Lee Ball

SUE WARDS

It's the number one fear (up there with death and spiders) - glossophobia, the fear of public speaking - and Wanaka's Lee Ball not only knows how to beat it, she also believes standing up and telling your story has the power to change your life.

Lee has plenty of stories of her own. A Christchurch girl with an arts degree, who had six children before she was 33 - she's not short of material. But as a teen, Lee was afraid of public speaking. "At some point we shut down and start being self conscious. I couldn't even speak up in groups.”

In the 1980s, with three young children, Lee somehow found the time and energy to study massage therapy, join a gym, and train as an aerobics instructor ("g-string leotard, the works”). She saw Toastmasters as a way to help her with her public persona (and provide a weekly reprieve from her busy household).

Lee attended Toastmasters regularly for four years, overcoming her fear and excelling in competitions, before she and two others set up their own business, Dynamic Communication, training mainly corporate clients in Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland.

After a few years, Lee realised what she loved about the work was coaching people on their limiting beliefs about themselves. That led her to studying a life coaching diploma, which is where she met long time Wanaka/Hawea resident Tanette Hickey. The course required participants to "do their own stuff” about their lives, Lee said, which played a large part in her leaving Christchurch – and her marriage – soon after. Visiting Tanette in Hawea, Lee woke up one morning and thought: "I need to live here”.

Having dreamed of mountains and snow, and with a yearning to try mountain-biking, Lake Hawea was Lee's "healing place”. She and Tanette set up Shine Transformational Retreats, and they still run the occasional retreat, when their own interests and growth coincide.

But finding work in Wanaka is a challenge many can relate to. After dabbling briefly in real estate, Lee noticed a job advertisement for massage therapists at Oakridge and decided to apply. She's built her own massage therapy business over the past eight years, and also runs courses and private coaching on public speaking through Lee Ball Communications.

She has worked with Mount Aspiring College, and run private youth coaching and community courses with people aged from their early 20s to late 60s. "Some people come because they have a work presentation, some because they've had a fear all their lives and are sick of it. Everybody has a different reason.”

Lee describes her courses as "challenging and transforming”, and says her teaching has evolved over the years.

"I'm spending much more time on people's stories. You need personal experiences for speeches to come alive, and I've got into more inspirational speaking,” she said. "It's speaking from your heart rather than speaking to a formula or checklist.”

Lee said crafting a really good story, which will grab people's attention, needs drama and suspense. "The story needs to take the audience on a journey, through the words, your eyes, your pace. You want the listener to feel like they're right there in the story.”

That's where Smashing Stories comes in. Lee's son Luke has been organising 'true stories told live' sessions in Santiago, where he was based until recently and, now Luke’s back in New Zealand, the two decided to organise one in Wanaka. The sessions are inspired by an organisation called The Moth, which has a mission to promote the art and craft of storytelling and celebrate the diversity and commonality of human experience.

These local stories are an antidote to the manufactured stories which surround us in advertising and the media, Lee believes. "We want to feel connected. I think there's a real, big disconnect right now. But when we share these stories we see each other and it just makes us connected.”

She laughed so much at the first Smashing Stories session, "it was such a relief”.

"It's like storytelling around a fire. The barriers come down and we can allow ourselves to be who we are, without the props.”

People come along and share a 5-6 minute story based on a theme. Lee advises people who plan to speak to practice and keep their story to the time frame. "I'm trying to create something that unites people, and you can come away feeling uplifted.” She and Luke plan to hold the sessions around New Zealand, with Wellington next.

"Sometimes people think ‘I don't have a good story', but you can create a good story about anything – you can create a good story about going to New World,” she says. "I love seeing people reveal their moments in life when they've learnt something. When people share their stories it actually heals them. It's therapeutic, powerful for the audience, and sometimes just entertaining.”

This is more than her life's work; Lee believes "in the power of storytelling to change people's lives”.

The next Smashing Stories session will be held at Gin & Raspberry on Tuesday June 12, 7-9pm. The theme is 'It was time' – decisive moments, personal resolutions, being pushed to the edge. Lee's next 'Speak with Confidence' weekend workshop starts on Friday June 17. Click MORE below for more information.

PHOTO: Supplied