I got curious about what more there was to know – you could call this my life’s work…I spent the next year or so interviewing 40 A list actors about confidence – it turned out they were all just as nervous as the rest of us.
As a coach I started to work with politicians, business leaders exploring everything that existed in the field of turning anxious, reluctant communicators into relaxed, eager ones.
And I turned everything I learned into a succinct but very powerful set of routines and tactics that allow anyone to do exactly what I did: cast aside nerves and worst-case-scenario thinking and actually get to enjoy – in just about any circumstances imaginable – the act of discussion, presenting, interviewing and speaking.
I turned my knowledge into three books, and Gravitas and Find Your Voice, published by Penguin Random House globally have become perennial best-sellers.
Then I tested the system under extreme pressure…The height of all this was, of course, my TedxTalk about – talking (no pressure!). It’s currently been viewed well over 11 million times.
Exactly as I did, they’ve transformed their own communication capabilities and so raised their profiles and reputation in their workplace – and, often, in their social and private lives too.
If you’ve any doubts or concerns about your speaking under pressure – please rest assured: you’re not broken!
Speaking – in any circumstances – is a very learnable skill and thousands of people just like you have changed – profoundly and forever – the way they show up in any kind of high stakes moment.
