Just a guy that went from shy child to professional storyteller

It all started when…

I was a child and could barely speak. I was mumbling to my parents at an age where most kids would verbalize when they wanted something or were in distress. I fell behind in my development when it came to verbal communication compared to other children my age. After several trips to the doctor, it turns out I had an ear infection which was common among toddlers.

In the years following a medical procedure and my ears healed, I went to a speech therapist that had an office in my school. The office was very small. Having the perspective that I do now, it was more than likely a closet that was converted into an office.

Despite the speech therapy and years passing after my procedure, I still dealt with crippling social anxiety and avoided speaking as much as possible. There was a fear of communicating that stuck with me through my senior year of high school.

The only reason I could make friends in middle and high school was being on the basketball team. I only had friends due to my close proximity to the other guys during practices, summer workouts, games and road trips.

It seemed like the ability to communicate was a mountain that I never thought I would be able to climb and conquer. There seemed always seemed to be something in the way. Sometimes the obstacle was internal, sometimes it was external.

At the ripe age of eighteen I arrived on campus at High Point University for my first year of college. It was then that I decided to draw a line in the sand and find out who I was outside of the game of basketball. I decided to get out of my shell and conquer my social anxiety.

In the same way that people struggle on a day-by-day basis with learning a new instrument or learning a new language, I struggled daily with building the skill of starting conversations with strangers. While I was already suffering, I decided I might as well get used to speaking on camera and public speaking.

I conquered my fear head-on. Day by day. Week by week. Semester by semester.

I joined Toastmasters, started my own organization on campus in which I was the founder & president, and took advantage of opportunities to give speeches to anyone that would listen. My audiences ranged from kids at a YMCA to Marc Randolph, the co-founder of Netflix.

I fell in love with the process (and out of love with accounting class after starting out as a Business Administration major) so much that I earned my degree in Strategic Communications. Since then, my entire professional life has been spent served in roles where I am a spokesperson, storyteller, marketer and primary communicator for an organization.

The bulk of my professional experience has been communications in local government, but I’m a student of storytelling in all industries.

Most importantly, I’m a student of the art of communication.