What would happen to your career if you stopped waiting until you felt ready — and said yes to speaking opportunities right now?
Here’s something I’ve learned after decades on the speaking circuit: speaking opportunities don’t wait for you to feel ready. They knock, and they knock quickly.
The ability to communicate clearly and confidently isn’t a professional advantage. It’s a professional necessity. And yet the single most common thing I hear from people who’ve missed opportunities — who turned down the invitation to present, who said no to the speaking request, who declined the chance to lead the room — is some version of “I didn’t feel ready yet.”