SPEAKER_01: 0:38

Welcome back to Speak Out Standout. I'm Elizabeth Green, and today's guest is Christiana Garcia. Christiana is a high school senior who has been homeschooled all of her life. And despite six severe learning disabilities, she went from being inarticulate to an advocate for learning differences, a TEDx speaker, and a keynote presenter. She's also a podcaster, an aspiring lawyer, and co-founder of Ambassadors of Tomorrow, where they raise money to support student leadership, among many other things. Christiana, I your bio is very impressive to say that you are a senior in high school. That's pretty impressive.

SPEAKER_00: 1:14

Thank you so much. I'm super happy to be here and I'm excited to talk about youth and public speaking.

SPEAKER_01: 1:20

Great. So, you know, obviously we're both in the public speaking world. And I think anybody who has any experience in it, whether good or bad, um, has a story about how it came to be. You know, going back, you said in the very beginning, you really didn't speak for many years, or you were, you know, you could speak, but not very well. Talk about your childhood and how we went from there to all the things you're doing today.

SPEAKER_00: 1:47

Sure. So, like you kind of mentioned, I went from being kind of like inarticulate to an advocate, as I like to say. Um, when I was about three and a half, I was diagnosed with a rare speaking disorder called aprexy of speech. I like to think of it, and this is the comparison a lot of experts gave my parents when I was diagnosed. If you've ever heard a stroke victim who lost their ability to speak, that's how I was born. There was basically a disconnect between my brain and my mouth, so I wasn't able to articulate words. Um, so whenever I spoke, while I had the thoughts up here, I could not enunciate or say my words correctly. So it would just sound like gibberish oftentimes.

SPEAKER_01: 2:27

Wow. And so how, I mean, I'm assuming there's a lot of like speech therapies and things involved to overcome that, or what was that like?

SPEAKER_00: 2:35

It was a lot, a lot of hard work, um, not just on my own behalf, but my parents um really were able to help me get the resources. So I've been through a lot of speech therapy from preschool to even now, I'm still in speech therapy. Um, and it was really just, I like to say, God's timing with everything. And I was uh from the moment I was born, I've really had a story to tell because someone from my background typically you wouldn't be expecting to see on stage speaking to people.

SPEAKER_01: 3:05

So right. And I think that goes for a couple different things. One is starting with a speech disability, and also one of the big, I think, uh, voids that we tried to fill up my speech and debate coach is offering speech and debate to homeschoolers because traditionally homeschoolers have been, I mean, even excluded from being able to participate in nationally recognized tournaments and things like that. So, how did you come about to where this is your passion and something you're obviously very good at?

SPEAKER_00: 3:34

Oh, thank you so much. Yes, so homeschooling and public speaking tend to not go hand in hand. Um, something I've noticed too is, you know, public speaking is oftentimes a teams event. Um, like for example, I do mock trail, which is fake core. And for a long time, I could not have fathomed to do it because it's all, you know, associated to schools. Um, so how I got involved in speech and debate originally was in middle school. Um, there were these high schoolers who were putting together a little like coaching program for middle schoolers. Um and for some miracle, I ended up being on that team. We were absolutely horrible. Um we went to one tournament, we lost every single run except one because the other team dropped out. But from there on, you know, it was it was a very funky group of kids. There was one whose first language was not English, so he was trying to grapple with that, and then I was like going straight from not being able to speak very well, and there was just a lot of things our team had overcome. But just even from that one experience, I knew it was something I wanted to do, and I eventually got involved in mock trial on the rest of history.

SPEAKER_01: 4:47

So, would did you actively sign up to participate in that program or were you kind of pushed into it? Because I know a lot of our students, I feel like their their parents kind of push them into it, and then they, you know, many of them find that they really enjoy it and they're really good at it. Um, but it's not something a lot of people raise their hands to do because it's scary to most people. So, what was that like for you? Were you ready to go, or were you kind of pushed into it?

SPEAKER_00: 5:11

I like to say a happy medium. I kind of jumped and my mom helped push me. Um basically I had the idea that I wanted to do something because when I was younger, I was very involved in theater and singing. So I had always had a passion for kind of being on stage and presenting things, but oftentimes I had a lot of self-doubt because of my differences and because of my background with my speaking abilities. So I was like, I'm not gonna be good enough to, you know, be on this team. My teammates are gonna look down on me. I don't want, you know, to go into a round and a judge is like, what are you saying? I don't understand you. So that's where my mom's support came in and she helped push me towards doing it, and I'm very thankful she did.

SPEAKER_01: 5:56

I I love that analogy of you kind of jumped and she pushed you the rest of the way. I love that. So, how did you overcome those fears though? I mean, was it just a matter of just doing it over like doing it enough? Or what do you say to somebody who's like, okay, it kind of sounds fun, but same. I'm I'm afraid I'm not gonna be good at it. How do you get past that?

SPEAKER_00: 6:16

I like to say, you are going to sec out first. It's inevitable. And you, it's really just a swallowing your pride sort of thing. I remember the first few speeches I did, for example, going back to that debate tournament plus every single round, but also coming in with a mentality of I'm here to grow for the long term. You're not gonna become a public speaking genius overnight. Um, it's taking me, and I'm still not there yet, but very, very long time and very many hours of putting in work to even get to where I am today. Um, so it's really just you can't cheat the grind. You gotta like suffer through not being the best in the room. Um, and that's always the best place you want to be. You never want to be the best. But my advice is take the opportunity if it's granted to you and just see where it goes. Try your hardest. And if you have to, you know, always have fun with it. I never say public speaking is something like black or white. I like to say I'm a happy little rainbow in the middle. I like to use my creativity. And so I would say just go for it.

SPEAKER_01: 7:19

And how this was obviously transformative for you and and the the path that you are on, and you're doing amazing things. You've been on the TEDx stage, which is phenomenal, and an you know, an honor awarded to you know, a very small portion of the population. Why is public speaking, do you think, a skill outside of the obvious, right? Why is this something that is important for kids and teens to be involved in?

SPEAKER_00: 7:46

I'll give you something where I've told so many of my peers, especially with my advocacy work in my ambassadors at the tomorrow program, I help co-found, um, where we teach Central Valley um high school students how to public speak and connect with their peers. Public speaking has given me the toolkit to be able to have conversations one-on-one and form deeper relationships. What I mean by that is because I feel confident, you know, kind of selling myself, projecting, being able to connect with an audience, I feel like I can, if you can like conquer, I'll use the analogy of like, if you can climb Mount Everest, you're gonna be able to climb a small little height. And so if you're able to go out on stage and do all these things on a very smaller scale, it's gonna really positively affect your more interpersonal relationships with your peers, your teachers, because you are able to then have the confidence to really embrace who you are in those conversations.

SPEAKER_01: 8:45

I love that. I've never given it that angle before or thought about it that way, but you're absolutely right. Um, I absolutely love your analogy, and that just makes perfect sense. So you uh well, a lot of what you do is you focus on helping other students, especially underserved students, and you focus a lot on helping people with learning disabilities, right? It obviously that's important to you because it was part of your story. But if we're if a parent's listening and they're like, you know, how can I help my child? Maybe they're not ready, maybe they're not as confident and ready to jump out and they they're not comfortable being on stage yet. How can we help them build these skills and strategies without just, you know, putting them in an environment where they're, you know, gonna compete and lose? And maybe, you know, not everybody is as resilient. Some people could go to that tournament, lose every round, and be like, I'm never doing this again. So if somebody says that would be my child, what do we do instead?

SPEAKER_00: 9:43

I'm about to give you a very if my mom when my mom watches this back, she's gonna think this is so ironic because it's something she made me do my entire childhood, which I absolutely hated at the time, but I'm so thankful she did. Um, so going back to that small scale building confidence, something my parents did to instill just very basic communication skills was whenever we went to a restaurant, whenever we were out in public checking out a grocery store, I was the one speaking to the manager, I was the one speaking to the cashier, I was the one ordering my own food. Um, even when I was having my um speech disorder stuff really, really prevalent in my life, I was still very encouraged to take those small steps because you know, if you can order your food, you're gonna be able to build confidence when speaking to, you know, your peers or speaking to a teacher. So that's my biggest advice for parents. Really just think daily lives, how can you incorporate just small little wins?

SPEAKER_01: 10:42

Absolutely. That is something we've talked on this podcast before about too, about the importance of just being able to stop to, I always say, like have them safely talk to strangers, just like that, like ordering your own food, things like that. And, you know, you're not a mom at this point, but you know, as a mom, it is very easy for us to want to jump in and just do it for our kids. It's easier, it's faster, and we don't want them to be uncomfortable or unhappy, right? So oftentimes we just do it for them. And those small wins, like you just said, a few of those small wins stack up to mean something so much bigger. And so I love that you brought that up because it's been a while since we talked about that. And I think that's an important thing for parents to remember. Let them safely talk to strangers. I I talk about how I had a roommate in college, in college, who would not call and order pizza. She would beg for us to call and order pizza for her because she was very shy. And communicating with somebody like that really made her extremely anxious. And um, and it was horrible. And she has worked through it over the years and she's she's definitely worked through it, but it took a long time. And the sooner we start those things with kids who are tend to be more resilient, anyways, and more willing to do things that we tell them to do as than adults, um, it can make a big difference over time.

SPEAKER_00: 11:57

For sure. And like I always say more is you know caught than is taught. If you're a parent listening to this, even if you are an introvert, try to have those small talk um conversations with your straight with like your neighbor in the grocery store line, or like, for example, um, I always saw my mom talking to people whenever we were on flights, and that was kind of a full circle moment because before we hit report on this session, I was telling Miss Green how I was um doing a layover and I was traveling all day yesterday, and I was on one of the flights chatting it up with the very nice elderly woman next to me for about a good chunk of the flight. And I think that was just really because I saw my mom be able to safely talk to strangers, and that helped me build the confidence to then go out of there and do it.

SPEAKER_01: 12:44

Yeah, I love it. So I I want to talk a little bit too about you currently you teach other students how to communicate, right? Um, what are some strategies that you approach them with to help them practice this in different ways and build that confidence that that maybe the mom or dad listening could could start doing today with their kids?

SPEAKER_00: 13:04

For sure. So I'll give you two separate pieces of advice. First, from just the communication aspect, and then second from the you know, speaking competitively aspect. Okay. So first for the communication aspect, just kind of smaller scale, if you want your kids to be able to present um a class presentation. The biggest thing I'd say is body language. Um, so something I always tell um people who I coach record yourself giving your speech or your presentation, mute it, watch it back on 2x speed, and that's the way you're gonna able to kind of pick up on the little things you do. So for example, I talk with my hands a lot. So when I watch it on 2x speed, it's like, oh my gosh, there's so many hand movements super fast. And it helps me visualize and just say, okay, I need to intentionally slow down my hand movements. Um body language is very important because if I'm like this, crossing my arms while I'm public speaking, it's signaling to my audience and signaling to my peers that I'm closed off. Um, or something else people like to do, you know, hands in the pockets, hands always out of the pockets. And I think that's something you can definitely take away. Um, just making sure you have open body language is very important when public speaking.

SPEAKER_01: 14:19

I love that you said that. I one of the things that I've always told our students is to record yourself and watch it back because we're our own worst critics. And we will see, you know, like it what you see when you're watching a video, or like when you like let's say you look in the mirror and then you take a picture, the you see two different things, right? Like the picture does not look like what you see in the mirror. The picture is reality, the mirror is more of what we want to see. And I think video is the same whenever it comes to getting better at anything, whether it's public speaking or piano or basketball. But I have never considered the idea of muting it. And I think that's so important because now I'm thinking back at the times that I have done that. I focus so much on what I'm saying or how I'm saying. Obviously, I'm a fast talker. You clearly have already picked up on that. And that's one of those things that I have to tell myself to slow down about whenever I am consciously trying to think about it and do it. But that's the things that I always pick up on. I've never considered, even though we know and we teach body language is so important and it, like you said, a huge part of what your audience is going to perceive. I just think that's a fantastic tip. You just kind of blew my mind with that one. So I'm excited to be able to start telling our students to try that too.

SPEAKER_00: 15:31

I won't take the credit. I got that from my Balk Child coach, Ian Lampert. He's a genius public speaker. And for someone like me, who is also a fellow fast talker, I just needed to also be able to just pay attention to one thing. And I think a lot of times coaches and parents are like, you need to fix X, Y, and Z. But just allowing students to naturally observe their own habits is I think what really build a confident and competent public speaker.

SPEAKER_01: 15:59

I love it. All right. And so you said that you were going to give us um tips for communicating and competitive speaking that we can practice at home. The competitive speaking, right, is the watching yourselves on mute. What's the tips for just making those, you know, regular everyday conversations easier for some people?

SPEAKER_00: 16:17

Regular everyday conversations, I would say being able to ask better questions. Um, so parents, if you're having a conversation with your students, really encourage them to ask better questions. Better questions does not always mean, tell me more about this. I thought it was so interesting that you said this. It could be a simple why? Tell me more. Um, that's gonna build a lot of um better communication skills. Um, and also I feel like because I'm able to ask better questions, which is a skill I've developed from podcasting, um, I've been able to engage in a lot more um everyday conversations. And that has really just like built my confidence because I know I could walk into a room and have a conversation with someone who is the most talkative person versus someone who is more reserved because I'm able to, you know, extract those pieces of information.

SPEAKER_01: 17:12

Yeah. And people love to talk about themselves. I mean, it's just human nature. We want other people to think that we're interesting and what we have to say is interesting. And so the easiest way to, you know, to do that, like you said, is ask them questions about themselves. People were always willing to do that. And um, I I'm with you. I think that, you know, being able to walk in a room and be able to talk to anybody is a skill that so many people don't have. And I feel like the older we get, the more challenging it is to develop those skills. So what you're doing in your life already is really incredible. So we have just a few minutes left. What other kind of skills or strategies that do you want to share with parents that they could help their, particularly the homeschooling kids? Or um like we can also want to talk a little bit about your program, your ambassador program. Um, you know, just what are some other things that you'd like for people to know about you or ways that they can help their kids?

SPEAKER_00: 18:08

Certainly. So I think I'm gonna hit on the homeschooling sort of aspect of things. Because oftentimes when parents are the ones homeschooling with individualized learning, they're the ones in the driver's seat, you know. Um, they're the ones kind of steering the ship, figuring out where to take them. And oftentimes, you know, there's this stereotype of, oh, homeschoolers are so awkward, they don't know how to speak to people. Um, and I always say it's my life mission to single-handedly try to ruin that stereotype in some people's heads by being a very social um extroverted person. Um but my main piece of advice for homeschoolers who are interested in public speaking is do not wait on the sidelines. Make opportunities for yourself. There's this beautiful platform called Google. Google things. Find these sorts of opportunities. There's amazing platforms like the Speak Up and Standout podcast, um, where you can listen to, um, get so much advice. And then there's different things like public speaking, um, you know, competitions where I would not have ever found out what even mock tra was if, you know, I wasn't the one researching. Um, so I would say do not stand on the sidelines, make sure you seek out these opportunities.

SPEAKER_01: 19:23

And I do think one of the I think the beautiful things, I I COVID was obviously a horrible thing in many different ways. Something beautiful, I think, that came from COVID though, is virtual learning. It's always been there, but the awareness of it, or I wouldn't say it's always been there, but it's been there for a while, right? But um the awareness of it has really just, you know, exploded since COVID. And I think that has given everybody, not just homeschoolers, but particularly homeschoolers, more opportunities to pursue things that they're interested in, whether it be speech and debate or anything, right? Being able to find like you're not limited anymore to what's offered in your neighborhood or your community. Uh, it's it's out there. You can do anything that you want. And one of the things that we're so excited about is it's been amazing that you've been able to compete in a lot of these things because in historically, like the NSDA, the National Speech and Debate Association, for people listening who aren't familiar with that, they it's not across the board, it's like a state by state decision. But in a lot of states, homeschoolers are not allowed to compete in those tournaments, which it makes no sense to me. So, but there are more and more opportunities coming around, and we're excited to. Partner now with National Online Forensics, who, which is an international speech and debate tournament, that everybody is welcome, you know? And so I'm excited that virtual learning, the awareness of it and the explosion of it due to what happened during COVID is giving students everywhere so many more opportunities to pursue anything that they're interested in, but especially something that we're passionate about, like speech and debate.

SPEAKER_00: 21:05

That's really funny you mentioned the National Forensics Lee. I actually write the mock trial cases for their um their mock trial division. And the only way I got the opportunity was one, I used to compete in it. And two, I sought out the opportunity and I reached out to the tournament organizers who was like, hey, can I start writing the cases for you guys? Um a student case writer for them, just volunteering. But yeah, there's so many opportunities out there, and really a lot of them are also online. So for example, in mock trial, I compete most of the time online internationally. So I've been able to connect with a lot of different kids from all over the world, compete against kids from China to India to even Africa. So really just utilizing all the resources that are at your fingertips.

SPEAKER_01: 21:55

Yeah, there are so many now. All right, one final question for you. Um, if for somebody who's listening and they're like, okay, I see my child in this conversation and I want them to have these experiences and all that. Let's talk about really quickly your TEDx experience. How did you get there and how was that?

SPEAKER_00: 22:14

Yes. So for any parent who's listening or any little ears that are around, you are fully able to get there. It is very doable. You just got to put in the work. Um, so how I got there was actually I was um shared the resource by a public speaking coach of mine, and he was like, hey, you should apply. And at the time, I was like, wait, aren't like TEDx talks and like stuff for experts of their field? Like, no way I'm gonna get in. But it actually happens that there are TEDx organized youth events um that are specifically looking for youth speakers. So when I applied, I was one of about I think nine youth speakers at this one um TEDx L Mar event. And there was kids from like the age of eighth grade or eighth, eight years old. So he was a very little kid just speaking to like I think I was the oldest who was a senior in high school. So there are definitely opportunities, just making sure that you are pursuing your passions at the time. That way you can then share them in your application process. I think is always something that's gonna help your child, you know, boost their opportunity, boost their chances at getting those opportunities.

unknown: 23:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 23:27

Well, Christiana, this has really been a great conversation. Again, I am so impressed with your bio. Again, it those of you listening or watching, she's a senior, a senior in high school and has accomplished so much. I you have such a bright future ahead, a world changer for sure. So thank you for taking the time to share your experience. And also, Christiana mentioned a little bit ago, we will make sure we link to the TEDx talk. So anybody who's interested in checking that out, it'll be in the show notes. So whether you're listening or watching, just look above or below and you'll see those links. And we'll also link to your podcast. You want to tell us really quickly what your podcast is about and who might be interested in listening?

SPEAKER_00: 24:04

Yeah. So calling all feature-aspiring lawyers, public speakers, or any competitive um public speakers, I would say. Um, my mock trial podcast is called Mock Talk, where I interview competitors who participate in the collegiate level mock trial as well as the high school level, as well as, you know, coaches, actual trial lawyers. Um, so that's kind of my niche. However, we do share um very broad public speaking tips. For example, the whole body language thing, um, making sure you're able to connect with other people by asking good questions, um, is all something we cover on mock talk.

SPEAKER_01: 24:43

And this is a good podcast for adults listening to who want to help their kids pursue these things, but it's geared really towards teens, right? It's a conversation for the teens themselves to be listening to.

SPEAKER_00: 24:54

Yes, I started mock talk because I noticed there was a gap kind of in the podcasting realm because I noticed in mock trial and public speaking typically, um, there's a very big inequity gap um with resources. Um, so I wanted to really just bridge that gap by offering some of the best resources and tips for everyone. And that's why I posted on YouTube so you can find my channel on there Facebook mod.

SPEAKER_01: 25:21

Fantastic. Well, Christiana, thank you again for your time for all that you're doing to improve the world around you and the generation of your generation and improving their confidence and communication skills. We appreciate your time and all that you're doing. And if you're interested in learning more about Christiana or connecting with her, all the links will be below. Thanks for listening.

SPEAKER_00: 25:40

I appreciate you.

SPEAKER_01: 25:41

Thank you so much.