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Public Speaking Tips

The public speaking tips that work best come down to four habits: practice out loud, build the talk around a few clear points, slow down and make eye contact when you deliver it, and calm your nerves with slow breathing. Below are 20 public speaking tips in those four groups, each with one thing to do. For a printable version with more examples per tip, see these public speaking tips.

The 20 public speaking tips at a glance:

• Preparing and practicing: practice with Confidently, practice with real people on AmberWillo, know your audience, know your one sentence, write to a word budget, check the room early.
• Structure and content: open with an attention-getter, use the 3:2:1 rule, speak from keyword notes, tell stories, keep slides simple, end with a call to action.
• Delivery and body language: slow your pace and pause, use your voice, make eye contact, stand with purpose, involve the audience.
• Nerves and anxiety: breathe slowly, call it excitement, keep going after a slip.

If your hands go cold at the thought of a full room, you have company. About 77% of people say they fear public speaking, according to research in PubMed Central, and the fear even has a name: glossophobia. It is also one of the skills that does most for a career, because almost every job asks you to explain, pitch or present at some point. The good news is that the skill responds to practice faster than most people expect.

The first six public speaking tips happen before anyone is listening. They decide most of how the talk goes.

1. Practice confident speaking with a tool like Confidently

Rereading your notes trains your memory, not your delivery. Speed, ums and facial expression only improve when you actually speak, at full speed, as if someone were listening. So the first of these public speaking tips is to practice out loud, and to record yourself, because you are the worst judge of your own speed.

Confidently is a phone app built to make confident speaking a daily habit, on iPhone and Android. You answer a prompt out loud, such as a random question, a job interview question or a full speech of up to 30 minutes, and the app follows your voice and your face while you talk. You begin each answer on a perfect 10, and the score only drops for the tells of nerves: filler sounds, restarted sentences, softeners like "maybe", saying sorry for being nervous, and rushing or dragging. Afterwards the transcript shows where each slip happened, a coach note gives you a single focus for the next try, and a streak counter keeps the habit alive. Nobody else sees your recordings.

Short runs beat long ones. Confidently looked at 8,184 of its scored sessions: answers between 20 and 59 seconds came out clearest, and clarity slipped once people talked for more than a minute. Scores rose 6.6% on average by the sixth to tenth session.

Do this: five minutes a day, several answers under a minute each, and watch at least one back.

2. Practice speaking in front of real people on AmberWillo

Practicing alone has one gap: nothing is at stake, so your heart never races. You only learn to speak with a pounding pulse by speaking to people. Psychologists call the method gradual exposure, or systematic desensitization: each round adds a few more listeners, until your body stops treating an audience as danger. A review of treatments for the fear of public speaking found they work well, with exposure at the core of most of them.

AmberWillo runs small online video sessions of up to fifteen people, so you can speak to real faces from home. After each round you get a confidence score, coaching notes and a milestone, and it is free to start. A study in PubMed Central found that speaking to a supportive virtual audience raised how confident people felt in real life afterwards.

Do this: climb one step a week.

1. Alone: record your opening and listen back.
2. One person: say it to someone you trust and ask where they lost the thread.
3. A small group: three to fifteen people, online or in person.
4. The real room: the meeting, class or event itself.

3. Know your audience

"The audience" is too vague to write for. Audience analysis means deciding who the talk is really for, and research on communication shows that a message aimed at a known audience feels more relevant and personal. Before you write a word, answer five questions:

• Situation: how many people, what room, what time, how long?
• Background: their age, jobs and what they already know.
• Wants and worries: what they hope to get and what bothers them about your subject.
• Culture: words and values that land differently for this group.
• Interest: did they choose to come, or were they told to?

Do this: picture one real person from that audience and write their name at the top of your notes. Say "you" and "we" more than "I".

4. Know your material and your one sentence

Research more than you will say. When every point is something you could explain on a napkin and defend against the first "but why?", nerves find little to hold on to. Then boil the whole talk down to one sentence: "When I sit down, I want them to remember that..." If that takes three attempts, the talk is not ready yet, however good the slides look.

Do this: say your one sentence to a friend and ask them to repeat it back an hour later.

5. Write to a word budget

Timing is easier to manage in words than in minutes. A comfortable speaking rate sits between 120 and 170 words per minute, so at about 140 words a minute:

• 1 minute (a toast or an introduction) holds about 140 words and one point.
• 3 minutes (a class talk or a pitch) holds about 420 words.
• 5 minutes (a team update) holds about 700 words and three points.
• 10 minutes holds about 1,400 words.
• 20 minutes (a conference talk) holds about 2,800 words, with a story per point.

A talk that runs over gets rushed at the end, which is exactly where your best line sits.

Do this: check your draft's word count, cut until it fits with half a minute to spare, and time every full rehearsal.

6. Arrive early and check the room

Broken tech and a missing glass of water are the two disasters you can prevent. Arrive about fifteen minutes early, stand where you will speak, and test the slides, the clicker and the microphone. Hold a handheld microphone about a hand's width from your mouth, pointed at your chin. Nerves dry out your mouth early, so keep water where you can reach it, and carry a copy of your slides on a second device.

Do this: make sure your talk still works if the screen fails.

The next six public speaking tips are about what you say and in which order. A clear structure is also your best defense against going blank.

7. Open with an attention-getter

The first words decide whether people keep listening. Skip "Today I am going to talk about", and never open by apologizing for your nerves: nobody knew until you said it. Keep the whole introduction short, roughly a tenth of the talk, and open with one of these:

• A surprising fact: "Three out of four people in this room fear this more than almost anything."
• A question: "Who here has ever lost their words halfway through a sentence?"
• A short story: three or four sentences about one moment.
• A quotation: one line from someone the audience respects.
• A light observation: something about the room or the day.

Do this: learn your first 30 seconds word for word. That is when adrenaline peaks, and a line you know cold carries you through it.

8. Build the talk on the 3:2:1 rule

Every talk has an introduction, a body and a conclusion, and the body is where talks fall apart. The 3:2:1 rule keeps it tight: three points worth remembering, two examples where a point needs proof, and a single takeaway at the end. It works for an impromptu speech too, when you get a minute to think.

Signpost out loud, because listeners cannot scroll back: "The second reason is..." or "So what does this mean for you?" And say your key message more than once, halfway through and again at the close. Readers can go back a page; listeners can't, so repeating yourself is a service, not a weakness.

Do this: write your three points on one line each before you write anything else.

9. Talk from a few key words instead of a script

With a full script, your eyes drop to the page and your voice slips into reading mode. Notes with a few key words per point let you speak in your own words and still find your place. Memorizing the whole talk is risky in a different way: one lost word can stall you. The middle path is to know your opening and closing word for word and speak the rest from keywords.

Do this: fit each main point on one card with no more than five key words.

10. Tell stories and let the humor come from them

A story turns a point into a picture people can see, and they remember it long after the numbers fade. Keep it to three or four sentences: where you were, what went wrong and what changed. Let humor grow out of the story instead of adding a joke, so that if the laugh does not come, the point still lands. Be authentic. Your own words beat borrowed lines, because people notice when someone plays a personality that is not theirs. A rhetorical question, such as "Have you ever had that moment?", gets heads nodding without any risk.

Do this: give every main point one short story, example or number.

11. Keep visual aids simple

Slides should support you, not replace you. A slide you could read aloud is a slide with too many words on it.

• A single idea on each slide, in a handful of words.
• Text and charts readable from the back row.
• Face the audience, not the screen.
• Rehearse with the laptop and clicker you will actually use.

Do this: run through your slides once with the sound off. Each should make sense in three seconds.

12. End with a call to action

The ending is the part people repeat on the way out, so do not let it fade into "So, yeah, that's it." Sum up your three points in one sentence, give one clear call to action (the thing you want them to do or think next), then say a closing line you know by heart. Pause before the last sentence and hold eye contact after it. If questions follow, finish by repeating your one message, so the talk still ends on it.

Do this: write your last sentence first, then build the talk toward it.

These five public speaking tips cover your voice, your eyes, your body and the people in front of you.

13. Slow your pace and pause instead of saying um

Of all delivery habits, speed has the clearest link with how confident you sound: when speakers in Confidently's data found a steady pace, their average score went from 5.52 to 6.68. Nerves push most people above 170 words per minute, and listeners understand less once you pass about 180.

An um is a pause you were afraid to leave empty. To the room, a second of silence sounds like someone choosing their next words with care. A pause before a key point says that it matters. A pause after a question gives people time to think.

Do this: record sixty seconds and tally your ums. Then do the same minute again, breathing in wherever an um used to be.

14. Warm up and vary your voice

Vocal variety means changing your volume, pitch and speed on purpose. Aim your voice at the last row rather than the first, and let it rise or fall on the words that matter most; a voice that stays on one note loses a room within minutes. To check yourself, run through the five P's of the voice (pitch, pace, pause, projection, passion) while you listen to a recording. Finish the ends of your words instead of swallowing them.

Do this: warm up for two minutes before you speak. Hum for thirty seconds, say two tongue twisters slowly and then at full speed, and say your opening line at three volumes.

15. Make eye contact one person at a time

Scanning the room feels safe and looks restless. Instead, look at one person for three to five seconds, long enough to finish a thought, then move to someone in a different part of the room. Michigan State University Extension offers the 50/70 rule as a guide: roughly half the time you are talking, and about seven tenths of the time you are listening, your eyes should be on someone. Online, the lens is the audience's eyes, so glance into it whenever you land an important point.

Do this: find three friendly faces in different corners before you begin, and start with them.

16. Plant your feet and gesture on purpose

Body language reaches the audience before your first word. Stand with your feet about hip width apart and your shoulders back. Keep your hands visible and use open gestures to stress key words, instead of fiddling with a pen or the clicker. Move with a reason: a few steps at a transition marks a new point, while pacing up and down only signals nerves. And smile at the start and at the end; it loosens your jaw and shows people you want to be up there.

Do this: rehearse standing up, at full volume, at least once.

17. Involve the audience and plan the Q&A

Remember that the audience is on your side. They gave up their time to be there, so they are rooting for a talk worth hearing. Bring them in early: ask for a show of hands, mention something someone said, or give them ten seconds to think before you answer your own question. People remember what they took part in.

Plan the Q&A like an extra main point. Guess the three most likely questions and practice short answers. When a question comes, repeat it so everyone hears it, answer the whole room in two or three sentences, and if you do not know, say so and offer to follow up. Afterwards, ask one listener one specific question, such as "Which part was hardest to follow?" Research links asking for feedback with better performance.

Do this: write down the three questions you would least like to get, and answer them out loud.

Nerves are normal, even for experienced speakers. Shaking hands, a dry mouth, a pounding heart and a wobbly voice are the classic signs, and the formal name for the fear is communication apprehension. For 15 to 30% of people it is strong enough to count as a form of social anxiety. The last three public speaking tips are about handling it, not making it disappear.

18. Breathe slowly before you speak

Adrenaline shortens your breath, and short breath makes your voice thin and quick. Slow breathing reverses it. Start ten to fifteen minutes before you speak, using one of these three techniques:

• Box breathing: in for 4 counts, hold for 4, out for 4, hold for 4. Good for waiting backstage.
• 4-7-8 breathing: in through your nose for 4, hold for 7, out through your mouth for 8. Good the night before or that morning.
• Belly (diaphragmatic) breathing: rest a hand below your ribs and breathe into it, keeping your shoulders still. Good during the talk, between points.

Cut back on caffeine that day, sleep well the night before, and spend a minute that evening on visualization: picture yourself walking up, saying your first line and hearing the room react.

Do this: four rounds of box breathing somewhere quiet before you go in.

19. Call it excitement, not nerves

Trying to calm down right before a talk rarely works, because your body is already wide awake. Changing the label works better. In a 2014 study by Alison Wood Brooks, people who said "I am excited" out loud before a speech performed better than people who told themselves to relax. The racing heart was the same. Only its meaning had changed.

Do this: say "I am excited" out loud once before you walk in. It takes five seconds.

20. Keep going after a slip

When AmberWillo asked 1,851 people what goes wrong when they speak, the most common answer, from 38% of them, was that their mind goes blank. In job interviews it was 46%. So plan for it. Keep one rescue line ready, such as "Let me go back to the main point for a second", then say your one sentence from tip 4 and look at your next keyword card.

You also look calmer than you feel. Psychologists Kenneth Savitsky and Thomas Gilovich called this the illusion of transparency: speakers overestimate how much of their nerves the audience can see, and speakers who learned this gave better talks. If you make a mistake, do not stop to fix it. Keep going, and most people will never notice. Afterwards, be as kind to yourself as you would be to a friend.

Do this: write your rescue line on the top card of your notes.

Public speaking tips for interviews, meetings, toasts and more

The same skills apply everywhere, but each situation leans on a different tip:

• Job interview: short answers under pressure, and going blank is most common here. Lean on the 3:2:1 rule (tip 8) and your rescue line (tip 20).
• Work meeting: you speak in turns, often without slides. One point, one example, one ask (tip 8).
• Class presentation: a fixed time limit and a grade. Write to the word budget (tip 5).
• Video call: a camera instead of faces. Look at the lens on key points (tip 15) and check your sound first (tip 6).
• Wedding toast: one minute, an emotional room and a microphone. One story and a closing line you know by heart (tips 10 and 12).
• Pitch or sales talk: a decision at the end. A clear call to action (tip 12).
• Conference talk: a big room and a long slot. Simple slides and a voice that carries (tips 11 and 14).

Common public speaking mistakes and how to fix them

Each of these is easy to spot in a recording of yourself:

• Apologizing for your nerves at the start: open with your memorized attention-getter instead (tip 7).
• Reading the slides out loud: one idea per slide, and speak from keyword notes (tips 9 and 11).
• Speaking too fast: check your words per minute and pause between points (tip 13).
• Um after every sentence: close your mouth and breathe where the filler used to go (tip 13).
• Staring at your notes or the screen: hold one face for three to five seconds at a time (tip 15).
• Going over your slot: count words, not minutes, and put a timer on each rehearsal (tip 5).
• Ending with "So, that's it": summary, call to action, memorized last line (tip 12).
• Practicing only in your head: say it out loud, record it and watch it back (tip 1).

One week to get ready for a talk

Have a talk coming up in a week? Save or print this checklist and do one line a day:

1. Day 1: go through the five audience questions from tip 3, then pick your three points.
2. Day 2: write a first draft that fits the word budget, including the first and last lines.
3. Day 3: two timed run-throughs out loud; trim anything past the limit.
4. Day 4: film yourself once, watch it and choose a single fix, such as speed, ums or where you look.
5. Day 5: try it on a friend or a small online group and ask which part lost them.
6. Day 6: a full dress rehearsal: on your feet, loud, with slides and cards.
7. Day 7: say only your opening and your close, then stop and rest. On the day itself: arrive early, breathe, and tell yourself you are excited.

Questions about public speaking tips

What are the five best public speaking tips?

If you only remember five: practice out loud, limit yourself to three main points, slow down, swap filler words for pauses and make eye contact. Together they fix most of what goes wrong in a first talk.

How do I master public speaking?

Through lots of short practice rounds rather than a few big talks. Speak out loud for a few minutes every day, watch yourself back now and then, and move up to real listeners step by step. Watching speakers you admire helps too: once for the words, and once with the sound off for the body language. A public speaking course or a local speaking club gives you a regular audience and structured feedback.

How long does it take to become a confident speaker?

Less time than most people expect. Confidence scores in Confidently rose 6.6% within about ten sessions, so think weeks of short daily practice, not years. The fear rarely drops to zero, but it stops running the show.

What are the 7 C's of public speaking?

Speakers borrow them from the 7 C's of communication: clear, concise, concrete, correct, coherent, complete and courteous. Read your draft against that list. Each C usually costs you a few words: a cut sentence, a swapped term, an example where there was an abstraction.

What are the 5 P's of public speaking?

You will find two lists under that name. One is about getting ready (purpose, passion, preparation, practice, performance), the other about how you sound (pitch, pace, pause, projection, passion). The second is easier to check in a recording.

Can introverts be good public speakers?

Yes, often very good ones. Introverts tend to prepare more, listen better and use fewer filler words. Speaking simply costs them more energy, so plan some quiet time before and after the talk.

What public speaking tips work for beginners and students?

Start with tips 1, 5 and 9: practice out loud in short runs, write to a word budget and speak from keyword notes. Those three take the most pressure off a first class presentation.

Where to start

You do not need all 20 public speaking tips at once. If your talk is weeks away, start with tips 1 and 2, because practicing out loud and practicing in front of people are what every other habit rests on. If your talk is tomorrow, use tips 4, 9 and 19. Then give the talk, ask one listener one question and use the answer to pick your next tip.