Speaking Without Freaking®

If you need to use your voice as part of your business, your work, or your life, but the idea of speaking in public makes parts of your anatomy twitch, then Speaking Without Freaking® is for you.

Public speaking is a skill which you can use right the way across your life. It touches on everything from speaking to audiences to having conversations with individuals and small groups, and right the way through to how you speak to yourself.

One of the challenges is that most speaker and presentation skills coaching starts by teaching you technique (how to hold your hands, how to move on stage) rather than starting with who you are.

Yet developing your skills as a speaker, at whatever level, starts with you.

The workshop is built on the Brain-Page-Stage® approach which begins by understanding who you are and then building the skills around speaking on top.

How does the day work?

Before the workshop, you will be sent a bit of pre-work, which gives you the grounding in my approach, and also some prompts which are designed so that you have some material to speak about on the day.

When you arrive, there's a chance to grab a drink and meet the other people on the workshop.

Then we get into speaking, with the day being designed for everyone to get the opportunity to speak if they want to, rather than being a PowerPoint-heavy lecture.

(In fact, PowerPoint doesn't even show up)

There is also loads of opportunity to get feedback on your content and delivery.

What you'll gain from this workshop:

1. Finding your own way of speaking rather than borrowing other people's technique.
2. An increase in confidence when it comes to public speaking (on average, my clients report a 76% increase in confidence).
3. Leaving with skills that you can actually use in your business, not just something that sits on your desk and gathers dust.

Nice words from attendees:

“On the day, it was a small, friendly group, and everyone was there for different reasons - some personal, some business. Dave’s style was relaxed, thoughtful, and encouraging as he took us through his talk planning framework and we did practical exercises around storytelling. Then we each worked on and delivered a 2-minute talk in the afternoon.

What I came away with: genuine hope that I can do this, with a clear framework to follow, and a practice guide that gives me something concrete to work with. I now have a process for planning short talks about my book topics.” - Sally Evans

-

“I recently took part in the Speaking Without Freaking workshop with Dave the Coach and it was one of the most useful sessions I have done in a long time.

Dave creates a space where you feel at ease straight away. He is supportive, funny and knows how to bring the best out of people.

What really stood out was the focus on intentional authenticity and using your own voice with clarity and confidence. The strategies were simple, practical and immediately usable.

I left feeling more confident and much clearer on how to genuinely engage an audience.

I would highly recommend this workshop. It is practical, honest and it works". - Jane McNally

About the instructor:

Dave James is a two-time TEDx speaker, professional speaker and event host. He has a healthcare background, working as an A&E nurse and a podiatrist.

His first TEDx "What Mindfulness and Meditation Can Do for Men" was an editor's pick and has been viewed over 22000 times. This TEDx is also highly commended at the Speaker Awards 2026.

He is the creator of Speaking Without Freaking® and developed the Brain-Page-Stage® approach to help individuals, leaders, and teams to develop their speaking and presentation skills in a confident and authentic way.