Do you think you are a poor public speaker? A bad writer? I can’t count how many smart, articulate people I have met who think this about themselves.
Bottom line: communication is communication. The core skills involved – defining your message, fitting it to your audience, delivering it and adapting it based on feedback – do not change whether you are in a casual one-on-one conversation or delivering a formal onstage presentation. Important aspects of behavior and performance will change, but the underlying principles are the same.
The lesson: if you are an effective communicator in any forum, you can be effective in any other. It will require work, focus, and (hardest of all for most people) critical self-awareness, but it can be done.
