A position paper on speaking anxiety — what it actually is, why it follows you up the ladder, and how to make it work for you.
Read it free. No catch.
Your details stay with us. You'll get the paper straight away, and occasional thinking from Tara Joseph Consulting. Leave any time.
Most people assume nerves get better with experience.
They don't. If anything, the stakes get higher, the rooms get harder, and the feedback gets thinner. By the time you're senior enough for it to really matter, there's no one around willing to tell you what they actually see.
We wrote this paper because we spent years watching capable, accomplished people white-knuckle their way through presentations, or avoid them altogether. And we got tired of the advice they were being given.
It doesn't have to be this way.
The science behind what's happening in your body, and why it's not a flaw
Why seniority makes this harder, not easier
What the standard advice gets wrong
What actually works, before, during, and over time
Why the goal isn't to feel less. It's to feel differently