Is public speaking a skill that can be learned or is it something that you are either born with or not? That is, perhaps, one of the most tedious and tiresome debates for those of us in the public speaking world. Of course it is a skill that you can learn! Nobody is born a natural born speaker. You cannot be a natural born speaker just as much as you can not be a natural born writer. The people who go on to become world class, prize winning novelists have all learned writing skills from the first grade: how to compose a sentence, how to use punctuation, how to spell correctly- and so I absolutely believe that speaking is learned skill.
You may not become a professional speaker and get million dollar gigs out of it, but that isn’t the goal of most people- the goal is to be able to communicate. And I believe anyone who has the ability to have a conversation with another human being can be a good speaker. But just as most people have not had formal instructions and guidance on how to write well, they have also not received proper training on how to speak effectively. Most speakers in the world are horrible, so if you gained some level of competence, you can stand out.
There is an article on Forbes or some other famous website which shows up on the top when you Google public speaking which says that public speaking cannot be taught and it is written by a former public speaking coach. Well, I have news for you: you are just a lousy public speaking teacher. If you say that, then there can be no music schools or gymnastics coaches either as they are skills too.
The truth is, if you get some good instructions, you can become a great speaker.