Zero to Keynote

Zero to Keynote is the honest field guide to conference speaking — the one I wished I'd had when my first talk fell apart on stage.

A field guide for the conference speaker – from your first nervous talk to a keynote you actually enjoy giving. The honest foundations of public speaking, not the arm-waving tactics.

Field guide · for the conference speaker

A field guide for the conference speaker

Zero to Keynote

From your first nervous talk to a keynote you actually enjoy giving.

Learning to speak from the stage was the single most important move I ever made in my career. It opened doors I didn't know existed.

This is the honest field guide I wish I'd had — from a first talk that was, by my own account, a hot mess, to delivering keynotes around the world. Not arm-waving and "go big or go home", but the real foundations: finding something worth saying, shaping it, getting it accepted, and delivering it with calm presence — nerves and all.

Rob Lambert · Winchester

The honest guide, not the arm-waving one

Most speaking advice is tactical: where to put your hands, how to work the room, five words a slide. I sat through the courses – "go big, then go home" – and came away able to appear confident and still deliver a rubbish talk.

None of it touched the thing that actually matters: having something worth saying, and getting it to land.

Zero to Keynote is the other kind of guide. It's a 195-page field guide, built to be carried to conferences and dipped into as you submit, build and deliver a talk.

It's the consolidation of twenty years of presenting – and of teaching hundreds of people to do the same – and it's refreshingly honest about how hard, and how absolutely worth it, the whole thing is.

My first presentation at a conference was, by my own account, utter shite. I was a hot mess. A year and eight talks later, I delivered my first keynote.

That's the premise underneath the book: you don't have to start good, you just have to learn to get better. I avoided presenting well into my twenties, then submitted a talk almost by accident, bombed, and signed up for another one the next day.

The difference between that hot mess and a keynote wasn't talent. It was a handful of communication foundations and structural moves, applied over and over – the ones set out in this guide.

What it helps you do

Why bother getting on the stage at all

Open doors in your career

Speaking sets you apart. Consulting gigs, invitations, the exec who saw one keynote and booked it ten times across her business — the opportunities that find people willing to stand up and say something worth hearing.

Get past the fear

"I'd rather die than speak in public" is the most common line there is. I still get ridiculously nervous before every talk — and I show you how to reframe the nerves as energy and walk on anyway.

Actually get accepted

The best talk in the world does nothing if it's not on the line-up. How to find the right conference, read a call for papers, and write a proposal that earns an easy "yes".

Make every talk a keynote

The single idea the whole book turns orientates around: design and deliver every talk — even a small one — as if it's the main event. Do that, and the real keynotes start coming to you.

Inside the book

The whole journey, start to stage

195 pages · the full talk lifecycle

Why do this at all

Why speak from the stageConfidence, opportunities, doors you didn't know existed — and finally getting your message heard.

A hot messThe honest origin story: a first talk that fell apart on stage, and the year from there to a keynote.

The idea it all turns on

Make every talk a keynoteWhether it's a track session or the main event, build and deliver it as the highlight of the conference.

What kind of talk to giveExperience reports, how-tos, theories, listed keynotes — which to start with, and which need a thick skin.

Finding what to say

Generating talk ideasNobody has heard YOUR talk before. Feeding the hopper, keeping a commonplace book, and mining your own experience for the seed of a great talk.

The ten communication principles

the heart of the guide

1Purpose, audience & context — get these three right and the rest follows

2Enthusiasm — not animation; belief the audience can feel

3Your words need decoding — communication finishes in their head, not your mouth

4Stories go where facts cannot — we're wired for story; facts alone are dull

5Don't waste the audience's time — prune to the essence; say it in one sentence

6Practice makes permanent — not perfect; rehearse until you can't forget it

7People remember how you make them feel — long after they've forgotten what you said

8Non-verbal is a superpower — your body speaks before you do

9Sound like your audience — resonate without losing yourself

10You can hack your body — shift your state before you walk on

Getting on the line-up

Submitting to a conferenceGetting accepted is the first hurdle. Finding the right event, reading the CFP, and the ten-step proposal that earns a "yes".

Building the talk

Creating the presentationFrom a sharp problem statement to structure, scripting it to be spoken, writing it out by hand, and slides that support you rather than replace you.

On the day

The subtle art of being preparedTravel, the venue, what to wear, microphones and clickers — the logistics that let you walk on relaxed.

Delivering with calm presenceReframing the nerves (I still get plenty of them), pace and pauses over speed, using the stage, eye contact, and owning the room.

Questions, and when there be dragonsHandling Q&A and hecklers, surviving tech failures, and what to do when the talk just doesn't "feel" right.

And, at the back

For supporters & attendeesHow to support a nervous speaker well, and how to get the most from a conference as an attendee.

What you get

A guide to carry to every conference

195

page field guide, cover to cover

communication principles at its heart

20+

years on the circuit, distilled

clear path from idea to talk

Print edition Zero to Keynote — in your bag £9.99

A5, full colour, printed on gloss paper
Durable binding — made to be carried and dipped into
Posted with a handwritten note (UK shipping)

Digital edition Zero to Keynote — read anywhere £6.99

195-page PDF, the complete field guide
Instant download, lifetime access
Includes the speaker's checklist

Not sure yet? There's a free chapter on generating talk ideas, and a speaker's checklist, to try before you buy. See below.

The field guide — print & digital

Zero to Keynote

Every industry needs fresh voices with something worth saying. If that could be you — even if the very thought terrifies you right now — this is the honest, practical companion for the whole journey, from your first submission to the stage.

Digital edition — £6.99 → Print edition — £9.99 →

195 pages · print & digital · a field guide for the conference speaker

Who it's for

Anyone with something worth saying and a stage they're circling – first-timers who've never submitted a talk, nervous presenters who want to get genuinely good, and seasoned speakers chasing a listed keynote. A lot of it carries straight over to business meetings, sales pitches and community events, too.

Every industry has the same handful of speakers, and it gets boring. There's room for you. We'd like to hear what you have to say.