Public Speaking is good for you.

Storytelling is how we build community, pass on traditions, and teach. Across all cultures, from the time we’re children, we use storytelling to educate, inspire, and connect. That’s not something that changes as we get older.

Think about how you learned to do your current role. You might have gone to school where someone stood up in front of a class and told you about principles and building blocks of your field. Or maybe you read a book that taught you a new skill where someone spent time thinking about how to best craft it for you to understand something. Maybe you learned on the job by following instructions and the role modeling of others that you worked with. You might even hold some of those connections you made through those experiences very dear. Those are all forms of storytelling.

When you give a talk or a presentation, that’s storytelling. You’re painting a picture on why something is important. You’re teaching, connecting with others, and building up credibility. Getting comfortable with public speaking is a huge leg up in just about any career. Let me convince you that it’s a good thing for you.

People listen to those who are talking. Experts in any field are the ones who just spoke up, had opinions, and let people start discussing what they got right and wrong based on their own data or experiences. All of your favorite experts are the ones who were first brave enough to put ideas out there. If you don’t want the wrongest, loudest people to be the most authoritative, speak up yourself. Your voice is needed and welcomed.

Be the change you want to see. Set an example for how you want speakers to treat each other and how you want audience members to treat speakers. Propose topics that you think your industry doesn’t talk about enough. Proposing a talk or a topic allows you to drive the conversation and steer it in the right direction.

It deepens your own learning. ****By honing a talk to walk someone through something from beginning to end, you have to think about it pretty deeply yourself from end to end. Committing to writing and giving a talk will help you level up your own knowledge about a topic and how to organize your thoughts

Establish yourself as an expert. Opportunities will come to you as people start seeking you out. Once I gave one talk, I slowly got invited to more and more places to speak, without even applying. Organizers are always looking for speakers, and you’ll be surprised how many opportunities are out there. I still get rejected from Calls for Proposals at conferences, but I also receive other opportunities I’d never think to ask for. Establish your expertise and let the world surprise you.

Future proof your career. I started speaking because I knew I wouldn’t be at one job forever. By the time I was ready to look for a new gig, I wanted to have enough credibility and network to put my hand up and have people help me find a new gig. When I was interviewing for my next role, I could send my talks and my writing to new prospective employers. They had something to break the ice over other than everyone’s least favorite question: “tell me about yourself.” It also made it easier for folks who had seen my work to vouch for me. It really was a win-win all around.

Sold on the benefits, but not the cost?

Maybe you already know and trust all of that, but you still would rather p than sign up to give a talk. Here are the top reasons I hear for why people shy away from public speaking and here’s how to tackle them. If this describes you, please don’t let these cases stop you from reaping the benefits of speaking publicly more often.

I sweat when I’m nervous. Hey, same here. This is true for a lot of people. In fact, my biggest fear was wardrobe: how women dress is often harshly criticized. I sought advice from other women speakers and what worked well for them. I eliminated this concern for myself by sitting down with my closet for an afternoon and putting together some “foolproof” choices. I have sturdy flats or boots on stage, no thin heels. If you see me speaking publicly, I’m usually in a dark top and a jacket: it’s hard to sweat through both. I often wear a shirt long enough to cover any pants zippers, just in case. I know which bras I own that can comfortably handle a mic if I’m in a dress instead. I have about 4 outfits I rotate through for speaking. Prior to doing this, I put off speaking for an embarrassingly long amount of time for what could be fixed with an hour with my closet.

I hate the sound of my own voice. Unfortunately, one truth that I actively hate: watching yourself speak is the best way to get better. I try to watch any recordings of my talk on silent or at a very low volume the first time through. I only watch facial expressions, movement, and posture. It makes it easier to then listen to myself. When I listen to myself, I do so curled up on a blanket on a couch with headphones in the privacy of my own home so people can’t watch me cringe at myself as I take notes. I swear this gets easier with time, even if it’s never going to be my favorite part of the process.

I have nothing to talk about. You’re overthinking this. Every day, industries get new beginners. If you’ve been doing something for more than one day, you have learned something that someone else hasn’t. Talk about a topic you recently discovered, a project you completed, or even an outage you caused. What did you learn from it and how could others either avoid the same fate or make their lives easier? My first regular lightning talk was about dogs and mentoring. 🤷‍♀️ People had heard of mentoring before. They’d heard of dogs before. It was still an effective vehicle for starting conversations on what quality, useful mentorships look like. Some of my favorite talks I’ve attended have been, “hey I took this thing that already existed and tried it out with this thing that interested me.” Machine learning and bird pictures, bus routing schedule software, animation computing pipeline challenges. I don’t work in any of those industries but I still enjoyed the talks and took something away from each of them.

What if someone thinks I’m wrong? People frequently confess to me that they’re worried they’ll be Wrong and someone will disagree with them and confront them in front of everyone. Hear me out: this doesn’t happen nearly as often as you think, and when it does, the large majority of people will approach it as a genuine discussion. You also don’t have to take live questions. People can either have the constructive discussion with you 1:1, or they can go be loud on the internet where you don’t owe anyone a response anyway. The overwhelming majority of your audience is going to be grateful for your time and perspective.

I’m worried no one will be interested in my talk. If you sign up to give a talk and no one comes (a very unlikely situation), well, then no harm no foul. I’ve spoken to audiences of 10 when I expected 100 and vice versa. If you’re committed to speaking, hype yourself up, advertise your talk, and find a friend who can be a comforting face in the audience. Prepare as if you’ll be wildly successful, though, because that’s the scenario that’s much more likely.

I’m still scared. You likely do things while scared all of the time, usually because you have to. Do what you can to mitigate your worries (like my outfit dilemma above) and then use some of that bravery to take the leap anyway.

If you’re still nervous to go speak after this, I recommend making it a topic with your mentor. Dig into why and see if together you can come up with a talk you can write and present to just them. See how you feel after that, and then gradually expand your audience, maybe to five friends. Then maybe some coworkers, a local meetup, or a small conference? With each iteration, you’ll find it scares you less and less, and as you start seeing the benefits of speaking, your confidence will compound over time.

Just know that I’m already in the audience ready to ask a thoughtful and easy question to answer.