Finding Courage to Take the Stage
By: Matt Spriegel
In March, Unravel celebrated its two-year anniversary, bringing together over 200 people to hear stories from all walks of life. There were stories about everything from modern marriages to broken hearts, from victories to trials and tribulations. Some stories were sad while others left you inspired. All of the stories were entertaining in their own way and most importantly these ten minute stories made the audience and speakers alike, feel more human. Storytelling helps us remember that we are not alone in the world.
A week before the event, I was out with friends and we were sharing stories about past jobs. I spoke about working in an Alaskan fishery 10 years ago, and my friend Geoff said, “You should tell that story at Unravel.”
Even the idea of telling this story to a live audience, made my heart race. It was always easy to share travel stories and weird experiences over a few beers with friends, but doing it in the Unravel format, live, was terrifying.
It has always been a goal to get over my fear of the stage and the only way to get comfortable with sharing ideas and stories publicly is through practice. With the goal to get uncomfortable and work through the fear of speaking in front of large audiences, I decided to work on my story.
At first, even trying to get the fishery experience down on paper was a challenge, it took going back to the basics.
The story was down on paper, but let’s say it was a very rough draft. I submitted it to Unravel, with their theme and my title: Is this it? – Working in an Alaskan Fishery. I had little hope of it being accepted.
THIS WAS MY PROCESS...
Read through old journal entries
Free wrote as much as I could remember
Decided what pieces were essential to the theme
Put the story into a cohesive structure (i.e. intro, climax, resolution)
A day later the Unravel team responded. They said they liked the story and that it fit the theme well. The only catch was the story needed a lot of work. My first realization was that “shooting the shit” with friends was entirely different from telling a full story in 10 minutes.
For the sake of the audience, the story had to have context and every word had to either add color or suspense to the narrative. Throughout this process, the Unravel team provided valuable feedback. After several drafts and practice sessions with my dog and girlfriend, I felt prepared to get through it.
But, on the night of the event, I was nervous again - it felt totally different from giving a work presentation. The Unravel team held a brief with all of the storytellers before speaking and you could feel a strong sense of bond and camaraderie between what were strangers at the time.
The two storytellers before me seemed so cool and smooth. My friend reminded me right before going up on stage that everyone in the crowd wants you to do well. There was nothing at stake and I just had to be myself.
I remember getting up from my chair and never looking back. I didn’t miss any important parts and kept to the time. The feeling of flow took over and before I knew it, I had come to the conclusion of my story. In the weeks following the event, I reflected a lot on my experience at Unravel. My good friend and I often talk about life cross-training and doing things which make you “anti-fragile.” This felt like one of those experiences.
Figuring out how to tell my story was uncomfortable at first, but going through the process has given me more confidence. Here are some of my takeaways that I will keep in mind not just for storytelling, but public speaking in general:
MY BIGGEST TAKEAWAYS...
Nerves and emotions are not you
Nobody knows your story better than you
You will not connect with everyone
Work off of a script, but keep the human touch
"Your voice" shines through with practice
Take personal risks in low risk environments
A tight chest is mostly from not taking full breaths, and always be yourself!