Turning Anxiety into Influence: Public Speaking Tools for Introverted Leaders

Author

Benjamin Friedman
September 23, 2025

Morning beehiivcommunity!

This newsletter turns experience into lessons for your startup. As a growth partner for visionary founders, we help sharpen leadership skills and unlock growth potential.

Public Speaking: Regale Your Audience with Authentic Presence

“There are only two types of speakers in the world: the nervous and liars.”
— Mark Twain

Public speaking often intimidates introverted founders. However, by focusing on clarity, storytelling, and practice, introverts can effectively inspire audiences, convey their vision, and build confidence through incremental steps throughout the speaking process.

This post examines the challenges and opportunities that introverted founders encounter with public speaking, providing practical strategies to convert anxiety into confidence. It addresses essential mindset shifts, preparation techniques, storytelling approaches, and stage presence guidelines while prioritizing authenticity over performance. 

The structured advice for preparation, delivery, and follow-up helps leaders progressively improve their speaking skills while maintaining their energy.

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Startup Spark

“We don’t see things as they are; we see them as we are.” – Anaïs Nin

We perceive challenges, opportunities, and feedback through the lens of our personal beliefs, biases, and experiences, and never with complete objectivity. For founders, recognizing this natural tendency cultivates self-awareness for making balanced decisions and leading effectively.

Effective founders actively seek genuine user feedback and question their assumptions to ensure their solutions address real market needs. This principle applies equally to constructive input on strategy, leadership, management, and operations. 

I recently hosted an event and afterward asked trusted people for feedback. They came through with some valuable suggestions, even though they were tough to hear. Although my first instinct was to defend myself, I instead implemented their recommended changes and now expect even better events in the future.

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Through single-point-of-contact relationships, Pliancy’s consultants operate as true business partners for each client, solving high-impact problems quickly, creatively, and with the long haul in mind. Contact Noah Tagliaferri if you want to learn more.

Need Some Help?

What if the quietest person in the room is the one who changes the world?

Build Scale Grow provides expert strategies and clear metrics for social impact, EdTech, and health tech startups, with a focus on introverted founders. With five successful M&As in ten years, we’ll help your startup reach its full potential and beyond.

Book a free 30-minute call HERE to see how we can help.