Skip to content

Dive Deep into Self

Finding Your Voice

Most advice about speaking is about performing. This starts earlier, with why your hands shake in the first place.

Eight evenings in a courtyard in ancient Athens, three guides who have been where you are, and a cushion by the fire with your name on it.

Enter the courtyard Meet your guides

Free while in beta. No account needed to start.

Meet your guides

Three people who took different roads to the same question: how do you say what you mean to people who are listening?

Portrait of Philemon: a lean man of about fifty with kind eyes, a short greying beard and a small, warm smile, in an olive-green cloak.

Philemon

The reluctant teacher

Fear, feeling and who you are when you speak

He froze in front of forty scholars at nineteen and said nothing at all. He teaches rhetoric now, and his hands still shake.

“The trembling never fully leaves. But it no longer speaks for me.”

Xenia

The host

Listening, and the people in front of you

It is her courtyard and her table. She watches a room the way other people read a page, and she asks the question you were hoping to avoid.

“The most powerful thing you can do in a room is make space for someone else's voice.”

Theron

The merchant

Saying it plainly, and standing still while you do

Thirty years of selling wine in harbours where nobody owed him a hearing. He has no patience for a point that takes the long way round.

“I've learned more about persuasion from a fishwife in Syracuse than most scholars learn in a lifetime.”

The eight evenings

Something happens in each one, the three of them argue about it, and you leave with one thing to try.

  1. Evening 1

    Why Speaking Feels Scary

    Led by Philemon

  2. Evening 2

    Who Are You When You Speak?

    Led by Philemon

  3. Evening 3

    What Do You Actually Want to Say?

    Led by Theron

  4. Evening 4

    The Listener's Mindset

    Led by Xenia

  5. Evening 5

    Emotion Is Information

    Led by Philemon

  6. Evening 6

    Your Body Already Knows

    Led by Theron

  7. Evening 7

    Structure Sets You Free

    Led by Theron

  8. Evening 8

    The Courage to Be Heard

    Led by All three

How it works

  1. Come through the gate

    A short opening scene. You meet the three of them, hear how each one learned to speak, and get handed a cup you did not ask for.

  2. Tell them where you are

    Twelve questions, asked by the guides in conversation. Your answers point you to the evenings that fit, so you can start where it hurts.

  3. Sit through the evenings

    Eight evenings in the courtyard, one subject each: fear, identity, clarity, listening, feeling, the body, structure and courage.

  4. Use the tools before the real thing

    Ten tools for the day you have to speak, from a reset that takes about two minutes to a full preparation you can save and come back to.

Questions people ask

Is this a public speaking course?
It covers any room where you have to say something that matters: a meeting, a toast, a hard conversation, a presentation. It starts with why speaking feels risky and only then gets to structure and delivery.
How long does it take?
There are eight evenings. Each takes five to ten minutes to read and has one question for you to answer inside the scene, plus two short exercises you do in your own time. Nothing is timed and nothing expires.
Do I need an account?
No. As a guest, your progress is saved on the device you are using. A free Dive Deep Dialogues account keeps it with you, so you can pick up on another device.
Is the research real?
The courtyard and the people in it are fiction. The research in the side notes is real, and each note says who ran the study and when. Where a well-known finding has not held up, the note says so.
Is this therapy?
No. It is a self-paced learning app. If fear of speaking is part of something that limits your life, a doctor or psychologist is the right person to see. The Resources page in the app lists crisis lines for Australia, New Zealand, India, the UK, Ireland, Canada and the US.
What does it cost?
It is free while it is in beta. There is nothing to pay and no card to enter.

The gate is unlatched

Somebody left it that way for you. Come in, sit down, and say what brought you here.

Enter the courtyard

Free while in beta. No card required.