I keep seeing adverts for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey.

There are ships. Storms. Swords. Matt Damon looking as though he has been having an exceptionally difficult commute.

But the character I keep thinking about is not Odysseus.

It is Telemachus.

Played by Tom Holland, Telemachus is the son left behind. His father has gone to war and failed to return. His home is being overrun by men who assume Odysseus is dead. He is young, uncertain, and waiting for someone else to make things right.

Then Mentor arrives.

Or, more accurately, the goddess Athena arrives disguised as Mentor: an older, trusted friend of his father. She does not fight his battles for him. She does not hand him a script.

She tells him it is time to begin his own journey.

That is the part I keep coming back to: Mentor does not provide certainty. Mentor creates movement.

It is where we get the word mentor from.

And there is something fitting about Tom Holland playing Telemachus.

As Spider-Man, he has already played a young man surrounded by mentors: Tony Stark, who sees his potential; Mysterio, who exploits his uncertainty; and, eventually, older versions of himself who understand the journey because they have already lived it.

Not every guide is a mentor.

The good ones do not try to turn you into them.

They help you become more fully yourself.

💡 ONE IDEA WELL

It is difficult to improve your public speaking on your own.

You can read books about presentation skills. You can watch great speakers and borrow their best habits. You can practise your opening, film yourself on your phone and spend a mildly alarming amount of time adjusting a single slide.

All of that helps.

But you cannot easily experience your own talk as somebody else experiences it.

You cannot always tell when your voice changes because you have reached the part of the talk that genuinely matters to you.

You may not notice the story that makes an audience lean forward.

You may not hear the sentence that sounds as though it was written for an abstract rather than spoken to another human being.

You may be so busy trying to appear confident that you miss the moments when you already are.

A good mentor notices.

They see what is getting in the way. But, more importantly, they see what is already there.

They do not hand you their slides, their delivery style or their carefully rehearsed version of confidence.

They help you find the idea buried beneath too much information. They point out the story you nearly cut because it felt too personal. They notice the moment when you stop performing and start communicating.

They help you sound more like yourself.

🧰 LESS MESS, MORE MESSAGE

Before you ask someone for feedback on your next talk, be specific about what you need.

“Can you tell me what you think?” is too broad.

It usually produces one of two things: vague reassurance or a list of tiny corrections.

Instead, ask your mentor to look for three things.

Where is the message getting buried?

Most talks do not fail because the speaker has nothing to say. They fail because the important thing is hidden under too much context, too many slides, too many examples, too many caveats, and too much throat-clearing before the real point arrives.

Ask: What do you think this talk is really about?

If their answer is not the same as yours, you have found the work.

Where do I sound least like myself?

Most speakers have a presentation voice. It is smoother, flatter and slightly less alive than their actual voice. It often appears when they are trying to sound professional, clever or appropriately serious.

Ask: Which parts sound written rather than spoken?

Those are the places to loosen the language.

Where did you lean in?

This is the question people forget to ask.

Feedback is often treated as a search for mistakes. But a good mentor does not only show you what to fix. They show you what to keep.

Ask: Was there a moment where you became more interested?

That moment may contain the real talk.

🪛 TRY THIS

Choose one person whose judgment you trust.

Not necessarily the most senior person. Not necessarily the most polished speaker. Choose someone who listens well, notices clearly and cares more about making the talk better than making you feel briefly comfortable.

Send them a rough version of your talk.

Then ask them these three questions:

1. What do you think this talk is really about?
2. Where do I sound least like myself?
3. Where did you lean in?

That is enough.

You do not need a full debrief, a 19-point feedback form or a spreadsheet with colour-coded action items, although I respect the emotional optimism of anyone who tries.

You need another human being to help you see the talk from the outside.

Then listen carefully.

If they tell you the talk is really about something different from what you intended, do not defend the slides. Follow the signal.

If they point to a sentence that sounds stiff or abstract, try saying it as if you were explaining it to a friend over coffee.

If they tell you where they leaned in, pay attention. That may be the moment your talk becomes alive.

Good feedback does not always add more.

Often, it shows you what can be removed so the real message has room to breathe.

👄 ASK YOURSELF THIS

Who could help you see your talk more clearly?

Not who could rescue it.

Not who could rewrite it for you.

Not who could turn it into the kind of talk they would give.

Who could sit beside you, listen carefully and say:

“This is the part that matters.”

“This is where you disappeared.”

“This is where I believed you.”

Because that is the gift of a good mentor.

They do not spare you the journey.

They remind you that you are ready to begin it.

ASK YOURSELF THIS

Who could help you see your talk more clearly?

Not who could rescue it.

Not who could rewrite it for you.

Not who could turn it into the kind of talk they would give.

Who could sit beside you, listen carefully and say:

“This is the part that matters.”

“This is where you disappeared.”

“This is where I believed you.”

Because that is the gift of a good mentor.

They do not spare you the journey.

They remind you that you are ready to begin it.

🚦 WORK WITH ME

If you have an important talk coming up and want help making it clearer, more human and more memorable, reply to this email.

This is work I love doing.

I can help you find the story, simplify the message, strengthen the delivery and shape the version of the talk that sounds most like you.

Not louder.

Not slicker.

More you.

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Speak soon,

Andy