Public Speaking: The Confidence Sessions
Every professional — whether advising clients, leading teams, or presenting results — must learn to speak with clarity and conviction. From a quarterly performance review to a keynote before a thousand people, leaders and aspiring leaders alike must be seen and heard. Speaking well is not a talent; it is a discipline that can be refined, rehearsed, and mastered over time.
I live and breathe finance, investing, and economics, and I’ve spent my career watching how great ideas succeed or fail in the telling. The strongest arguments can lose their force when read from slides or recited without life. The most effective communicators are not performers — they are thinkers who speak as they think, with coherence and calm.
That is the purpose of The Confidence Sessions.
These private, one-on-one sessions help professionals turn technical mastery into spoken authority. They are designed for finance and investment specialists, CFA candidates, and founders preparing to pitch investors — as well as for any professional who wants to present with greater poise, presence, and impact.
Why not Toastmasters?
Toastmasters and other public speaking clubs have helped countless people overcome stage fright and develop confidence. But their structured, performative style can feel limiting to experienced professionals who need privacy, relevance, and depth. The Confidence Sessions offer a more personal, tailored, and strategic alternative.
Here’s how they differ:
Private and confidential: work one-on-one or in very small groups on real material, not hypothetical prompts.
Finance-specific: sessions draw directly on real-world subjects — investment analysis, client communication, economic commentary, and leadership.
Depth over performance: the focus is on composure, tone, and argument, not showmanship or competition.
Audience psychology: you’ll learn to anticipate what investors, boards, or clients listen for — and why they act.
Live feedback: when your presentation or pitch is ready, I can attend as a guest to observe, offering feedback from what was felt, not merely what was heard.
In The Confidence Sessions, we work on both the content and the delivery:
Structuring arguments so logic, data, and story reinforce each other.
Translating analysis into persuasion — building conviction without jargon or overstatement.
Delivering with composure, so your audience senses authority before a word is spoken.
Understanding audience psychology — what makes investors, boards, or clients trust and act.
Because I come from finance, I can also strengthen the argument itself: refining reasoning, sharpening risk framing, and anticipating the questions sophisticated audiences will ask. For founders, this means learning to hold a room of credentialed investors who have heard every pitch. For portfolio managers and executives, it means moving beyond the data deck to speak directly to human judgment. Confidence grows not from memorization, but from mastery — of both message and self.
Each session builds on the last. The work begins in a safe, private setting — a space to fail, adjust, and experiment until your voice feels natural. When the moment arrives to present publicly, you’ll be ready.
Ultimately, the goal is to feel fully alive when you speak — not rehearsed, but ready. To stand before others with clarity, energy, and ease, so your message is not only heard but acted upon.
I often spend time at Rotman, listening to visiting speakers and meeting the professionals who fill the seats. I’m as inspired by the audience as by the names on stage. Many have something important to say right now; they simply need a place to refine how they say it. The Confidence Sessions exist for them — and for anyone who understands that speaking is not a performance, but a privilege of leadership.
My keynote talks draw from my own time living in solitude aboard a sailboat off Vancouver Island — a period that reshaped how I understand clarity, composure, and what it means to lead with presence. They are conversational and reflective, without slides or props, reminding audiences that technology should never outshine the human voice.
Speaking invitations for keynotes or leadership events are welcome by direct email at Daren.Miller@TFLP.ca.