Shy isn’t a flaw. It’s a speed setting. Some people just warm up slower.

Warming up slowly is a pace, not a defect. Some people are at ease in a new room within minutes and some need three or four meetings before they sound like themselves, and both end up in the same place. The only real cost is that the fast version gets noticed first.

Stop treating a slow start as something to apologize for, and give yourself the second and third meeting before deciding a room went badly. If you want to speed it up a little, arrive early, when there are two people instead of twenty. One conversation before the crowd does most of the work.