My Comfort Zone and Being Outside It

A year ago, I ticked a box on a conference feedback form: 'Would you be interested in speaking?' It was the kind of casual checkmark you make thinking nothing will come of it—like signing up for a marathon after three beers.

Nine months later, that checkmark pushed me further outside my familiar territory than I'd expected.

I originally didn't think I'd post about this, but upon reflection, it seemed worth sharing. I recently took what had been a hobby (learning about AI) and decided to present it to a room full of my peers at ScotSecure West conference in Glasgow. The topic: AI and its integration problem. My message: lowering the bar for people to use GenAI in their everyday work, much like I have.

I'm not shy about public speaking. I enjoy it when my message feels important. But this time was different, this wasn't an internal all-hands to the office. These were my peers, people who work in the same busy world of cybersecurity, information security, and IT.

What to Say

What topic? I ruminated for weeks. AI is interesting, but security people have heard it all. What do I talk about in AI that doesn't involve AI in their SOC or SIEM or yet another chatbot?

Show people something that makes life easier, their information gathering leaner, their integrations more integrated.

Creating the content pushed me further still. How could I articulate my point without losing people? I'm not the world's best communicator. I get tongue-tied sometimes, overthink things. Laying out ideas is familiar territory, but this felt different. I needed to balance technical depth with accessibility, showing expertise without losing the main message: lowering the bar to entry.

How to Say It

I've watched many people deliver their message with skill. Public speaking is a skill like any other. Now that I knew what to say, I needed to figure out how to say it.

I like to think I'm a good speaker. But this time, I went too far. I dived into videos on cadence, volume, projection, impact. I'd convinced myself I needed to sound like a TED speaker on their fiftieth talk.

That's when I hit the self-observation paradox: being too aware of yourself destroys the thing you're trying to perfect. The more I focused on speaking "right," the more I lost my natural rhythm. So I started recording myself, just talking out loud. Over a week, I found my way back to my own rhythm, real excitement for the topic.

Standing Up

Honestly? It wasn't as daunting as I'd imagined.

The people in the room had given up their day to be there. That felt like an honour. I'd done this before in front of my entire office, but this was different. These were peers who understood the landscape, who'd face the same problems I was addressing.

I'd researched speaking with scripts versus bullet points. My preference: a script with headlines. I'd rehearsed enough that the rhythm was there, which meant I could move off-script to emphasise points or explore tangents. The bonus? I could share the full script in the slides afterwards.

Delivered

I was pleased. More than that, I could see genuine interest. People pulling out phones to photograph references on slides, the ideas I was sharing, the possibilities. It put a smile on my face. I was saying something that actually mattered to them.

The session ended with a panel Q&A. Another skill to practise: thinking on my feet.

What I Learned

Here's what surprised me: the preparation anxiety was worse than the actual event. All that rumination, those weeks of worrying about the perfect words, the perfect delivery? Most of it dissolved the moment I started speaking to actual people about something I genuinely cared about.

The boundary between comfortable and growing isn't a wall. It's more like a threshold-one you often cross without noticing. Sometimes you only realise you've stepped over when you're already standing on the other side, looking back.

If you're comfortable, you've stopped learning. That's not a judgement; maybe you’re fine with that. But if you feel that restlessness, that subtle dissatisfaction with what you know, that's your signal. The learning zone is right there, just past the edge of what feels safe.

Next time you see a checkbox asking 'Would you be interested in speaking?’ tick it. Even if you think nothing will come of it. Especially then.