Most speakers talk about authenticity. Fewer actually practise it. There is a version of you that turns up on stage and a version of you that exists everywhere else, and for many speakers, those two people are further apart than they would like to admit.

This episode is a Pride Month episode, but the argument is not seasonal. The LGBTQ+ experience of navigating identity in public life contains lessons about presence, resilience and credibility that are directly relevant to any speaker who has ever edited themselves for the room.

In this episode:

• Why the "is it safe to be myself here?" calculation runs differently for LGBTQ+ people and what that reveals about the cost of containment for everyone
• The authenticity gap: the distance between who you tell people you are and who you actually show up as, and why audiences feel it even when they cannot name it
• Why code-switching weakens your stage presence and what the cognitive cost of self-monitoring actually means for your delivery
• How authentic living is a social act: showing up as yourself gives others permission to do the same
• The shadow mechanism: why someone being pissed off by your authentic presence is information about them, not a verdict on you
• Ken Rutowski's men's community, Metal, as a practical model for how small language shifts create genuine psychological safety
• Why living unapologetically is not a Pride Month aspiration: it is a professional standard

John Ball draws on his own experience as a gay man with a public-facing business, from navigating training rooms where he was not sure he was safe, to recognising the specific cost of collusion: excusing language and behaviour that should not have been excused, and the quiet shame that comes with that.

The close is a direct challenge. Where are you still containing yourself, and how much of that is a genuine communication choice versus fear of making the wrong person uncomfortable?

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Authenticity Costs

01:26 Safety Calculations

04:42 Containment Exhaustion

08:24 Mask Versus Persona

13:20 Code Switching Costs

14:51 Modelling True Self

17:38 Mirror And Triggers

20:46 Inclusive Community Rules

24:42 Unapologetic Speaking

26:56 Your Stage Challenge

27:51 Closing And Invitation

Mentioned in this episode:

• Metal community (Ken Rutowski): worth checking out if you are interested in a men's group designed with inclusion built in from the ground up

Connect with John:

Work on your speaker positioning with John's free positioning tool: message or email with the word "BOOKED" to receive it directly.

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FAQ SECTION

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does containing yourself on stage hurt your credibility as a speaker?

John Ball argues that a contained, edited version of yourself on stage creates an authenticity gap: a measurable distance between who you claim to be and who you actually show up as. Audiences sense this gap even when they cannot articulate it, and it prevents the genuine connection that makes a talk memorable. When a speaker asks an audience to be open and present whilst operating behind what John describes as "a wall of glass," the request rings hollow. Credibility requires congruence between what is said and who is saying it.

What is code-switching, and why does it matter for professional speakers?

Code-switching is the practice of adjusting language, tone and behaviour to fit the perceived expectations of a particular room. John Ball distinguishes between code-switching as a conscious communication choice and code-switching as a survival reflex. When it becomes a reflex, Ball argues, it weakens the speaker: softened language reads as uncertainty, hedged identity produces hedged messages, and the cognitive load of constant self-monitoring takes energy directly away from delivery and presence. Stages reward conviction and specificity, and a speaker who is managing their identity is already managing their message.

How does living authentically give permission to others to do the same?

John Ball describes authentic living as a social act rather than a purely personal one. When a speaker shows up as a full version of themselves rather than a managed, inoffensive version, they model the behaviour for the audience. Ball draws on the example of social normalisation in Spain, where LGBTQ+ visibility has been mainstreamed to the point that people are freer to express who they are. The inverse is equally true: people-pleasing reinforces the norm that people-pleasing is required, and makes the room smaller for everyone. Being willing to be disliked by the wrong people is, Ball argues, a generous act toward the right ones.

What is the shadow mechanism, and how does it apply to speakers?

The shadow mechanism is the idea that what irritates or unsettles us about others often reflects something unresolved in ourselves. John illustrates this with a personal example: an early discomfort with drag queens that a friend helped him trace back to internalised shame about aspects of his own personality. The professional application for speakers is that an audience member's discomfort with your authentic presence is information about them, not a verdict on you. The discomfort belongs to the person experiencing it, not to the speaker who prompted it.

What is Ken Rutowski's Metal community, and why does John reference it?

Metal is a men's networking community founded by Ken Rutowski, a former guest on Professional Speaking: Known. Booked. Paid. Ball cites it as a practical proof of concept for inclusive community design. The community operates with specific rules: all relationship partners are referred to as partners regardless of gender or structure, and there is zero tolerance for sexism, homophobia, transphobia and racism. Rutowski also helped establish a female counterpart group. Ball highlights the "partners" rule as an example of a small language shift that costs nothing and removes the assumptions that make some people feel like an outsider in the room.

How can professional speakers apply the lessons of Pride Month to their stage presence?

John argues that the LGBTQ+ experience of navigating identity in public life contains lessons about authentic presence that apply to any speaker. Living unapologetically does not mean living loudly: it means making choices about your presence from a place of self-acceptance rather than from fear of other people's reactions. Ball's challenge to speakers is direct: identify where you are still containing yourself, and ask honestly how much of that is a genuine communication choice versus a fear of making the wrong person uncomfortable. The speakers who move audiences most are not the ones who have edited themselves down to the lowest common denominator.

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.

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by the end of this episode, you'll have a clearer picture of what

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authentic presence actually costs you

when you suppress it, and what becomes

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possible when you stop doing that.

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Many speakers talk about authenticity

a lot, and end up performing some sort

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of managed, comfortable version of

themselves instead of showing up as

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an authentic version of themselves.

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And the gap between those two things

is where credibility quietly leaks out.

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Now, as an openly gay man with a

public-facing business, and as a speaker

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coach who's worked with speakers for over

15 years, I've earned this conversation,

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and I'm in a good position to talk about

it from personal experience as well.

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So we're going to talk about things

like containment, code-switching,

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the discomfort others feel when

you stop performing for them,

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and what living unapologetically

actually looks like in practice.

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Welcome to Professional Speaking, the show

for people who are serious about speaking

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and becoming known, booked, and paid.

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My name's John Ball, professional

speaking coach, keynote speaker,

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stand-up comedian, and sci-fi nerd.

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And I'm here as your guide on

the journey to a successful and

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long-lasting speaking career

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Now, most of us have learned to

edit ourselves for particular rooms

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and environments that we go into.

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This is not a concept that is exclusive

to people in the LGBTQ+ community.

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Everyone has some experience

of this on some level.

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But for those of us who have had to manage

identity as more of a survival mechanism,

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the habit perhaps runs a bit deeper,

and the cost is and has been higher Now,

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there is a calculation that we generally

make when we go into any new environment,

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any new situation, and that calculation

is this: Is it safe to be myself here?

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Is it safe to openly express

who I am and what I'm about?

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Now, we do all make this to some

degree, but sometimes this is like,

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well, do I let full rip as to my

personality quirks, my extroverted

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nature, my bawdy sense of humor?

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Maybe not initially.

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We contain some elements of ourselves

until we feel safe enough or

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secure enough to be able to express

those in particular environments.

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So there are aspects and elements of

ourselves that we seal off, that we

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hide or box away, at least until we

feel safe enough to unbox them and share

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those with others in our community.

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And that can be a process and a journey

of learning to feel comfortable.

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But we probably have all come across

people who seem to be able to march

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into any environment or situation and

be fully themselves, unapologetically,

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and we may have issue with that.

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We might think they're brash, we

might think they're aggressive or

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overly assertive or super extrovert.

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It might make us uncomfortable

that they do that.

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And I think probably one of the reasons

why that could happen, and probably

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would happen in many situations, is

because some part of us wishes that we

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were able to live as assuredly as that.

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There is a level of envy in

somebody who has a high level of

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self-assurance and self-confidence

to be able to go into any situation.

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And that does relate to part of what

we're talking about, because this

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is something that affects all levels

of confidence, and there are many

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levels of confidence that we have.

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Building confidence in certain

situations and environments is

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a process, is a journey that can

start to become a bit more confident

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next time, a bit more confident.

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It generally isn't a switch getting

flicked and suddenly you're confident

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and fully open and expressing yourself.

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So usually it is more of a, an

adjustment, an environmental change

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that slowly, gradually turning up the

dials until you can get to a level of

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self-expression that you feel is the

fullest that you can express yourself

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in that situation or environment,

which even then may not be a full

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self-expression because we always do adapt

ourselves for the situations we're in.

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But what exactly are we adapting for?

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Are we adapting just some aspects

of ourselves, some personality

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quirks or insights that may not

be suitable for every situation

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and perhaps should be contained in

professional settings or similarly?

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Or are we actually suppressing a

significant part of our identity because

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we are concerned about not being accepted

or about being excluded, about having

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some sort of harm come from that, or

being treated punitively because of it?

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That these are very real

situations that people can face.

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the containment element itself

ends up being a performance.

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It ends up being exhausting if we're

doing it all the time, because every bit

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of our energy that goes into monitoring

your words, your presentation, that's

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energy that isn't going into your message,

into your delivery, into your ability to

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connect it might actually be creating a

barrier in between you and your ability

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to connect with your audience, because

you can't be fully present in that kind of

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energy when you're having to self-monitor

and self-censor the whole time.

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So we end up doing things like

softening the language that we use,

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deflecting personal questions, not

telling stories from our own personal

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lives and experience, never quite

letting the audience all the way in to

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see the full self, the full picture.

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Always keeping one foot somewhat off

the stage, at least metaphorically,

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because we don't want to give

away too much personally.

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We perhaps worry that we won't be accepted

or that we won't be thought well of.

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And again, not exclusive to

people in the LGBTQ+ community.

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We all have those aspects to us.

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We all have stories and experiences

from our lives that think, "I

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don't know if other people would

understand that or accept me for

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it," or, you know, "If I shared

that, what would people think of me?"

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And so many of us will end up staying

well away from that, containing all the

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personal aspects of ourselves to show

up as this sort of professional speaker

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who isn't telling any personal stories,

who isn't creating any way in to be able

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to create engagement and access, even

if some people may not be like that.

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Nobody-- I don't think any speaker's

ever got on stage and had 100% of

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their audience love them, there

might be exceptions to that.

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But generally for a talk, if

you've gone to see a particular

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speaker, you go to see that speaker.

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But in other talking situations where

people haven't come just to see you as a

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speaker, the chances are that not everyone

in the audience, maybe even only 80,

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90% of the audience will even like you.

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They might be indifferent to you, or

they might actively dislike you, and

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it's really about letting that be okay.

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When we're trying to be this sort

of bland, likable by everybody

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and inoffensive to everybody

person, we end up becoming boring.

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We end up becoming uninteresting.

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We end up becoming impenetrable as

well because they don't feel that

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they can connect to us personally

because there is nothing there

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personal of us for them to connect to.

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So for speakers, this becomes

a credibility problem.

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You're asking audiences to be present with

you and open with you whilst you yourself

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are operating behind a wall of glass.

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And certainly I have done this myself, and

I think my first ever presentation, which

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was actually about, in front of about

2,000 people, so it was pretty scary.

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But I don't remember a lot of it

because very, I was very nervous.

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It was a big blur.

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But I do know that I was very wary about

not sharing any personal information.

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Other people who were going up on stage

at this particular event to talk were

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sharing stories from their life, from

their personal lives, from their lived

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experience, talking about husbands,

wives, partners and whatever, and I

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was very wary about doing that because

I did not want to let people into

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that side of my life, thinking, "I

know a lot of people don't like that.

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A lot of people won't accept me for that."

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And so I kept it contained.

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this isn't the same as when we sometimes

have a conversation about curating

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your stage persona, because that

should be about curating authentic

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elements of yourself, not about

curating a character that you are

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going to be playing on the stage.

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And so what we're talking about here

is about, it's all about putting

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on a costume, putting on a mask.

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We talked about the mask of

professionalism before on the show.

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You're stepping into being an

imitation of who you think you're

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supposed to be in that environment,

of what that's supposed to look like,

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what that's supposed to sound like.

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And all the personal a- aspects,

all the elements that make you

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you, apart from just what you

look like, that's all put away.

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And we call that professionalism

a lot of the time, and it's not.

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This creates an authenticity gap.

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It creates a presence gap, a- and it's

the distance between who you tell people

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you are and who you actually show up as.

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And audiences can feel it, even if

they can't name it, even if they

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weren't really looking for it.

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They will sense that there's

someone on stage that they

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can't specifically connect to.

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Now I worked my way through various

careers and used to be a flight

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attendant, and that was a very easy

environment to be myself as an open

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gay man and didn't really have to

do much calculation there about am I

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safe to be myself in this environment?

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That was pretty easy.

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And then going from that into the

coaching world full time, there were

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more calculations that needed to be made.

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I didn't always feel

safe in every situation.

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Sometimes I would end up working with

clients from particular religious

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backgrounds and beliefs, and, obviously

that was never really my purpose

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as a coach for me to be sharing

my personal stories or my whole

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situation with them on coaching calls.

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But from the stage, and from training

rooms is a little bit different because

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most people, heterosexual trainers

would very regularly talk about

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their wives, husbands, girlfriends,

boyfriends openly and without pause,

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without anyone batting an eyelid.

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So for a gay male trainer and presenter

to start doing that, it does cause some

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eyelids to bat, and these are things

that do end up getting thought of.

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In, one personal development company

that I was in I found out that the,

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the owner, the founder of the business'

daughter was gay as well that, I

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really started to feel all right.

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I think, you know, they obviously love

her, and they would defend her to the

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death and, I, I felt safe after that as

like any issue that I end up having with

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a client that maybe relates to that, "Oh,

I don't want to work with a gay coach"

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or something like that, or a gay trainer

would've been very swiftly dealt with.

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And you don't always know that

that's going to be the case,

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that you will be supported in the

environments that you go into.

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You just have to hope a lot of the time.

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It does change the calculation when

you you get that new information.

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But everybody, everybody is to some

degree has some elements of calculating

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their safety in a particular environment

to express themselves and to express

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themselves as fully as they can, but this

is really whether it's a conscious choice

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or whether it's more of a survival reflex.

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Because when it's a reflex, I think this

is something that ultimately weakens you.

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it's softening your

language to avoid friction.

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It's, it's carefully, quietly eroding

who you are to be safe and acceptable,

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to be unexcluded from audiences,

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Audiences will read that as uncertainty

or inauthenticity, even if you intend

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it as professionalism, even if you're

doing it out of nicety and politeness.

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It's again, this barrier between

them being able to connect with

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who you are Even if you suspect

that the audience might not support

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who you are, it's a challenge.

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So in the professional speaking

context specifically, stages do

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reward specificity, conviction,

presence, but also your stories.

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The stories as well that if we never tell

personal stories, if we are hiding our

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life from our audience in a way that we

don't allow that we don't allow any of the

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stories that we tell to give insight into

who we are and to have what our lives look

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like, people can't really relate to us,

and we become this kind of speaker that's

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more of an entity, that is more of a

character on stage rather than ourselves.

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So this isn't a curated persona.

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This is a different persona

because it's not you.

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It's a costume that you're putting on We

can also end up in these situations where

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we're constantly hedging our identity or

equivocating in our message just to try

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and keep from anyone being offended or

upset or bothered, and that helps nothing.

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There's not much space for equivocation.

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There's not much space for hedging

and nuance in a lot of stage

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conversations and a lot of presentations

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Now, the, the cognitive load of

self-monitoring is pretty well

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documented and measurable, and you

can certainly look into that more if

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this is a topic that interests you.

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But we don't need to

go full academic here.

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the lived version is perfectly sufficient.

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There's definitely been moments for

me where I have caught myself code

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switching on stages more in the US

than perhaps in the UK and Europe.

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But, certainly it has happened,

and it does feel like there's

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the, the recognition that I don't

feel safe to be myself here.

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That's the first thing that comes off me.

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It's not an unconscious thing at all.

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It's not a reflex action.

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I'm very aware that I do it, and

I make the choice in the moment.

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It would be like, now I can walk

around the city of Valencia where I

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live and hold hands with my husband

if I want to, and nothing happens.

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But if I go to travel to other countries,

even to the UK where I'm from, and do

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that, I'm calculating whether I'm safe

to do that, whether I'm safe to openly

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be myself and hold hands with my husband

in that environment, and that's a cost.

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That's a cost.

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That's a safety cost.

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You ha- uh, take that appeal.

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Well, is, is it really worth it?

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Is it worth the potential hassle or harm

or grief that might come from just walking

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down the street holding hands, two men

walking down the street holding hands?

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Seems crazy really, but

that's the way the world is.

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There are perhaps other reasons

why we might want to still hold

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hands in that space or still be

truly authentic in situations

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where we may not feel 100% safe.

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Because authentic living isn't just a

personal act, it isn't just about what

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it is for us, it's a social one as well.

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When we stop performing the managed

version of ourselves, when we show

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up as our true selves, not only

are we able to be more present and

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connected with our audience, but

we are tacitly giving permission to

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people in the audience to do the same.

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Not telling them to do the same.

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We're just showing up and being true to

ourselves, and in doing so, giving them

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encouragement, showing them that it can

be done, and modeling the behavior of

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showing up as your true authentic self.

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So because you model it for them,

it's easier for them to be able to

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see themselves doing that as well.

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And ultimately, this is one of the

reasons why countries like Spain, where

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I live, have become more progressive

because these behaviors have been

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more modeled, they've been more

mainstreamed, rather than people saying,

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"Oh, we can't have people seeing that.

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We can't have people seeing gay

people 'cause it'll turn them gay."

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Well, which is obviously ridiculous.

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Because it's become so normalized

in the society, because it has been

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modeled, people are much freer to be

themselves, to express who they are.

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It hasn't created more gay or

bisexual or transgender people.

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It's just allowed those who are to be

more fully self-expressed and feel safer

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in a, in a whole country, really, pretty

much the whole of Spain is pretty good

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and progressive on these sorts of things.

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Sadly, I know It may not

be the case where you are.

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But the inverse is also true.

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When we people please, when we contain,

when we reinforce the norm, that

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people-pleasing is required, and that

we have to keep everyone happy and

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not upset people, not rock the boat,

manage the status quo, not demonstrate

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something that's different to the norm,

the accepted norm that everyone is used

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to, when we go along with that, we end

up making the room smaller for everybody.

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So being willing to piss off the

people who are not your people

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is not aggression, it's clarity.

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And it is generous because it signals

to your people, to your actual people,

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that there is space for them, safe space

for them, they can see somebody who is

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like them being freely themselves in a

public space or being willing to risk

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the costs that might come along with that

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Somebody being pissed off by your

authentic self, your authentic

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presence is more information, and

it's information about them rather

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than any kind of judgment about you.

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So it's worth thinking about

that and exploring that because

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this is the shadow mechanism.

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This is the concept of the things

that irritate us will often reflect

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something in ourselves that we

haven't fully made peace with.

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And, you know, from my own personal

experience, like when I was, when

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I was very first out of the closet

as a fresh, young, new gay man, a

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long, long time ago now, I had a

bit of an issue with drag queens.

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Not, perhaps not completely uncommon,

but, I w- didn't really like or

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feel comfortable around drag queens.

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Didn't like going to drag shows

and, and there maybe weren't as

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many as perhaps there are now.

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But they, they did exist, and they have

done for a long time in UK culture.

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And it took a friend to

challenge me on that and say

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that this was actually my issue.

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This was me feeling uncomfortable, like

some aspect of m-my masculinity was

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feeling challenged or some aspect of

how I see myself as a male, was feeling

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threatened by a man who was dressed

up as a female and acting as a female.

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Rather than being able to see it as a

form of entertainment, self-expression,

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even empowerment to some degree, I was

seeing it more as a representation of

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my own internalized shame around aspects

of my own personality that were more

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related to my still lingering religious

hang-ups at that time than anything else.

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So it wasn't even about them, it was

purely about me and what they and

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their presence was bringing out for me.

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So I had to learn the hard way, but I did,

and thankfully, I learned quickly as well.

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And now, of course, I love

drag and think it's a wonderful

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art form and allows incredible

empowerment and self-expression.

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The being able to step into, that

sort of persona can be very freeing

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in that particular art form, allowing

you to have experience and, say and

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do things that you might otherwise

hold yourself back from doing.

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It can be very liberating for many people,

and it can be transformative in some ways

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But the point is more the

mirror rather than the medium.

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It's like when things get held up to

us and they make us uncomfortable,

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or when we hold things up that make

other people uncomfortable, the

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issue is within the person who's

uncomfortable, within the person who's

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choosing to be upset or offended.

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it is ultimately a choice.

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We're not going out there generally

with the intention to upset or offend

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people or to cause harm and complication,

but rather going out there living as

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your true authentic self is nothing to

be apologized for But it may bring up

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things for certain people, especially in

these days of culture wars, and I don't

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really want to get into that whole thing.

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But your job on stage is not to manage

everyone else's comfort, it's to

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create connection and trust so that

real things can be shared and said.

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And you can't do that effectively, truly,

whilst you're performing some kind of

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version of yourself that's designed not to

rock the boat or offend or upset anybody.

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Now, very early on in the days of this

show, I did have the privilege to connect

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with somebody called Ken Rutowski, and

Ken has this wonderful community, online

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community, but I think they have some

real, real-life meetings as well, for men.

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I think it has now expanded to

women as well, and they have a

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men's group, a women's group,

and sometimes they come together.

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it's called Metal, for anyone

who wants to check it out.

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I think you can go and check out one

or two events for free, and it's…

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I think it's worth doing

if you're interested.

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So what makes it notable isn't that it

exists, because there are other networking

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groups, but there are some specific

rules that he holds within the group.

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So all partners, whether they…

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Well, in the men's group particularly,

all wives or girlfriends are to be

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referred to as partners, regardless

of relationship structures.

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And the same for anyone who is in

a gay or bisexual relationship,

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husbands and boyfriends are also

to be referred to as partners.

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So everyone refers to their

relationship person as a partner.

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There's also a zero tolerance on

sexism, homophobia, transphobia,

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racism, and if there's any pushback

from any of that, it's really because

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I think a lot of people are used to

being able to go into environments and

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those things have been okay for them.

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And suddenly you may find yourself in

an environment where those things are no

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longer okay, and where even just something

as simple as reinforcing societal norms

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that ultimately do state that this version

of living your life is better than that

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version of living your life, or, you're

not the norm, therefore you are different.

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Or even just things that sometimes

cause cliques and separations of groups

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saying, "Well, you know, we, we're

gonna stick more with the people who are

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more like us, and sort of not so much

with the people who are less like us."

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Being put in the situations where

those things are being thrown aside to

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say, everyone is to be included here.

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Everyone is to be made welcome, and

not to feel different or othered in

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this group," that's very powerful.

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And even though there might be people who

will protest about pronouns and whatever

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else, the, the idea of calling somebody

by a different name than the one that's

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on their birth certificate, whatever

other nonsense that it gets into When

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you go into an environment that has those

sorts of things in place, you can't help

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but feel more welcomed and connected

that everybody is being respected here.

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Nobody is more special than anyone else.

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The people who historically have perhaps

had more privilege, for want of a better

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word, than others are not being given

that privilege in this environment.

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Everybody here is on the same level,

and if we have to make language more

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neutral in order to do that, which is what

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Ken's done, that's what we're gonna do.

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And that actually does create a

psychological safety for those who

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may not feel so otherwise accepted

and welcomed into particular groups.

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It might still be a little awkward

or uncomfortable for some people who

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perhaps are more adapted to the norms,

but it's certainly a more progressive

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approach to take, and certainly

an uncommon one as well, sadly.

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hopefully we will see more of that.

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But it is important that we have

these communities where men can

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connect with other men And it's

great to have one that's been

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designed a little bit differently.

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So these small shifts, they cost

nothing and they signal everything.

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It's not for the sake of political

correctness or virtue signaling.

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It's really about removing the

assumptions that would make anyone

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feel that they were outside of the

main group or that they might not be

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as fully accepted as other people.

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And it does work.

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The, the, the problem generally, the

pushback comes from those who are used

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to having things their way and going into

an environment where that no longer holds

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To pull all the threads together here,

what makes this relevant to professional

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speakers, because even though Pride

Month is the occasion for this episode

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The argument itself isn't seasonal.

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The LGBTQ experience of navigating

identity in public life contains

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lessons about authenticity,

resilience, and presence that

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have direct professional value.

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Living unapologetically is not the same as

just living loudly, making a lot of noise.

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You don't have to be waving your

flag in people's faces, although,

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you know, good for you if you are.

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But it does mean making choices

about your presence from a place of

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self-acceptance, less fear of what other

people think of you, or whether you are

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fully accepted in certain situations,

and less of a place of managing

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other people's reactions, but rather

just deal with whatever comes along.

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Because nearly always I find in those

situations where you think about

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the people who do more often go into

circumstances and environments as a

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fully confident version of themselves,

owning exactly who they are and being

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unapologetic for that, it's rare that

they will get publicly challenged for

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that, especially in polite society and in

corporate, in the corporate world as well.

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even if conversations may be had

more in private about that, which

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undoubtedly happens, certainly, public

perception can be very different.

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So diversity isn't so much a problem

to be managed, it's a resource.

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Different lives, different perspectives,

different ways of reading a room.

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And these are things that the

speaking profession and well, all

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of us benefit from when more kinds

of people show up as their true

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selves, as their authentic selves.

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So for speakers specifically, you stepped

up onto the platform to say something that

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was worth saying, and that takes a version

of you that has something at stake.

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Stakes matter.

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So a version of you that is

edited down to the lowest common

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denominator has nothing at stake.

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It's not even really you, it's

just a, a caricature of you,

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The kind of speaker you are when

you're fully present versus the

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kind of speaker you are when you're

managing the room is very different.

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It's a really different experience

and one that the audience will spot.

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So my question for you is not so much

whether you support LGBTQ+ rights or not.

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I hope you do.

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I make the assumption that Most

people listening to this will say yes.

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The question is what you're doing with

your own authentic self in the meantime.

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Where are you still containing yourself?

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What version of you shows up on stage?

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And how much of that is genuine

communication rather than fear of

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making the wrong person uncomfortable?

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The people who are gonna be genuinely

transformed and moved by your words,

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by your talks, are not the people that

you're currently editing yourself for.

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they're the people who are waiting

to see if you're actually real

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before they decide to trust you.

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So living unapologetically isn't something

just for a Pride Month aspiration.

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It should be a professional standard

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The stage is not a place for the

version of you that everybody's

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comfortable with, and it never was.

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Now, I hope that something has hit for

you about what we talked about today

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in terms of authenticity and showing

up as a true version of yourself.

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And more than anything, I hope

that it leads you to go and do

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something about it and do something

that's worth talking about.

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I'm doing a lot of work on

positioning at the moment, and

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if your speaker positioning is

something that you need to work on

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as well, do come and connect with me.

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I will send you my free positioning

tool to help you work on your

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positioning and invite you along to A

Position of Authority, the event that

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I'm running very soon, which will be

a small online event for those who

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would like to do some work on making

sure  that their expert positioning is

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relevant and getting them booked and paid.

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That's it from me.

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Have a great

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Pride Month , and we'll see you next time.

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Take care.