On stage recently, Jack Tame asked me a question I wasn’t expecting.
“I like to ask strong public speakers this… what makes you nervous?”
Without thinking, I replied:
“You.”
The room laughed.
And I meant it.
But not for the reason it sounded like.
From Structured to Impromptu in a Split Second
We had agreed there wouldn’t be Q and A.
I thought he would thank me and move on.
Instead, he asked four questions.
In that moment, we shifted from structured keynote speaking to impromptu speaking.
That shift is significant.
When you are delivering a keynote, you are in full control.
You know the arc.
You know the timing.
You know the emotional rhythm.
When someone asks you an unexpected question, you move into co-facilitation mode instantly.
You no longer control the direction.
You respond.
That unpredictability is what creates awareness.
Not fear.
Awareness.
Why Sharing the Stage Raises the Stakes
When I’m speaking solo, I know exactly where I’m going.
When I share a stage, I don’t know what the other person will ask, how long they’ll speak, or where they’ll take it.
Co-presenting is like a choreographed dance.
If one person is slightly out of sync, everyone feels it.
The rhythm changes.
Authority softens.
Transitions get clunky.
That is one of the hardest dynamics in speaking.
It requires more rehearsal, not less.
But here’s the deeper layer.
The Real Skill Behind “Impromptu”
People often call this speaking off the cuff.
It rarely is.
When Jack asked what makes me nervous, my brain did not panic.
It searched.
Specifically, it searched for a story.
And it found one.
It found a past experience where co-presenting had gone wrong.
That is why the answer came quickly.
Because I have stories stored.
That is the power of crafting and repeating your core stories over time.
When you stay in your lane and specialise deeply in your field, you build a mental library.
So when a question comes from left field, you are not inventing something new.
You are selecting from something known.
That is very different from improvising randomly.
It is pattern recall.
This is also why specialists handle impromptu questions better than generalists.
When you speak broadly about everything, answers can feel thin.
When you speak deeply about one area repeatedly, answers have weight.
Because they are anchored in lived examples.
What Makes Me Nervous Now
If I’m honest, the things that used to make me nervous are different now.
Early on, I worried about forgetting what I was going to say.
It felt like I had to memorise everything perfectly.
Now, I have so much content in my head that the challenge is the opposite.
It is restraint.
As a subject matter expert, the risk is not forgetting.
It is saying too much.
It is drifting beyond the audience’s level.
It is falling into the curse of knowledge.
That is something I remain consciously aware of.
My job is not to demonstrate how much I know.
My job is to bring the audience up to where I need them to be.
Cleanly.
Within time.
With clarity.
Time discipline matters more now than memory.
Technology, Control and Process
Another area that used to create nerves was tech.
Webinars.
Live streams.
Hybrid environments.
When something is outside your area of expertise, uncertainty increases.
So what do you do?
You create process.
Hard-wired internet.
Back-up plans.
Pre-event tech checks.
Clear run sheets.
Over time, the things that once caused nerves become managed through preparation.
Preparation reduces variables.
Reduced variables reduce cognitive load.
Reduced cognitive load increases presence.
Strong Speakers Are Not Fearless
If there is one insight here, it is this:
Strong speakers are not immune to nerves. They are aware of risk.
And they build systems around that risk.
They build story libraries.
They rehearse transitions.
They practise co-facilitation.
They control what they can control.
They accept what they cannot.
When Jack asked what makes me nervous, the audience laughed.
But behind that answer is something very simple.
Speaking well is not about eliminating nerves... it is about building depth, preparation and adaptability so that when the unexpected happens, you have somewhere to go.
And that somewhere is rarely off the cuff.
It is built long before you step on stage.
