Are Great Speakers Born… or Made?

I’ve coached some extraordinarily gifted speakers over the years. Not just gifted at speaking, but talented humans full stop:  sportspeople, artists, adventurers and business owners.

And when you ask how they got started in their chosen profession, a familiar pattern appears.

Most of them realised quite young that they had something. A knack. A head start.

Rugby players who just “got the game” quicker. Golfers who progressed faster than their peers and thought, “hang on – I’ve got something here.” And of course, once you realise you’re good at something, you tend to lean into it. You practise more. You care more.

So… does that mean great speakers are born, not made?

Some people are undoubtedly more naturally gifted. Jamil Quershi, for example, works incredibly hard, but he’s also naturally quick, witty, original and perceptive. That’s just how he’s wired. The same is true of comedians:  some people simply improve faster and “get it” sooner  – they have “funny bones.”

But talent alone doesn’t tell the full story.

I was once at a networking event when a woman came up to me and asked if I remembered her. I didn’t. (Always an encouraging start.)

She then reminded me that we’d met 15 years earlier. At the time, she was absolutely terrified of presenting. As in: I would rather scale a very tall building in Tapei viewed by millions on Netflix terrified.

Presenting fear was also blocking her career, so we worked together. I’d promised her that if she put in a little effort each week, and actively looked for chances to present,  she would improve.

Unbeknownst to me, she took that promise seriously.

Very seriously.

She asked for feedback after every presentation and every meeting. One thing she’d done well. One thing she could improve on. Then she practised.

She told me it took her five years to go from hopelessly terrified… to genuinely brilliant.

And here’s the key detail: when she stopped me at that networking event, she’d already spent ten years being excellent. Presenting wasn’t just something she could do,  it was something she genuinely loved. She was now at a different business, and was the go-to person for their conference presentations and spoke on behalf of her organisation all over the world.

Eyes beaming, now a presenting evangelist, she said, “I love it!!”

Talent helps. But effort matters more.

So, if you want to go from poor, average or under-confident to genuinely impressive, here are three things that really matter:

1. Ask for feedback
The most world-class presenting organisation I’ve worked are Red Whale, and they have one defining trait: an obsession with feedback. They ask for it. They give it. And they keep going.

2. Have a purpose
A real business purpose. If what you’re presenting actually matters to you, it’s far easier to ask for feedback and put the hours in. And if you genuinely don’t care about helping your organisation… it might be time for a rethink….?

3. Want to improve
One of the best presenters I know, Lucy Jenkins (of Red Whale), used to call me every year, send me a video and ask for feedback, despite already being outstanding. She’s off the scale clever, warm, witty and authentic, but also naturally quite shy. Not an obvious “born presenter”. Her edge was simple: allied to ferocious intelligence (my guess is that she realised quite early on that she took quite easily to medicine) she never stopped wanting to get better.

So, can anyone be a world-class presenter?

I think yes.

A natural gift certainly helps, as long as you don’t squander it. But feedback, purpose and a genuine desire to improve will take you further than talent alone ever will.

And if you’d like help speeding that journey up, you know where to find me.