005 | I Got Better at Public Speaking but My Anxiety Got Worse. (Here's what finally fixed it.)
The counterintuitive protocol that helped me speak to 250 people without the usual terror
Welcome to Offscript — Issue #005. For ambitious leaders done with suffocating rules. Break the invisible cage keeping you small. Advance without betraying your values and build a work/life you don’t need to escape from. Each month, I share uncensored essays that challenge everything holding you back (so you stop feeling like a fraud.)
📌 Society (VIP) Exclusive Webinar: Speaking Success Protocol – Deconstructing My Best Speech (That Got a Standing Ovation and Bye to the Speaking Jitters!) Free for Society (VIP) members.
If you’ve been hiding behind the label of “introvert,” this one’s for you.
I thought I could build my business without speaking publicly. Work with leaders one-on-one, write books, stay behind the scenes where it was safe. But here’s what I’ve learned (and what I always tell fellow introverted leaders): if you want real impact in your career, you have to get visible.
Here’s the reality: Big stages. Real scrutiny. You will be judged.
But that’s a worthy price to pay, if your message goes further, and you make more positive impact for the world.
So, time to stop hiding.
You can’t skill your way out of a psychological trigger
The biggest problem I faced since 2022 was the intense meltdowns that occurred before every speaking event.
Lost sleep. Lost appetite. Sometimes for weeks before a single event.
But like many of you, I was so good at concealing my fears and putting on a strong front that no one knew. And I mean no one.
Here’s the ridiculous part, though:
I was already good at speaking in front of an audience. For 14 years, I spoke creatively, engagingly, off the cuff every day as a teacher. I even have a wicked sense of humor and make people laugh spontaneously!
So when I finally confided in some childhood friends about my speaking anxiety, they were baffled: “You spoke in front of students every day for 14 years. How is speaking to adults any different?”
That question broke everything open for me.
Because they were right—I already had the skills and personality. The fear was coming from somewhere else entirely.
But barking up the wrong tree, trying to fix a psychological-rooted problem by going nuclear on public speaking courses, or spending 60 hours rehearsing for a 60-minute speech, was exactly how I was destroying myself.
This is the exact problem I see in leaders everywhere: when we face a challenge, we look for the solution outside, when actually, we need to look inside.
Things came to a point where I knew the next speech was going to send me into a mental breakdown I might never recover from.
That’s when I decided to change my approach completely.
The Courage to be Seen (On Stage)
Fast forward three years. April 2025. I’m standing on stage in Osaka, Japan, in front of 250 people at a global summit. Blinding spotlight. No slides. No notes.
And for the first time in my speaking career, I’m not terrified. Here’s what happened:
When I looked back, the real win wasn’t the standing ovation, but by delivering a message I truly believed in, and feeling fully myself.
Listening to the words reverberating in the ballroom, I got goose bumps.
This was one of the first times I felt fully capable and comfortable to reveal my true self.
The irony was that I didn’t need to go crazy preparing. I only needed to prepare in a way right for me.
Without forcing or simply allowing, things flowed, and everything finally fell into place.
Developing Your Own Speaking Success Protocol
The thing was, I took three years to discover my speaking success protocol.
And you don’t have to wait for three years.
I made a webinar specially for my Society (VIP) members. I hope you will join me because with the right approach, you can find comfort and ease speaking to hundreds, thousands very quick.
That’s taking a shortcut out of needless suffering.
In this 45-minute webinar, I reveal the Speaking Success Protocol that took me from invisible meltdowns to ease on stage.
This session is especially valuable if you’re a leader who wants visibility but freezes when the spotlight’s on you. If “practice more” hasn’t fixed your speaking anxiety (and maybe even made it worse). If you know you’re qualified but still feel like a fraud every time you’re invited to speak.
Here are the 3 steps I walk you through:
1. Deconstruct your fear
Your anxiety didn’t appear randomly—it has a specific origin. And until you find it, no amount of training will help. I’ll show you the exact questions to ask yourself to trace it back to the source.
2. Turn your fears into goalposts
Most people try to eliminate what scares them. I did the opposite. Flipping the script, I turned my greatest nightmares into success metrics I can actually control. Instead of being “perfect”, I made myself “perfectly capable” in handling anything thrown my way.
3. Build YOUR skill stack
My gamechanging skill was the Leadership Storytelling. Generic speaking advice fails because we all need different skills to work with the personality. I’ll show you a set of what works for me, so you can then build a personalized skill stack based on YOUR triggers, YOUR communication style, YOUR definition of success. With that, you’ll find the courage to be fully seen.
Two ways to get the webinar
Single webinar USD 59
Or join the Offscript Society (VIP) and get a complimentary CliftonStrengths 34 assessment (worth USD 59.99), AMAs on maximizing your impact, unlimited access to expert webinars and replays, Society chats.
If this helped you, sharing it would be the best thank you I could ask for.
Have a question? Post it in the subscriber chat.
Check out the rest in this series on Breaking Up With the Fear of Public Speaking
The Speaking Success Protocol Webinar (Free for Offscript Society (VIP) Members)
Live on Substack with
Public Speaking - Getting StartedLive on LinkedIn: Public Speaking - Personal Brand
Live on LinkedIn: Public Speaking - Expecting the Unexpected
Live on LinkedIn: Public Speaking – The Corporate Skillstack
