If you were reading all this stuff about performing skills and thinking to yourself, "but I'm not a natural performer", it might help to know that neither am I.

You see, I'm an extreme introvert.

Worse, I'm an extreme introvert who runs a mile from most social situations, let alone putting myself in any sort of public spotlight.

Whenever I bump into someone who hasn't seen me since I was growing up and I try to explain my job, the response I encounter is usually along the lines of,

"You! You train people to give more interesting presentations? Really? C'mon."

I don't think they are trying to be offensive.

They're just baffled. On the surface, my career doesn't seem to make sense for someone like me. Yet I'm able to present topics I care about to audiences of hundreds without giving it a second thought.

I first noticed this paradox as a child who was obsessed with magic. I was driven by a love of wonder and my desire for audiences to experience the intense emotions I felt on encountering magic. When I combined this deep need to share with some basic performing techniques, I discovered I was able to overcome my introversion and shyness, one show at a time.

It turned out that these same engagement hooks also allowed me to share my passion for science as an informal educator. These techniques didn't turn me into a different person - they just enabled me to "turn up" or "turn down" certain of my character traits for the duration of the presentation.

As a trainer I realised that if these performing techniques could help someone as introverted and socially awkward as me, then they might also be able to help other educators.