The more personal you are, the more you will touch people. Make yourself vulnerable in front of strangers. Why not tackle both at the same time? If you want to work on self-confidence, go on stage and tell your story.

Speaking in public is one of our greatest fears. This is an incredibly powerful process for healing. You embrace your shadow and surrender the weight you’ve been carrying. When you tell your story, you make yourself vulnerable. If you feel something heavy is sitting at your core and you need to get it out, talking about it is the way to heal yourself. Here are the most important reasons why you should take the plunge and share your story with the world (or at least a small, receptive audience). Certainly part of the point is to entertain the audience with a compelling narrative taken from a pivotal moment in your life, but in doing so you also form a closer bond with the audience than you would have ever expected and experience newfound growth and catharsis at the same time. What I’ve learned from telling my personal story-honestly and openly-and helping others craft theirs, is that a kind of alchemy takes place. Since starting Stand Up for Passion, we’ve heard tales of spontaneous acts of kindness, survival, bravery, cowardice, kismet, lost loves and fresh starts.

I work with each speaker over the course of a few weeks to create a cohesive story around the theme of identifying and then following a life's passion. It’s a seven-minute talk, just you and the mic. Several years earlier, I created Stand Up for Passion, an alternative to TEDx, as a way for ordinary people to express their struggles and achievements in a public forum without fear. I wanted others to find the same experience. Being able to express myself to a receptive, completely engaged audience gave me a new sense of freedom and creativity. When I gave my first TEDx talk about the power of happiness, it was life-changing. Watch your well-being soar when you open yourself up to others.

Tell your story