Everyone I’ve asked remembers having had the nightmare where you wake up in a sweaty panic that you forgot about an important test, or discovered during finals week that you were signed up for a class you’d never attended.

From what I hear, it’s your subconscious worrying about being unprepared.  I’d stopped having those dreams once I graduated from law school.  Then I started giving speeches and they started up again, although with the presenter’s variation – instead of a test, it was a speech.

I was waiting to speak in the wrong hotel.  Or I was on a plane heading to the wrong city.  Or I was dressed in walking shorts and the audience wore suits.  It was driving me crazy.  

Finally, I just put all the information I needed on one simple fill-in-the-blanks document, A Speaking Engagement Agreement form, to ensure I had all the necessary information to show up in the right place, at the right time, in the right clothing, talking about the right thing.

Feel free to use it if it helps, but please keep the copyright information on it.