Growing up, Cameron Daddo had a stutter. “I use it now as a reminder,” he says of the speech condition that he still has today.
“It’s a reminder for a bunch of things, actually, but mostly to slow down and really think about what I’m saying. And not to worry so much about what other people are thinking.”
It’s hard to believe someone as successful as Cameron struggles with confidence, but the uni dropout hasn’t always felt like he fitted in, which is why confidence and how to achieve it is something that Cameron is putting under the microscope in his memoir Keep It Smooth Life Lessons In Confidence.
The award-winning actor, singer and broadcaster, 59, sat down for a series of intimate chats with notable Australians – Keith Urban, Marcia Hines, Michael O’Loughlin and Ryan “Fitzy” Fitzgerald, Indira Naidoo and Alyssa Healy among others – to find out what pearls of wisdom they’ve learnt about success and failure.
CONFIDENCE WITH CAMERON
“When I started the book, I had to ask myself, what is confidence? We’d open that question with each of those people from all different walks of life, and no one gave me the same answer.”
His interview with football great Kevin Sheedy was a standout. “He spoke about the importance of accumulating experience on confidence and I’d never thought about that before,” says Cameron.
“I’ve sometimes belittled my experience or not given it the importance that it deserved…so I took that to heart and I’ve been more receptive to creating new experiences and being curious.”
Tikki Merrillees, a life coach and energetic healer, taught Cameron how smiling can change the neural pathways in the brain. “It makes you more free and lighter”, while Keith Urban talked about “staying curious”.
Embracing curiosity is something Cameron has picked up from his children, Lotus, 28, River, 24, and Bodhi, 18, who he shares with wife Alison Brahe-Daddo.
“My kids inspire me with their curiosity and their willingness to take action,” he says, sharing that his eldest “was riddled with anxiety as a teen” but is now overseas for a year, hiking, boating, and “just doing things that she would never have done as a young person.”
Cameron adds, “My son is the same way, he just doesn’t doubt himself, same as my youngest.”
Ultimately, he’s found failure a great teacher. “You learn way more from making mistakes than you do from victories and having successes. There’s always something that you can take a positive from.”
Keep it Smooth: Life Lessons in Confidence, Pantera Press, $34.99
