Mm

... marked for me, for, for performing, and I had this, uh, intertwining belief that I as a performer was who I am as a person, and so this really took a huge toll on me, uh, in college.

After I graduated, I moved to New York City, and I was in various musicals, tours, this, that, and, uh, then the pandemic happened, and all of that work went away.

I was unable to perform, and I was at home.

I moved back to North Carolina to Appalachia and, uh, just trying to figure out what to do with myself because I just couldn't perform anymore 'cause of the lockdown.

And I found a company in New York who did public speaking training, and I knew that I had all these skills as an actor to help people present better.

So I did a little work study with them, and then that became an apprenticeship, which became coaching, and then I kinda grew in the company.

[laughs]

Yeah, sure.

And, uh, I was just really fully out of work, so I had to navigate, you know? I had to figure out how to pay my rent in New York City and keep myself afloat.

So I had this friend who worked for a public speaking firm in New York City, and I reached out to her, and she gave me the contacts to then, you know, get in contact with this company.

And they said, uh, "We don't really have room for you now at your age, but we'll train you.

We'll train you, we'll do some work study with you, and we'll get you going." So for about a year and some change, I trained in public speaking models, and I became a coach.

And I became another rank of a coach.

And there's something that happened with all of this that I noticed, and that was, uh, people were really afraid to just talk, to allow themselves to be vulnerable and open.

Mm-hmm.