Case Study: Transforming a Shy CEO to Authentically Connect Through Public Speaking

I work with CEOs to turn them into public speaking powerhouses.
But when I met D, I wasn’t sure if I could help him,
This is what happened.

He had to give a keynote to launch his new product.

But he hated the idea of being on camera.

Most of the leaders that I work with have an internal desire to speak in public.

Not D.

He wanted nothing to do with it.
But his marketing team was insistent that he needs to be the face of the company.

So they brought me in.

In my first 1:1 with D, he told me his story.

He became an entrepreneur and created his first product because of a problem he wanted to solve for his mom.

When I heard this, I was really excited.
This sounded like a story that could really resonate with their audience.

So I talked to him to dig deeper:
why did he not like the idea of speaking on camera?

Turns out, he didn’t feel convinced he could be a loud, gestury presence on stage.

He thought doing this keynote meant that he would need to turn into someone he wasn’t,
He wasn’t ok with that.

And I wasn’t ok with that either.

So I showed him how we would work to bring out HIS personality in his words.
Not slap a fake personality on him.

We wrote out his story. We rehearsed the words and delivery.

I worked with him to integrate his own gestures, his own language and his own mannerisms into the keynote.

When he saw the result, he finally understood.

It didn’t have to be flawless.
It didn’t have to be like a Steve Jobs keynote.

It just had to be him.

Smiling, honest and telling his story.

I don’t think he turned into a public speaking powerhouse overnight.

But he took a big step towards eliminating that first hurdle that he had made for himself.

He started believing his story needed to be heard.
And he was the only one to tell it.

What story do you want to tell on that stage? I’d love to know.