How I Overcame My Biggest Fear: Public Speaking

Last year at the same event (The Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce's EMPOWER Women's Leadership Conference) a tiny thought popped into my head, “how cool would it be to speak at this event next year!”.

Fast forward 11 months and that became a reality. But what you don’t know is that for my entire life I’ve been terrified of public speaking. My earliest memories of being the center of attention was having to read a sentence out of a book in second grade. The sentence included “had had” and it was the first time I’d ever seen that. I didn’t understand. I wasn’t sure if it was a mistake. I was mortified that I stopped reading in the middle of the sentence when everyone else who’d gone before me read so perfectly. I remember the tiny blue plastic and medal chairs, all in a circle. I remember the room, where the tv hung in the corner and the wall of lockers. I remember my cheeks flushing and feeling of pure embarrassment. 

That one experience led to another and another that contributed to the belief that “I just wasn’t made to be in the spotlight.” In high school I took college classes at LCCC to get a jump start on building credits and I remember choosing to take Public Speaking 101 there instead of when I went away to Kutztown. As a prerequisite I wanted the smallest possible room to get through it. 

It led to me building Inspired Studio in the shadows, from referrals and word-of-mouth. Because I was terrified to “put myself out there” in a more public capacity. 

So why was speaking so appealing to me last year?

And how did I overcome such a deep-rooted, long-standing limiting belief? For some people public speaking is no big deal. To me, it’s THE BIGGEST DEAL THERE EVER COULD BE. 

Having the opportunity to speak to 200ish women at such an incredible event… where keynote speakers made all 600 of us laugh and cry and dream and own our resiliency… was an unbelievable experience. I’m truly humbled and honored to have had that experience. And what’s cooler is that I was able to share HOW I was able to overcome that obstacle by doing exactly what it is that I help others with: re-design their lives by re-designing the way the think. From the inside out. By transforming my own hard-wired limiting beliefs and building new success pathways in my brain. By facing fears and taking action toward who I want to become… in stead of re-acting to preserve a part of me that is no longer serving me.

I’m so full of gratitude...

...for my network of support, for Dr. Shannon Irvine and the NeuroCoaching models she developed, The Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce for the opportunity, for each and every soul who chose my track at the conference, and for the big guy upstairs. It takes a village—it also takes courage, consistency, resilience and belief in yourself to not only shatter your own glass ceiling but to then RISE above the place where it used to be. 

And that’s why I’m choosing to push myself beyond what’s comfortable and to share my story. Because I want to show others it’s possible for them, too. I want YOU to know that YOU can do it, too. 

What scares you? It might scare you because it’s the pathway to your purpose. If that resonates… it’s time to find your village.