Speaking Superstar Story: “I thought I couldn’t….until I did!” Going from public speaking avoidance to a thriving speaking career.

Josh had both a Bachelor’s and a Master’s Degree in Engineering. When I first met him, he had just gotten a job as a Technical Sales Engineer at a major construction and building company in Montreal. One of the main components of this new job was that he would have to accompany the Account Manager to customers and prospects, and explain the technical side of the sales presentations, at least 3x/week. Sometimes even more often.

Josh really wanted this job, so when they asked him in the interview “How do you feel about giving presentations?”, he put on a big smile and said “Great! No problem at all!”

But herein lies the problem…

However, Josh was in a bit of a bind.

It turns out, he lied.

He was terrified of public speaking. He completely hated the whole idea of it.

In fact, while he was very well-educated – he had both a Bachelor’s and a Master’s Degree in engineering – Josh told me that his dream – his DREAM – had been to get an MBA. But when he found out just how many presentations were involved in the MBA curriculum, he quickly dropped his dream and got a Master’s degree in Engineering instead.

So while it certainly can’t be considered a ‘failure’ to have an advanced degree in Engineering, the unfortunate part is how quickly he turned his back on his MBA dream, because it required so much public speaking, and required him to give so many presentations.

Unfortunate indeed. Especially since, years later, he was required to speak if he wanted to succeed at his new job.

The time spent avoiding public speaking had finally come to an end. 

By the time he called me, he was resigned to the fact that all his time spent avoiding public speaking was at an end. He would have to face the fear and do it anyway.

And while he wasn’t happy about it, he was committed to getting through this situation. Committed enough to hire a presentation and public speaking coach to help him improve skills that didn’t come naturally to him.

The work begins — and the skills take flight

We worked together for several sessions, looking at the content that he was presenting, practicing it, taking him off the company presentation “script” and re-wording segments so that it was easier and more natural for him to talk about, understanding which parts would be most relevant to the audience and then giving them more emphasis, how to engage and interact with them, how to create a conversational element.

We talked about implementing more structure to his presentations, telling stories of how other clients have succeeded based on the company’s products and services, how to create a more driving call-to-action – even in this more informational, technical presentation – and finally, how to deliver smoothly and confidently, without any distracting fidgets or weird body language. We covered a LOT to get him ready for his first client presentation.

After his first client presentation, we did the post-mortem. What did he do right? What went wrong? What fell flat? What questions did the clients ask? Was he nervous? What did he do about it? How did the audience react to the presentation? What was the best part? What was the worst? What feedback did he receive, from both colleague and client?

Overall, he was “satisfied enough” with his performance, but he knew that he could do better.

Lightbulb moment: It’s not only about FEELING better — speaking success comes when you DELIVER VALUE to the audience

Whatever went right….and whatever went wrong….he soon realized exactly how much of the presentation experience WAS in his control. And he was relentless in figuring out how he could not only to feel better, but how he could make it a better experience for the audience, so that he could get better results for his company – and better recognition and reward for himself.

He was relentless in figuring out how he could not only to feel better, but how he could make it a better experience for the audience, so that he could get better results for his company – and better recognition and reward for himself. Share on X

So we met a few more times. We assessed the results of his previous presentations, and fixed the issues as we went along. But after about 4 customer presentations, the craziest thing happened.

He liked it.

He came into meetings with me so excited to tell me about how he made the audience laugh, about a conversation with an audience member that turned into an engaging group discussion, or how his colleague thanked him for a great presentation.

He talked about how much fun he had with his last audience, and how the client mentioned that he wished that most technical presentations were like that. He talked about the moment in the presentation where he managed to explain an issue that the audience had been experiencing, and that moment where they all “got it.” He talked about how his boss pulled him aside to tell him that the client called the boss to tell him what a great experience it was to have Josh giving the presentation.

Great news, right?

Absolutely!

Fortunately, Josh’s story had a very happy enough ending. His career veered into the public speaking direction, and he absolutely thrived.

But….what if…?