The 3 C's: How to Become Comfortable, Confident and Competent as a Public Speaker

Where do you fall on the Public Speaking Continuum? Are you one of those who would rather eat nails than to try public speaking? Are you one of those who is a completely comfortable, confident, and competent public speaker? Or do you fall somewhere in between?

When I was a pre-teen on up into my teenage years, I felt completely comfortable and confident running a summer playschool in my home for all the neighborhood kids. I did this from the time I was eleven until I was fifteen. I started babysitting neighborhood little ones when I was twelve and a half. I ran the church nursery single-handedly from age fourteen to eighteen. I even had a flourishing birthday party business from age fourteen onward until I graduated from college. I felt competent enough to be the lead in two high school plays where we toured all the area elementary schools. We performed "Prospero's Magic Cape" and "The Unwicked Witch." I played Ariel in the first play and the unwicked witch in the second play. Naturally, while being an elementary school teacher aide and student teacher during my undergrad days, I felt increasingly more comfortable and confident reading to students and teaching lessons. I was even more competent doing this when I taught elementary school for seven years. So being a public speaker (i.e., storyteller) in front of kids felt like a natural progression. What I could not imagine was being a public speaker in front of peers and adults. "Phew! How scary! No way!" was my dominant thought back then.

How about you? Are there certain types of groups you could perform for in total comfort? Your family? Your relatives? Your friends? Church members? Classroom students? Club members? Small groups of 5, 10, 15, 20, 25? Larger groups of 50 or 100? Really big audiences made up of hundreds or thousands? Does the following statement sound familiar? "I could easily tell stories to _______, but there is no way I could ever tell stories to _______." How would you fill in those blanks?

In 1988, when I first started working on my Elementary Education masters with a specialization in Storytelling, I went through quite a profession of how I would fill in those blanks.

Progress Step 1 - "I can easily tell stories to children, but there is no way I could tell them without the use of props such as flannel board or magnet board pieces." We had to tell a 2-minute story while being videotaped during my Basic Storytelling class. I chose an Aesop Fable about a gnat and a bull. I was wearing the magnet board hung by yarn around my neck. I had the magnet board pieces hidden behind the board and would pull them out as necessary as I told the tale. I was waving my arms around and telling this story with lots of gusto. Afterward, the ETSU Storytelling professor and the other students watching said that I was so good that I didn't need to have props in front of me. They told me that I was good enough to carry the story with simply my voice. That planted that seed that I had the talent to do this. It was simply a matter of building my confidence level, piece by piece.

Progress Step 2 - "Okay, I can easily tell stories to children without the use of props, but there is no way I could tell stories to grown-ups." During the final for that fall 1988 Basic Storytelling class, we had to tell a solo story that was at least 4 minutes long to our fellow 35 adult classmates. I learned the 8-minute story poem called "The Bear Story" by James Whitcomb Riley that my school-teaching cousin had told me so many years ago. I played the part of a 5 to 6-year-old boy named Alex as I told this. I got rave reviews. I realized that I could hold the attention of adults while telling a story. But I rationalized that these were adults who were also taking this class. Could I hold the attention of adults from the general population? Finding out the answer to that question was my dominant wish.

Progress Step 3 - "Okay, I can tell stories to my peers and to children without the use of props, but am I capable of telling stories to adults from the general population?" During the spring semester of 1989, I took Advanced Storytelling. During that time, I continued to do assignments of going out into the community to tell stories. One of the gigs sent in my direction by the Storytelling Professor, Dr. Flora Joy, was performing stories for 150 men at a Civic Club. I was so nervous! Dr. Joy told me, "Those men won't show any expressions on their faces. But don't worry. They will be enjoying themselves anyway." I picked out two mild and humorous ghost stories to perform. Prior to my performance, the song leader led them in the song, "Take Me Out To The Ballgame. The men" sang with so much gusto that I lost any sense of nervousness. The men showed lots of expressions of enjoyment on their faces as I told my two tales. It felt easy to give a strong performance. Afterward, they begged for an encore. There was only 4 minutes left. At that time, the only short story I knew was a children's poem called "Peanut Butter Sandwich" by Shel Silverstein. Those men giggled like little kids. My question was answered. I now knew I could perform for any age group, adults included. I have felt totally comfortable and confident telling stories ever since.

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