People usually see the moment on stage.
What they rarely see is everything that comes before it.
This is the full story of being offered a late opportunity to speak at the Expert Empires 2026 event before, during, and after. Should I listed to the risks and just say no...or lean into the unknown!
Nine days before. The opportunity appears
Nine days before the event, an opportunity to sponsor and present landed from discussions with Arjun from the Elite Closing Academy.
Eight days before. The decision
Eight days out was the real moment. Discussion's round the table about the opportunity the risk.Do I wait for a cleaner opportunity? Or do I lean in, even if it feels messy and I have never spoken at an event?
I said yes.....Once you say yes, the fear changes shape. It stops being abstract and turns into a list of problems to solve.
Seven days before. Reality checks in
Seven days out, reality hit properly. There was no physical marketing material:
At the same time, the Expert Empires PR team shared how I would be positioned publicly. Seeing that written down raised the bar instantly. This was no longer a quiet experiment.
Six days before. Marketing chaos and quiet support
Six days out was intense.Marketing materials had to be designed. Banners needed finalising. Messaging needed tightening and fortunately, I have an amazing group of people in my network and Sophie Allen at Serrano Media made design magic happen, one pressure off me. Then a call from Faye Newman from Faye Newman Design, who is in the Elite Closing Academy with me and was attending the event. Faye kindly offered to sort out an AirBnB, another pressure removed.
In the middle of all of that, Rachel, my wife, quietly stepped in and bought tablecloths for the stand. Three different colours to match my brand. It sounds small, but when everything feels loud, small acts of support matter more than you realise.
Five days before. Printing and commitment
Five days out, the printing requests went in with Rob from RS Creative Solutions. Deadlines are now locked and any mistakes become expensive.This is where trust in others becomes essential. Sophie & Rob are working together and both saying we will make it work.
There is a strange calm that comes once you have crossed this point. You cannot undo it. You can only move forward.
Four days before. The message
Four days out was about the story. Not slides, Not polish but Clarity.
Anything that felt performative got cut.
Three days before. A crash course in public speaking
Here is where the networking paid off. Leigh Franks from Talking Frankly, one of my course founding members reached out to her network and facilitated a meeting with Dave James a speaking a presentation coach.
So three days out, I took a quick public speaking lesson. Not to become someone else, but to sharpen what was already there. Less rambling. More pause. More intent. Confidence is not volume. It is clarity.
I also remembered to purchase some train tickets to get me to London!
Two days before. The printing is ready
Two days before the event, the printing was finally ready. Brochures. Banners. Something physical to hold. Up until that point, everything had lived on screens. Designs. Proofs. Messages flying back and forth. Decisions made quickly and sometimes instinctively. Seeing the printed materials made it real. There is a strange reassurance in holding something tangible after days of pressure. It is the moment where effort turns into evidence.
And then I noticed it....
A front cover error. Not catastrophic. Not brand destroying. But enough that I saw it instantly. There was no time to change it. No reprint window. No fix.
Just a choice.
Because in that moment, it felt like a perfect reflection of the journey. Not polished. Not perfect. But real. This was happening whether everything was flawless or not. I checked the rest carefully, packed everything up, and carried on.There was still plenty to do, but for the first time, it felt possible to breathe.
Sometimes you do not need perfect. You just need to show up.
One day before. Packing and the little things
The day before travel was about packing. Not just clothes, but decisions. Checking lists. Rechecking lists. Trying to think three steps ahead.And still, a couple of things got missed.
I forgot to pack business cards .And I forgot my AirPods, the one small thing I usually rely on for music to relax and settle my nerves. Neither was a disaster.
But both were reminders of how stretched things were at that point. When you are carrying a lot mentally, it is always the small things that slip through. I remember noticing, having that brief moment of frustration, and then letting it go. There was no time to dwell.
You make peace with imperfection, trust yourself, and keep moving.
The night before. Heading to London
I travelled down to London the night before the event with Leigh Franks. I had the chance to offer her a ticket, and it felt right to share the experience. The journey down grounded me. It reminded me why I do this work in the first place.
Not for stages, but for people.
Finally were off to London - The suitcase moment
I left home and walked the nine minutes to my local train station. By the time I arrived, one of the wheels was already hanging off. Annoying, but manageable. Or so I thought.
I got on the train, reached the first change point, and carried the suitcase up and over the bridge to the next platform. That is when the second wheel fell off.
At that point, there was no pretending everything was fine. I found myself on the platform pulling the suitcase apart, trying to repair it with whatever I had to hand. Clothes out. Brochures out. Everything laid bare in public. People walking past. Trains coming and going.
It was one of those moments where you either laugh, swear, or stop altogether. I laughed, fixed what I could, repacked everything, and carried on. It felt like the most accurate physical representation of the whole build up.
Things falling apart in small, inconvenient ways. No time to turn back. Just adapting, fixing, and moving forward. The wheels did not go back on properly. But the journey continued anyway.
By the time we finally reached the apartment and I put the suitcase down, I just had to laugh.
Right there, directly opposite the entrance, was a suitcase shop. You could not make it up.After dragging a broken case across platforms, pulling it apart in public, and carrying everything that mattered by hand, the solution had been staring at me the whole time.It felt like the universe having a quiet sense of humour. A reminder that sometimes the fix is right there, but you only notice it once you have already done the hard part.
I went to bed that night smiling, not because everything had gone smoothly, but because, somehow, it had all still worked.
Day one. The early start and settling in
The alarm went off at five. By six, I'm at the the Hilton in Wembley setting up the stand. Getting banners up. Laying things out. Making the space feel welcoming.
Once that was done, something unexpected happened. I relaxed.The frantic build up was over. The work was done. Now it was just about being present.
The first day was genuinely enjoyable. Great speakers. Thoughtful talks. Familiar faces from Elite Closing Academy wishing me luck for the following day. But the best part was the conversations. Unrushed. Honest. Deep. Real people sharing real challenges and hopes.
It reminded me again that business is human before it is technical.
Day two. The stage day
The second morning felt calm at first.There were a few speakers before me, which helped. Time to settle into the space.I chose to get mic’d up early.
One speaker before my slot. I wanted time to breathe, as this was my first time on a stage like this.Phil Harrison was presenting before me and offered a few wise words that landed exactly when they needed to. Members of the Expert Empires team also checked in with quiet reassurance.While Phil was on stage, I wandered around the back and bumped into Matthew Elwell. He gave me one simple piece of advice that helped me centre myself.Nothing dramatic. Just the right words at the right time.
The moment before walking on
As I walked back, Nick James was already on stage warming the room up. Getting people moving, laughing, energised.Then my phone buzzed. It was a message from Rachel. It stopped me in my tracks.I remembered that she had been out buying tablecloths to match my brand. Ironing shirts. Handling things at home so I could be there. You forget sometimes how much other people carry so you can step forward.
That message hit hard. It was emotional. Trying to pull myself together.
And then Nick called my name.
Walking onto the stage
I walked out. And the cheers hit me. I did not expect it. That moment alone carried me through the opening minutes.
Once I started talking, everything else disappeared .I was not performing. I was not pretending. I was just being myself. At one point near the end, I glanced down and saw there were only four and a half minutes left. I could not believe it.T he room was silent. You could hear a pin drop. People were completely present.
For reasons I still cannot fully explain, that moment felt meant to be. It felt magical. And it felt mine.
The imperfect ending
There was a small mistake with the QR code at the end. It did not display as planned.But instead of people quietly scanning and heading off to lunch, they followed me.
Out of the room. Into conversation.
Eighty three people scanned the QR code in the end. Then I spent over two hours talking with people. About the talk. About business.
About starting before you feel ready.People were generous. Kind. Open.Human to human in the truest sense.
What stayed with me
The stage was a moment. The connection was the real outcome.
This experience reinforced something I believe deeply.
When you show up as yourself, without polish or pretence, people feel it. The wheels might fall off. The timeline might be ridiculous. The ending might be imperfect. But when it works, it works because you stayed true to who you are.
And that is always worth it.
