I’m Quitting Public Speaking Indefinitely. Here’s Why

Over the last 3 years I’ve been on a wonderful and incredible journey. And a part of that has been doing lots of public speaking.

It started (kind of) with a very average video I made about Lad Banter, has seen me deliver a TEDx talk (maybe not so much of a big deal these days, but it was a milestone at the time), speaking at universities all over the world to now amassing over 1.4 million views online.

I'm blessed that I can say I get lots of requests inviting me to speak at big youth conferences, schools, colleges, universities, events etc. And so far I’ve done my best to do as many as I can, take advantage of these opportunities and most importantly, share as much value as possible. Last year alone, I went to 20+ universities to speak.

But it’s time to take a very different approach. To do something that feels edgy, risky and daring. But with a lot more purpose. Something I’ve been thinking about and preparing for since I came back from my trip to Kenya.

There’s a different direction I want to take myself in and it is not going to be easy. To succeed, its going to require all my focus and for me to keep things very simple by doing less things, but with far greater quality.

From now on, I've decided to say no to all events, workshops, speaking invitations and such for the indefinite future so I can focus on other creative projects and my own self study. I’ll honour commitments I already made but that’s it.

I am officially done.

Don’t get me wrong. I’ll definitely miss speaking in front of audience and sharing ideas and doing my thing, it is something I really enjoy. But I know that now is the time to slow down so I can speed up. You have to give up to go up, in the words of Dr. Eric Thomas.

It’s really not a big deal in the scheme of things. There are, better speakers out there than me or more popular ones too.

But you know when you have that nagging feeling in your heart, telling you to do something and you just can’t ignore it? Yeah. That.

I love this. But there’s something else I have to do first.

So what will I be working on? Just 3 very simple things:

• Online coaching & YouTube videos
• Reading books & studying a lot
• A secret project you’ll hear about late this year

Yep, that’s it. Those are my 10/10s. And to say yes to these. It’s time to say no to other things.

Thanks for reading my little share. And feel free to follow me here, and on YouTube for more on my journey.