“I have definitely experienced lots of nerves all the way through, right up until very, very recently. I would say in the last five years, MCing an event still wound me up.
”Your confidence isn’t the same on any given day,” Street says. “Some days you feel like you can take on the world and nothing will crush your confidence. And other days, for no explicit reason, you’re anxious and it’s really hard to shake that.”
Street says hosting the New Zealander of the Year event is a good example of that confidence rollercoaster ride.
“Some years I’ve felt really good about it, and other years it scared me again … I’ve been doing it for years, and I still have those moments. Imagine what it’s like for the person that didn’t like it in the first place, hasn’t chosen it as a career.”
It was during a period when Street had a number of MC gigs in quick succession that she discovered what she believes to be the secret to building confidence.
“The first job that I said yes to, I felt really nervous about it because I hadn’t done it for a while. Then I did it, and then I had to do it again a couple of weeks later, and then a couple of weeks later, and I realised I just hadn’t exercised the muscle.
“It’s something that you actually have to keep working at, and then it makes it way less terrifying and way more comfortable.”
After realising what she needed to do to combat her nerves, Street felt compelled to share her experience with others.
That led to the launch of Street’s latest venture, Confident Communication, an online course designed to help participants improve their confidence around public speaking.
“When you think about it, how many people have to do this? They have to do it all the time, in all walks of life, in every job. And I just, I’m actually shocked at the lack of help people get in that space,” she says.
Along with being intentional about taking public speaking opportunities, Street suggests dialling down the pressure to be perfect.
“I think if you give yourself permission to just connect and just speak conversationally, and you don’t have to be this perfect speaker … it’s actually okay to make a few mistakes and the world’s not going to end.
“When we speak on the radio, when we speak on the telly, nothing is ever perfect, but no one cares. It’s just, ‘did they connect with me or not? Did they make me feel something?’”
Listen to the full episode of The Little Things for more from Toni Street on:
How changing the way you think about public speaking can change how you perform Why putting yourself out there can lead to opportunities you never expected What she has learned coaching everyone from Black Ferns to financial advisers
The Little Things is available on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. The series is hosted by broadcaster Francesca Rudkin and health researcher Louise Ayrey. New episodes are available every second Saturday.