Shawn arrived at Master Speakers Academy unsure whether his story was good enough — for himself, for his professional life or for the people he hoped to reach. What he describes finding through coaching with Gerard Grogans was not simply help with storytelling, but someone to hold him to the goals he had set.

“I came into this with a fear of my storytelling not being good enough,” he said. By his account, that uncertainty has given way to an eagerness to speak to clients and audiences, alongside a recognition that confidence does not remove the need for work.

A story worth telling

Grogans, a transformational life and speech development coach, is the author of The Blueprint: How to Recreate Your Life in Six Simple Steps. Shawn’s account offers a student’s perspective on his coaching: the tools and techniques matter, but so do access, clarity and accountability.

For Shawn, storytelling was an area he had already identified as needing attention. His concern was both personal and professional: whether he could feel confident in his story and connect with his target audience.

“I always felt like this was a area of need for me, something that I needed to work on and get clarity and understanding,” he said.

He entered the academy without knowing quite what to expect. Looking back on the experience so far, his assessment is enthusiastic: “It's been better than I could have imagined.”

The value of being answerable

Among the elements Shawn singles out are the techniques Grogans gives students and the ability to reach him personally. But he returns to accountability as something he particularly needed.

“He's been able to push me past some of the struggles that I've been going through in my personal life to help me stay focused on the goals that I wanna achieve,” Shawn said.

He does not describe those personal struggles in detail. His emphasis is on staying focused despite them, and on accepting that asking for support also means being willing to respond to it. As he puts it, he has to “be able to move forward and be able to be coachable”.

Confidence, with work still ahead

The change Shawn describes is principally in his readiness to tell his story. He looks forward to reaching different clients and target audiences; the impact he hopes to make remains ahead of him.

“I'm just super excited about the whole process of it now,” he said.

Without the academy, Shawn believes, he would still be waiting and wondering whether he or his story measured up. His account ends not with a claim that the work is finished, but with a condition attached to his new confidence:

Yes, I am good enough, but I have to consistently do the work.