Confidence coaching for presenting and public speaking

Develop your self-confidence and learn to change your relationship to your anxiety with one-to-one coaching with John Dawson

I’ve been working with people who want to be more confident and change how they feel about public speaking for 24 years. I offer coaching to help people tackle issues around anxiety, confidence, being more authentic and present in their lives and to take action to build a life that’s rich, full, and meaningful. So you can live a more confident life

Check me out!

Often people book just a one hour session with me (there is an introductory rate of £45) to check out whether it’s the right course for them or they want to work with me! Book the intro session here.

“I have found the coaching sessions with John very supportive and understanding so far. He takes a compassionate approach and stimulates me to think about the core issues and active ways to accept and move forward towards the person i want to be. He is a great mentor figure.”
Mike

Can one-to-one coaching help me solve all aspects of my public speaking and presenting anxiety?

One-to-one coaching helps you understand what is going on for you around your anxiety, and around public speaking. I can help you develop stronger confidence skills, the individual, in-depth focus on your specific issues can give you a chance to reframe public speaking and to make it simpler. People have made significant changes through personalised coaching and I love supporting people's change in whatever way they choose to explore…

And here comes the but.... But coaching is NOT a substitute for a course.

Some people hope that four online coaching sessions, talking about public speaking, can be a substitute for actually having to do any public speaking. I really understand that desire — so much easier on Zoom! I’m sorry to break the bad news though — online coaching can help a lot, but it won’t deliver the full transformation that is possible by doing a course.

Lots of people have issues around being the centre of attention for instance and you can explore what that’s about online, but the value of the course, and the reason the impact is deeper and longer-lasting than coaching is the power of the actual experience of being the centre of attention. On a course you can actually change how you FEEL about public speaking, get real practice and turn the theory of coaching into the practice of being in the world.

Coaching AND a course can be really helpful

Coaching AND a course is great mix especially if you are anxious. Ideally, I would suggest at least one hour before coming on the course. You’ll get far more out of the course that way. And often people like having sessions after their course for continued support. Having shared all of that, I want to reiterate that it’s all your choice and I will always be flexible to provide the support you most need.

“After only a few weeks into my coaching with John, I am learning to be (a lot) kinder to myself, and how to ‘do life’ without the unnecessary worry and anxieties that used to linger over me. I am already feeling more confident and as a result, I am enjoying my life more and I am happier. I am learning lots of ‘life’ skills, like allowing myself the pleasure of really being in the moment - without worrying. I think the best thing about this coaching is that by practicing these skills every week they are becoming a part of me, and are mine to keep. I am building up my confidence from within and that’s just so empowering to me.”
Debbie

“John’s methodology and coaching really changed things for me professionally for the better. It only took a few sessions to make a massive improvement to how I think about my daily interactions at work, the way I feel about presenting and to the way I mentally treat myself. His easy-to-follow approach makes logical sense, is fairly easy to implement and practical to form into a daily practice. The tools John taught me are now invaluable assets to me and it is likely I will use them for the rest of my professional career. I highly recommend John’s coaching.”
R.W.

Coaching background

I’ve been coaching public speakers for 24 years and over the last eight years my work has been strongly influenced by an approach called Acceptance and Commitment Coaching or ACC.

How I work

Sessions are usually done over Zoom or if you live close by, at my house in Larkhall, Bath.

Start here - introductory session offer - save £50

I charge £45 for the first hour as an introductory offer. You can any questions about anxiety you may have, to help start building your confidence, to learn new ways of thinking around anxiety and confidence, or maybe explore whether my two day course is right for you.

To book your initial session click here.

Regular coaching - individual sessions

I’m offering further sessions at £95 an hour.

To book your hour’s coaching click here.

Regular coaching - four sessions

There is a discount of £10 a session if you book four sessions at once. Four sessions for £340.

Cancellation policy for coaching clients

There needs to be at least 24 hours notice of cancellation of a coaching session. If you don't cancel in time: you will either lose that session out of your series of sessions or if you have booked a single session you will have to re-book. If you don't give me notice, I lose my income for that session. I don't have time to find another client for that space. It's a bit like buying a theatre ticket, if you don't turn up the seat is empty for that sesssion.

“The session was illuminating. As a coach you were incisive, direct and punchy in your summarising, and it was like having a torch shone into my skills cupboard! I wrote a short list of the points you drew out and jotted down the phrase you used about “what brings you alive”. This has shifted my focus to focussing on looking at what has worked and why in the different jobs I have done. Although I started out by stating that I wanted to feel more confident when introducing myself to people, I got far more out of it than that. I got an illuminating snapshot of my evolving self, that is in need of further exploration!”
Anna

“I wanted to say how helpful I thought our conversation was today. You have such a calm manor and highlighted to me the unhelpful patterns I have been getting into. The stories you tell help to give more meaning to the ideas you talk about. I'm really looking forward to practicing your techniques, learning to be confident and booking onto a 2 day course! Brilliant experience of coaching.”
Gemma

More feedback from coaching sessions

“I have found the coaching sessions with John very supportive and understanding so far. He takes a compassionate approach and stimulates me to think about the core issues and active ways to accept and move forward towards the person i want to be. He is a great mentor figure.”
Mike

“The thirty minute coaching call with John Dawson has left me completely inspired and enthusiastic. Prior to the call, John had asked what I would like to focus on, I had selected 'how to structure my presentation', I felt that I had a lot of information and no idea of how to put this across in what was to be an important presentation. I started our Skype call by giving a very brief overview of the subject. John started immediately to ask me smart questions that made me truly think about the audience's perspective, my motives, the big idea, etc. I can honestly say that even in the first few minutes, I felt a big 'aha' moment and my entire focus for the presentation shifted and came alive. John made excellent suggestions on how to involve the participants, made clear suggestions as to the balance of time, shared a simple and highly effective PDF and left me with a sense of clarity. He refreshed much of the passion, confidence and inspiration from the two day course that I attended with him (two years ago). In short, in thirty minutes, John has transformed my overview of the presentation from a mass (or a mess) of ideas that I would be sharing into an interactive presentation that I would love to sit through myself. John Dawson, you are inspiring, calm, knowledgeable, empathetic and awesome and every presenter should spend time talking to you.”
Tracy

“The session was illuminating. As a coach you were incisive, direct and punchy in your summarising, and it was like having a torch shone into my skills cupboard!
I wrote a short list of the points you drew out and jotted down the phrase you used about “what brings you alive”. This has shifted my focus to focussing on looking at what has worked and why in the different jobs I have done.
Although I started out by stating that I wanted to feel more confident when introducing myself to people, I got far more out of it than that. I got an illuminating snapshot of my evolving self, that is in need of further exploration!
Many thanks for the guidance!
Best wishes”
Anna

“Hi John,
I wanted to say how helpful I thought our conversation was today. You have such a calm manor and highlighted to me the unhelpful patterns I have been getting into. The stories you tell help to give more meaning to the ideas you talk about. I'm really looking forward to practicing your techniques, learning to be confident and booking onto a 2 day course! Brilliant experience of coaching.
Thank you so much”
Gemma

“Facing the rather daunting prospect of delivering a series of key presentations to several large groups which I was quite apprehensive about, my immediate reaction was to talk to John having previously attended one of his excellent public speaking courses.  John listened very carefully to my concerns and was enormously helpful in reinforcing the key messages from the course and provided an amazing insight into the situation I will be managing. He encouraged me to plan my approach in a very different way and has transformed my trepidation into actual enthusiasm!”
‘Senior Executive in a large international organisation’

“I did the two day public speaking course a short time ago with John. Whilst I gained a huge insight into understanding the fears behind public speaking and how to change the thought patterns associated with perpetuating this fear, I came away feeling that I still wasn't as confident as I imagined I would be after the course. In my day-to-day life, I don't have to do presentations or speak in public that regularly, so I was also concerned I wasn't going to be able to put things into practice straight away and I was going to forget everything I had learned. I mentioned this to John in the post-course feedback and he straight away offered me coaching over the phone. This extra hour was really beneficial to me. Not only did it serve as a short recap but he gave me a further insight into the small things I can do everyday to overcome this feeling of not being able to practice in front of a large group, means not practicing at all. Suffice to say, there are many things I can do and this session really helped cement that.
John is so passionate about helping people build confidence, not only surrounding public speaking but in many other aspects of life. I really feel like he has given me some invaluable tools and skills, which I will use everyday.”
Bex