The Tip of the Iceberg

When you see a speaker on stage, what pops into your head?

The confidence.

How effortless it looks.

The really really really nice slides.

Perhaps all that is true, but there’s also a ton of things you don’t see.

Two weeks out when the bridge between parts makes little sense and you are thinking “why the fuck am I doing this?”

Needing a wee two minutes before going on.

Saying to the organiser “was that okay?”.

On the stage, you see the tip of the iceberg.  What you don’t see is what sits underwater.

I was chatting with a speaker mate recently who told me a story about someone who said “I would love to speak like you”.

He reminded them that what they saw on stage was a 20-year overnight success.

And that’s probably true for many things, but we are often taught to look at speakers and see the finished article.

We show the answer, but we don’t show our workings.

As someone who has done two TEDx talks, spoken on stage and done stand up comedy, I can tell you the nerves don’t go away - they are part of the process.

You just learn to carry them better.

And look mate, I’m not saying that the stuff underwater is all a bit pants.  It’s not, there are many absolute golden moments.

That moment when you come across a really fucking cool way of looking at the world that no one has seen before.

The conversations you have with people when researching the audience.

The stories that you collect while down the work.

All of that^ is magical (hard work).

I do wonder how many people think about speaking more, but when they see that the applause and on stage stuff is just the tip of the iceberg, they go “nah”.

The work I do is to help guide you through that.

Support you with the things that you need to become a better speaker.

Navigate the whole process.

Help you to speak without freaking.

When you work on this stuff, it’s less about what they see and more about who you become.  That is the real win.