having gone from the person who knew had zero clue about what he was doing to being a director and all that stuff, like that's a function of understanding what the objectives are and taking the daily actions every single day to become the person that I want to be. It wasn't an accident, it's not because I'm better. It's because I identified the objective and I understood what the goal was, and I took actions every single day, even when I didn't want to do it, to get there. And sometimes when you do that, opportunity is going to present itself for you to take a chance. And here's what I'm saying: take the chance. Because if you can prove yourself wrong, that's not just going to level you up through that experience. That's going to give you the confidence to move forward in your career and be somebody who can take chances into perpetuity. And you cannot put a value on that. It is unlimited. So to put a bow on the three lessons, show up prepared, understand when there are high-leverage moments in your career, and prove yourself wrong during those moments. And it's gonna get you a lot further than you would ever believe. And I genuinely believe if that worked for me, it can work for anybody. Because I'm just a normal dude, no better than anybody else. And I I do think, I do think, what if I hadn't done that? What if I hadn't tried? And looking back in retrospect, I can honestly say, even if I stood up there and I keeled over, I would have been more proud of having tried than never having tried at all. And that was a defining moment in my life. So I hope that the takeaway in this podcast for anybody else is try. You have to try. Don't sleep on yourself. And you know what? Even if that inner voice tells you you can't, fuck that voice. Do it anyway. Because you might be surprised if you come to the table prepared and you do what you need to do. So if you found this podcast valuable, put it in front of somebody who might find it valuable too. Or share it on social media or share it with a friend. That would mean the world to me. But until next week, I'll leave you with this thought. Your career is always, always going to have problems. But you get to pick them, so choose them wisely. You always have a choice. Thanks for listening. Talk to you next week.