I've done it the very hard way, limited success through repetitive failure.

It's who I am. I'm neither a book nor ear learner. Learning is a kinetic process for me.

For those who aren't natural public speakers it's even harder than that. They have to take lessons and shit. And practice. Practice. Practice. I got a small amount of training back when I ran as a Libertarian in 2002. How to dress, reactively listening (Still no clue how to do that), etc.

So, while I'm no expert public speaker, I have become pretty aware of a few things about it: Long form is better than short. Not all media is good media. You have to be willing to 'get into character.'

Just Be Yourself, Kinda.

Crafting a version of yourself to fit the format is the key to being both a good host and a good guest, both of which I'm still working on. That version/character you craft has a lifespan.

This isn't to say that the character is artifice necessarily. It isn't. It is the essence of the lines by T.S. Eliot from The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock:

There will be time, there will be time
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;

It's not artifice to be a gracious host or a respectful guest, in common parlance it's called "manners."

And mine, despite my best intentions, are just barely adequate on the best of days.

How well you prepare that face and greet the opportunities to meet new faces with humility, will ultimately determine how far you go. We all have that choice in front of us every day.

It's why Prufrock is one of my favorite poems in the English language, it so thoroughly captures the embedded schizophrenia of post-modern society.

You can have your script, practice your character, and maintain the lie for a certain amount of time. But eventually, no matter what you say, there you are.

The bigger the deviation that character is from the real you, the more exhausting maintaining that character is, the shorter the lifespan.