Scared of Public Speaking? “We’ve Got To Go Through It!”

Want To Improve? Embrace The Discomfort On The Learning Curve

🐻 "Can't go over it, can't go under it... Oh no! We've got to go through it!"

Yup: reaching to a point of comfort or expertise isn't a breeze. Just ask the family who went on the bear hunt from Michael Rosen's children’s classic.

Clients constantly ask me, "How will the team feel? Will it be awkward? Do you promise not to be cringe?" It's beautiful. What they really mean is: Will it hurt? Am I correct to feel scared? Will we look silly? Will I... 'fail'?

“We’ve got to go through it!” The truth of ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’.

But the end desire is the same: you desperately want to be on the other side of feeling stressed about public speaking, giving presentations or holding a group's attention. That's fair.

However, if that's the case, then you need someone who won't lie to you: and yes, it will probably be a little bit uncomfortable.

🛠 Truth is, there's no quick fix.

📣 When I'm coaching people to greater confidence when speaking in public or in groups, they always ask me how they can be 'fast-tracked'. "What's the secret?" they say. What they really mean is: "How do I get to achieve this immediately without any feeling of discomfort?" 

🌧 I'm sorry. I'm afraid that's impossible. You HAVE to feel discomfort. There has to be a period of trying stuff out, of getting it wrong, of experimentation coupled with (at times) a little failure.

🎨 This scary, brain-frying headspace – known in psychological terms as 'conscious incompetence' (and in the world of divorce as 'the messy middle' 😂) – is there for a reason: so that you can be creative, learn your craft, practice a heap of strategies... and become satisfyingly resilient along the way.

🩹 Sure, it's inevitably a bit uncomfortable. If you're really shy or nervous, it can even be a little bit painful.

🙌 But that's why you hire someone like me. Someone outstanding at creating and holding safe space; someone who understands that appropriate minor failure is extremely useful for your creative confidence. I'm the person who creates the scaffold whereby it's never TOO painful. Because then we'd learn nothing.

⛰ I can help you find the leading edge of your stretch zone so that you never again feel uncomfortable when speaking in groups.

🏗 I'll help you or your team to find the sweet spot of appropriate challenge.

Don't worry! I'm so good at making it fun, you'll hardly notice. 🙌🤩😊

Best of luck and let's talk! I can make it easy (well, easier) for you.