Public Speaking with John Dawson

22/11/2025

I don’t have groups exactly like the one in the video this but each course I run is a revelation for the group about how much we share as humans. We think public speaking anxiety is just our own issue, and everyone else is sorted. But fundamentally it’s a very human thing. We share a lot around fear, anxiety and how critical we are of ourselves. The impostor syndrome is shared with about 70% of the population. And what I love about the video is the reminder that we have more in common than we think.

18/10/2025

Totally agree, it’s a fundamental of confidence. That’s why I had three different conversations with strangers last night. You need to practice confidence before you get the feelings of confidence

If you wait to feel ready, you’ll be waiting a long time. Courage means moving even when you doubt yourself. And here’s the trick: every small step you take builds trust in your own ability. Confidence grows out of doing, not the other way around.

04/04/2025

Last week I had a conversation with a client who’s in senior management and deeply scared of public speaking. She told me her boss kept encouraging her by saying,
“Just practice, practice, practice—you’ll be fine. It worked for me, so it’ll work for you.”

But for her—and for many of my clients—that’s the wrong advice. So wrong.
And I get it. If exposure has worked for you, this might not make sense. But here’s the thing:
Lots of people just end up practising being scared—and get more fearful.
Another leader told me:
“John, I’ve been bleep… practising for 20 years and I’m still petrified.”
For many people, exposure alone doesn’t work. It’s not enough to keep doing the scary thing and hope it magically gets better.

What actually helps?
Practice only works when it’s combined with new skills and reframing.

We need to learn:
• how to feel comfortable being the centre of attention (that’s a big one for so many),
• how audiences listen very differently from a conversation (blank faces are normal!),
• how to slow down so we can get our thinking brain back—and so our audience can follow. We're building your idea in their heads, and that takes time.
• how to shift public speaking from a “performance” to something more like a chat.
And it’s incredibly hard to learn those things while giving a high-stakes presentation.

Add to that…
About 70% of us experience impostor syndrome—so while we speak, our inner voices whisper (or shout),
“You’re not ______ enough” (good / tall / intelligent / experienced / whatever-it-is enough).

And when we feel anxious, we often see that as a flaw—as something shameful we have to fight.
But fighting that feeling only creates MORE anxiety, not less. Anxiety is a normal standard human emotion, it's hard but it's not shameful. We need to learn skills to handle problematic thoughts and feelings so that we can step out of comfort zone and into life.

So what’s the real solution?
Strangely yes—practice, practice, practice.
But only when it’s grounded in new, new, new skills.

26/03/2025

Your ancestors were both warriors....... and worriers.
If your ancestors didn't fear things, they are not your ancestors. Those carefree ancestors got gobbled up for lunch a long time ago.

For most of the time in our evolution, survival has been the main thing. Our brain is shaped by that.
Your brain remembers negative things far stronger than positive things. And quicker too - .6 of a second for negative things but ten times longer for positive thoughts - a whole six seconds!
We have inherited this stone age brain from our ancestors. And it's made us wonky. We have big feelings because of them. My argument is there is nothing wrong with feeling anxious, there is nothing shameful about anxiety but it's hard and uncomfortable. Anxiety has to be tough as it's meant to get you to run away or fight that predator. And when we struggle not to have anxiety, we are really struggling with ourselves and that's a battle you really can't win. It's a battle that actually makes anxiety worse. We have to change our relationship to anxiety and fear. For a meaningful life we need to re-think anxiety and go towards discomfort. Life is on the other side of discomfort.

25/03/2025

When we go out of our comfort zone, by definition, what are we going to feel?
Uncomfortable!
When something matters to us, we are going to feel uncomfortable. But we think "I shouldn't be feeling this feeling, confident people don't feel anxious".
That's wrong, confident people do have uncomfortable feelings but they learn how to be with anxiety in a different way. That takes them towards life rather than avoiding it. And that's the real cost of not wanting anxiety is that it leads us to leading a smaller life where we won't feel uncomfortable. But that place doesn't exist. We need to change our relationship to anxiety...

11/02/2025

“Honestly, it’s easier to suffer than to try and solve all my problems...”

By Mattito humor

10/11/2024