Podbit · The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Preparation absorbs anxiety. Imagining one friend in the front row keeps you grounded. Jet lag is a hidden panic trigger — get there a day early. Morning workouts and sunlight help. Beta blockers are an option. Even a beer has worked in a pinch.
Where this was said
At 13:40 · chapter starts 11:40
Boulder Maker's question opens a surprisingly candid chapter. Galloway, widely regarded as one of the more commanding speakers in the business world, admits he has experienced real panic attacks on stage — including one at DLD 2015 where he thought he was having a heart attack, and another where he was swallowing hard to avoid throwing up as Bill Maher's panel set rushed toward him [1] — Scott Galloway "At DLD 2015, Scott Galloway thought he was having a heart attack. He wasn't — it was a panic attack. He's had them before Bill Maher, befor…" 12:45 . His advice is structured and practical: prepare thoroughly so the slides guide you and confidence builds; imagine one friend in the front row; remember that even a visible panic attack barely registers with an audience before they return to thinking about themselves. He discusses beta blockers as a legitimate medical option, acknowledges that a beer before speaking has helped him 'a couple of times,' and flags jet lag as an underappreciated panic trigger — recommending speakers arrive a day early for major events [2] — Scott Galloway "Preparation absorbs anxiety. Imagining one friend in the front row keeps you grounded. Jet lag is a hidden panic trigger — get there a day …" 13:40 . He closes with the durability argument: he speaks 40–50 times a year now, and the panic attacks get rarer every year. The cure, ultimately, is repetition.
At DLD 2015, Scott Galloway thought he was having a heart attack. He wasn't — it was a panic attack. He's had them before Bill Maher, before major conferences. His conclusion: everyone is nervous, nobody in the audience really cares, and repetition is the only cure.
Scott Galloway speaks roughly 40–50 times a year in front of crowds ranging from a board of directors to 10,000 people.
After analyzing his own data, Galloway found he has a public-speaking panic attack roughly once every two to three years, often triggered by jet lag.
Self-help fails because people are sold one universal cure by the hyper-responders who had a transformative result from it. The real problem is context: every method works for the right person at the right time, which is almost never you just because the author says so.
Spencer Greenberg was once so socially anxious his heart pounded just approaching a stranger. His therapist gave him homework: go to a bar alone, talk to 5 strangers. Starting with asking for the time, he worked up to asking men for hugs — and his anxiety fell dramatically in 6 months.
A person who flies regularly but obsessively checks weather forecasts before every flight is not doing exposure therapy — they're teaching their brain that flying is only safe with the ritual. Safety behaviors prevent the brain from ever learning that the feared thing is actually fine.
The worry-time technique assigns all worries to one scheduled slot (e.g. 5 PM). Every time a worry surfaces, you write it down and ban yourself from engaging with it until that time. When 5 PM arrives, most worries feel trivial and the act of batch-worrying exposes how little it actually accomplishes.
In a randomized study of 20 habit techniques, 'habit reflection' stood out: recall a past habit you successfully built, write down what helped you succeed, then apply those same strategies to your new habit. It works because it's self-adapting — it uses whatever worked for YOU.
The tiny habits technique — always having a minimal version of your habit you can do when life gets in the way — keeps the mental machinery of habit formation from breaking. Paradoxically, people given a tiny-habit fallback option were MORE successful at the full habit, not less.
Fears and worries act like playground bullies — they want to ambush you. But when you deliberately seek them out and choose the time of engagement, they lose their power. The volitional act of starting the fight on your own terms is one of CBT's most underappreciated insights.
Most downtime defaults are things you regret immediately after — phone scrolling, binge TV. 'Glad you did it' activities meet the same need for rest but leave you feeling like you spent your time well. The switch from a bad screen to a documentary, a book, or a walk costs almost no extra effort but compounds into identity over time.
You rarely control your first reactive thought. But you can train your second thought — the response to the trigger — by asking whether your initial reaction is the most helpful one and replacing it with something equally true but more constructive. Over time, that second thought becomes automatic.
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