The smarter you are, the easier it is to get stuck - not because you lack ability, but because intelligence can quietly build a wall between you and the reality that would actually move you forward.

EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode, John explores one of the most common — and least talked about — reasons experienced speakers plateau.

It's not a skill gap. It's a distance-from-reality problem.

Drawing on 15 years of coaching speakers, John introduces the concept of psychological limiter loops: self-reinforcing cycles that keep you feeling productive while quietly keeping you stuck. He unpacks how intelligence, identity, and the need to protect your status can build a wall between you and the feedback, visibility, and real-world exposure that would actually accelerate your growth.

This episode covers:

• Why smart people overthink instead of executing

• How psychological limiter loops work — and why they feel like progress from the inside

• Why the hardest part of any speaker's journey challenges your identity, not just your skill

• Five practical ways to break the loop and reconnect with reality

Whether you're just starting or you've been speaking for years and know you should be further ahead, this one is for you.

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 The smarter you are, the easier it is to get stuck

00:40 What this episode covers

01:15 The Bertrand Russell quote and why intelligence creates doubt

01:50 What a psychological limiter loop is — and what it looks like in practice

02:40 How the loop builds a wall between you and reality

03:15 Why this isn't just a beginner problem

04:00 The dip - and why it's an identity challenge, not just a skill test

04:50 Potential doesn't pay the bills. Bookings do.

05:10 Personal story: nearly never doing stand-up comedy

07:15 Personal story: the keynote I was hiding behind

07:50 Five ways to break the loop

07:55 1. Reconnect with reality

08:15 2. Shorten the loop

08:45 3. Lower the exposure threshold

09:10 4. Knock the wall down

09:45 5. Act before certainty

10:20 Close — most speakers have a distance-from-reality problem

11:00 How to work with John

RESOURCES & LINKS

Book mentioned: The New Comedy Bible by Judy Carter

Concept mentioned: The Dip by Seth Godin

Visit https://strategic-speaker.scoreapp.com to take the 2-minute Strategic Speaking Business Audit and find out what's blocking you from getting more bookings, re-bookings, referrals and bigger fees. There's a special surprise gift for everyone who completes the quiz.

Want to get coached for free on the show? Fill in the form https://forms.gle/mo4xYkEiCjqtz9yP6, and if we think your challenge could help others, we'll invite you on.

For speaking enquiries or to connect with me, you can email john@presentinfluence.com or find me on LinkedIn

You can find all our clips, episodes and more on the Present Influence YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@PresentInfluence

Thanks for listening. Rating the show 5* on Spotify helps their algorithm recommend the show, so please take a moment to follow the show and leave a rating.

Mentioned in this episode:

SPGFS - Hiro.fm

Becoming known will always make it easier to get booked and podcast guesting is one of the easiest ways to make that happen, when you have the right strategy. This program will teach you everything you need to know about podcast guesting, from the tech stack to making an impact. You'll get all the tools to stand out as an amazing podcast guest and get booked on great shows.

The Strategic Speaking Business Audit

Take this quick quiz to find out where and why your speaking business is leaking opportunities.

The smarter you are, the easier it is to get stuck.

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Not because you run out of ideas,

not because you lack ability, but

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because the smarter you are, the better

you become at convincing yourself

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that you're making progress, when

actually you're mostly just spending

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time thinking about making progress.

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Welcome to Professional Speaking.

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My name's John Ball.

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In this episode, I'm going to

show you something that most

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speakers won't name directly.

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How intelligence, identity, and

status can quietly trap you and

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why so many speakers plateau, not

because they lack ability, but because

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they've drifted away from reality.

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After 15 years coaching speakers,

I've seen this pattern constantly,

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not just in beginners starting out,

but also experienced speakers who

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should be further ahead than they are.

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Here's what we're going to cover,

why smart people overthink instead

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of execute, how psychological

limiter loops can keep you stuck.

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Why the dip challenges your identity,

not just your skill and how to

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get back into real world momentum.

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Sound good?

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Let's get into it.

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The great philosopher Bertrand Russell

once said that the trouble with the world

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is that the stupid are cocksure, and

that the intelligent are full of doubt.

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And if you see any truth in that

statement at all, then this is an

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episode you probably need to listen to.

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I want you to sit with

that for a second as well.

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Intelligence gives you awareness.

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It gives you nuance.

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It gives you the ability to see around

corners, but it also gives you doubt.

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And if you're not careful, that

doubt becomes hesitation and

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the hesitation becomes inaction.

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So here's the pattern I

see over and over again.

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Has anyone ever told you

that you overthink things?

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I've heard it a few times.

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You may have dismissed it,

but what if they were right?

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And what if you couldn't see it yourself?

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Precisely because you're smart.

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A psychological limit to loop is when

your mind creates a self-reinforcing

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cycle that keeps you feeling productive

while actually keeping you stuck.

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And it looks a bit like this.

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I just need to refine this a bit more.

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Okay, so you delay action.

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No real feedback comes in.

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Uncertainty increases.

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So you refine some more.

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Now from the inside,

this feels like thinking.

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It feels like you're busy taking action,

but from the outside it's avoidance.

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And then comes the wall.

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Your mind isn't just slowing you

down, it's building a wall between

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you and feedback between you and

visibility between you and reality.

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Doubt hardens into a loop.

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The loop over time builds the

wall, and once that wall is

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up, this stops being progress.

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It becomes a mental exercise.

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In fact, when you start to butt

against that wall, you may even

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find yourself experiencing some

physical symptoms, headaches, brain

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fog, eye strain, that all feel very

real and stop you moving forward.

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Now I want to make

something very clear here.

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This isn't just a problem for

people at the start of their

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journey, not just for beginners.

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New speakers hesitate often

because they lack experience.

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Experienced speakers hesitate because

they have something to protect.

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At the start, you're afraid of failing.

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Later, you're afraid of not being as

good as you were or think you should

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be, and that's a different kind

of fear and it's harder to admit.

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From the outside, it doesn't

look like fear at all.

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It looks like standards.

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It looks like professionalism,

and it looks like craft.

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But if your standards are keeping

you invisible, keeping you off the

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stage, keeping you from getting

booked, they're protecting you,

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but they're not serving you.

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Now, Seth Godin calls the hard middle of

any journey The Dip, the place where it

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gets difficult before it gets rewarding.

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But here's what he didn't say.

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Well, at least not directly

for speakers, the dip isn't

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where your ability gets tested.

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It is where your self

image gets challenged.

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That dow, that Bertrand

Russell talked about.

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It peaks right here.

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In the dip, you're not just

asking, am I good enough?

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You are asking, am I who I think I am?

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And that question is much

harder to answer with action.

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Let me be direct with you here.

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You've got potential, you've got

ideas, you've got capability, but

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potential doesn't pay the bills.

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Bookings do.

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At some point, you have to

stop perfecting the fantasy

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and start building the reality.

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Now, I very nearly never got up on a stage

to do any kind of standup comedy and open

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mic, even though it has been a dream, a

bucket list item for such a long time.

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I thought I would do a comedy

course at some point, and then

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I'd have to do that performance.

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They'd do it at the end of the course,

and then it just never seemed like the

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right time to do it, or I'd have to

travel too far or be away from home for

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too long, or money wasn't there for it.

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There would always be some reason

not to do it, and I never did.

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Then I got introduced to Judy Carter's

book the new Comedy Bible, and started

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to learn the structure of jokes.

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I said I was obsessed.

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I really wanted to get that stuff,

even if it was just to make some

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of my speaking a bit funnier.

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But the more I got into that,

the more I realized I wanted

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to be getting up on stage.

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I wanted to do open mic

comedy, particularly.

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So when a friend told me that there was

actually an open mic scene in my city,

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I thought, oh, great, I'll do that.

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And I kept saying, oh yeah, I'm

interested, but you know, maybe I

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time I'll go and check it out first.

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I think that's what I said for

about six months or a year maybe.

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And my friend kept saying,

you should just go and do it.

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So I did.

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I, one day I had, I had just interviewed

Judy Carter for this show . And

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was so inspired by my conversation

with her that I contacted the guy

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who organized those events and

put my name down for the next one.

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Big Scary Action.

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But it pushed me to creating my first

comedy set and to doing my first ever

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open mic night, and I'm so glad I did it.

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There were so many times in life where

we can stop ourselves from moving forward

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with the things that can progress us just

because we're worried that we might bomb.

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That we might suck, that we might not

be as funny as we think we're gonna

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be, or we might not have the charisma

or presence or response that we think

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we're gonna get, and not everything

you do is going to be well received.

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That's just a fact of life.

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I can remember a point in my

own journey where I had been

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refining a keynote for months.

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I wanted better slides, better

stories, better positioning.

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But then someone asked me, when

did you last speak to a re that

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you weren't already comfortable in?

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And I didn't have an answer for that

because I realized I wasn't refining,.

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I was hiding.

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And the wall I thought was protecting

my standards was actually just

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keeping me away from the one

thing that would've improved them.

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A dose of reality.

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So how do you get out?

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Well, five things here, and

they build on each other.

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So take notes.

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Firstly, reconnect with reality.

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You don't improve.

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In theory, you improve in

contact with the real world.

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That means that real audiences, real

feedbacks, real rooms are what you need.

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Not better preparation, more exposure.

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Secondly, shorten the loop.

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The loop survives on a delay.

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So cut the delay, speak more, test

faster, get reactions, not opinions.

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An opinion is what someone

tells you after the fact.

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The reaction is what happens in the room.

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Certainly see that much more

clearly in standup comedy.

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But one of these is useful.

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One is just data.

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Thirdly, lower the exposure threshold.

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Stop trying to show your best work

and start showing your current work.

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Allow things to be in process, in

development whilst they're interacting

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with the outside world as well.

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Your best work is the enemy of your

next step because best work requires

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certainty, and you can only get certainty

from being out there and doing it.

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Number four is knock the wall down.

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If your mind has built a wall between

you and reality where you are more

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comfortable imagining doing all these

things, rather than actually doing

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them, your job is to knock it down.

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Not carefully, not strategically.

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And get a bulldozer.

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Get a wrecking ball.

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Knock it down.

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Book the talk, send the pitch.

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Get in the room before you feel ready.

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You may not even know what you want to

call your workshop yet, but offer it.

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You may only have an abstract for

your talk, but start selling it.

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Get yourself out there, get

pitching and get booked.

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Number five then is act before certainty.

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Clarity.

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Isn't a prerequisite is a byproduct.

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You will develop it.

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You will not think your way into momentum.

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But when you are there, it's an incredibly

powerful force and really the only

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thing that's gonna allow you to get into

flow and real presence, you will act

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your way there, as in taking action.

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The speakers who move forward

fastest are rarely the most prepared.

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They're the most exposed.

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Most speakers don't

have a speaking problem.

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They have a distance from reality problem.

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They're refining, thinking, preparing, but

they're not engaging with the one thing

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that actually improves their speaking.

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Reality.

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If you recognized anything of yourself

in this, if you know you've been

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holding yourself back, if you've got

the ability, but not the momentum.

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Then it might be time to stop trying to

solve this problem alone, because from the

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inside, this doesn't feel like avoidance.

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It feels like thinking.

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You feel busy and surely

busy leads to results.

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Well, actually, no, not always.

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And that's exactly what makes it so hard

to escape without outside perspective.

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If you want help breaking outta that loop

and turning your speaking into something

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that actually creates demand and not just

potential, you can book a call with me.

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The link is in the description.

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There's no expectations

and no commitments.

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My goal will be to help get you

on the right track, whether that's

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working with me in the future or

not, that would get you moving.

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That's really what I want for you,

and I hope that that's what you want

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for yourself, that's it for today.

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Wherever you're going, whatever you're

doing, have an amazing rest of your day.

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See you next time.