The clock is ticking; you can’t get out of it now.

Not so long ago it was simply an entry in your diary, an email invite, an innocuous agenda confirmation. Nothing to worry about.

But now it’s real. You are at your meeting, at your event. Now you really can’t get out of it. In a few minutes time you have to leave the comfort, leave the security of your chair. Walk to the front, turn around, face your audience. And speak.

Not just speak but speak in public.

Public Speaking.

How do you feel? Raring to go, or – as with more people than you perhaps realise – has the confidence just oozed out of you into a puddle on the floor?

Why do you feel like this? Why are the butterflies, only a while ago floating calmly and serenely now in WW1 dog fight formation firing tracers at your stomach lining? Why have your hands turned into dripping wet rags?

Why do we even bother with this torment? Why not simply send over a slide deck, slip over a snapchat, whiz a whatsapp. After all, that’s how we communicate these days, isn’t it?

Why bother building these skills?  You know why.

You’ve been to enough meetings, enough events, enough conferences to know that the confident speaker is more likely to have their story heard, become the ‘go to’ person in the room.

The confident speaker is more likely to be the one that the audience choose to have a coffee with afterwards to discuss that project, that opportunity, that business.

Your audience is hardwired to listen to a confident, compelling and convincing speaker. Why should that not be you?

It’s all about confidence. Let’s begin.