The Myth of the "Natural" Public Speaker

Several years ago, I realized that talking in front of large-ish groups of people that I wasn’t on a first-name basis with was going to be an expectation of my job. I had always been fearful of public speaking, and crowds in general throw me off. So, I did what any good glossophobe would do - I jumped into the deep end of the pool and signed up to speak at a conference.

I had always assumed that some (more-extroverted) folks were innately gifted at speaking. That’s why (in my mind) they came across as more “natural” at all hands, training sessions, demo hours, live Q&A, etc. With that mindset, in the most well-intentioned fake-it-till-you-make-it sense, I decided that I could read my way into coming across as (being?) a better speaker. Yes, instead of working on my story narrative or drafting slides, I read a series of books. I find that most things in life can be solved with a good book.

All the key ideas from the books (referenced below) I noted in a simple 1-pager Google Doc. I then …