Every time you take the stage, you have the chance to do exactly that. But most speakers don't see it that way. They worry about what the audience expects. What the event organiser wants. What their industry peers will think. 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗹𝗲𝘁 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗱𝗲𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗺𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗵. And sometimes the worst bully isn't in the audience. It's the voice in your own head telling you that you're not ready, not qualified, not the right person to be up there. Frost also said: "Never be bullied into silence." Speaking from the stage is a privilege. It's also a responsibility. You get to choose what you stand for, what message you leave behind, and who you are in that moment. Don't let your inner critic or someone else's expectations make that choice for you. Define yourself. Every time. What's something you've learned about yourself through speaking? 😉

When I coach startup founders preparing for investor pitches, we run a brainstorm session that looks chaotic but works brilliantly. I put category headings on a whiteboard: industry questions, competitor questions, regulatory questions, business model, market, talent, IP, and left-field. Then we spend 30-45 minutes frantically adding every question they might get asked. By the end, the board is covered. It looks overwhelming. 𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗽 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺. You realise that one solid answer covers an entire cluster of questions. The 50 post-its become 8 themes. Suddenly it's manageable. And here's the thing most people miss: you don't actually need scripted answers for most of them. The exercise itself prepares you. You've already thought through the angles. When the question comes, you're ready. The goal isn't to memorise responses. It's to remove the surprise. What's your process for preparing for tough questions? 😉

You build your talk to a crescendo. You deliver your powerful close. And then... you open it up for questions. The first few are good. Then they get thinner. Less relevant. Someone asks something tangential. The energy drains. 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗴𝗲𝘁𝘀 𝗹𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗮𝗱𝗲. The fix is what I call a "false finish." You come to a conclusion, close your loops, and then tell the audience you'll take a few questions before wrapping up. Take questions until the quality starts to dip. Then step back into your prepared close. This way, you control the ending. You finish on your terms, with your message, at full power. An unstructured Q&A might not seem like a big deal. But a slowly deflating balloon is just as flat as a burst one. The difference is how long it takes to get there. Your close is your last impression. Don't hand it over to whoever happens to raise their hand last. Name a time you've seen a great talk lose momentum in Q&A? 😉

I was coaching a team of young startup founders preparing for an investment pitch. Some were still at university. Their concern? That older investors wouldn't take them seriously. Their pitch was solid. But I noticed one section that was particularly impressive — a piece of insight that showed real depth of thinking. So I suggested we take it out. Instead, we seeded a question in the pitch that would naturally prompt an investor to ask about it. Then we prepared a polished, seemingly off-the-cuff answer. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗲. When the question came—and it always came—they delivered an answer that made them look sharp, prepared, and deeply knowledgeable. The credibility boost was visible. You could see the investors lean in. But here's what mattered more: it boosted the founders' confidence. They saw the strategy work exactly as planned. Suddenly, they weren't nervous kids hoping to be taken seriously. They were founders who had just demonstrated command of their space. Psychologically, an impressive answer lands differently than an impressive slide. When it's part of your prepared talk, the audience expects polish. When it comes as an answer to 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 question, it feels spontaneous. Authentic. And far more credible. The trick is two parts: craft the answer, and seed the question so it gets asked. What's something you've strategically held back to make a bigger impact later? 😉

With my TEDx speakers, we usually start the talk with a blank, black slide. The screen is empty. The audience has nothing to look at except the speaker. 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘁. When you finally click to your first active slide, it grabs attention. It should happen at a meaningful moment, when the visual actually adds something. But the real trick is what comes next. When you're about to deliver a key line, the moment you want the audience to remember, click to a blank slide first. Their eyes will snap to you. And when you deliver that line, it's YOU they'll associate with it. Not some image. Not some text. You. This is about controlling attention. Slides pull focus. When the screen is active, the audience looks at the screen. When it's blank, they look at you. Most speakers leave their slides up the whole time, competing with their own visuals for attention. The blank slide puts you back in control. It's simple. But it makes your key moments land harder. Have you ever used a blank slide strategically? 😉