Public speaking tips that work when you're nervous

Most public speaking tips are written for people who already feel fine on a stage. If your heart is going and your mouth is dry, "be yourself" and "own the room" don't give you much to do. You need things you can actually practise, on an ordinary weekday, that still hold up when the nerves arrive.

The public speaking tips below are the ones that work when you're nervous. They're grouped by when you use them: in the days before the talk, on the day itself and while you're speaking. Each one is small enough to try this week.

Public speaking tips for before the talk

Most of what makes a talk go well happens before you stand up. Nerves feed on the unknown, so the more of the talk you've already heard yourself say, the less there is for them to work with.

• Decide the one thing you want them to remember. Write it as a single sentence of fifteen words or fewer. If you can't, the talk isn't clear to you yet, and it won't be clear to the room.
• Keep the middle to three points. Three is about as many as a listener can hold without notes. Give each one an example or a short story, since those are what people remember afterwards.
• Learn your first and last lines by heart. Nerves peak in the first minute, so the opening needs to come out even if your mind goes blank. Keep the middle as short prompts on cards, a few words each, so the words come out a little differently each time and sound like you talking.
• Rehearse out loud, standing up. Reading it in your head only makes the words familiar. Saying it on your feet shows you the long sentences, the tongue twisters and the sections that run over. Our guide on how to practise a speech has a full routine.
• Record one run and watch it back. It's uncomfortable, and it's the fastest way to see what the audience sees. Watch once with the sound off for your posture and hands, and once with your eyes closed for your pace and filler words.
• Time it, then cut. Most people speak at somewhere around 130 to 150 words a minute when presenting, and nerves push that higher. Aim to finish a little under your slot, because a talk that ends early never bothers anyone.

Public speaking tips for the day itself

On the day, your job is to take the edge off the adrenaline and remove as many surprises as you can.

• Get there early and stand where you'll stand. Check the screen, the clicker and the microphone. Look out at where the audience will sit, so the view is familiar when you walk up.
• Talk to a few people as they arrive. A quick hello turns strangers into faces you know, and you'll have somewhere friendly to look when you start.
• Move before you speak. A walk, a flight of stairs or shaking out your arms uses up some of the adrenaline that would otherwise come out as shaky hands.
• Breathe out for longer than you breathe in. In through your nose for about four, out through your mouth for about six, three or four times. It slows your heart rate and nobody can tell you're doing it.
• Warm up your voice. Hum, yawn or say your opening quietly somewhere private. A tight voice is often the first place nerves show, and a few minutes of use loosens it.
• Keep water within reach. A dry mouth is one of the commonest signs of nerves. A sip also gives you a natural pause if you need a moment to find your place.

Public speaking tips while you're speaking

Once you're up, a handful of habits do most of the work. You can use every one of them while you're still nervous.

• Pause before your first word. Plant your feet, look at one person and count two in your head. It feels long to you and completely normal to the room, and it tells everyone you're in charge.
• Slow down on purpose. Nerves speed nearly everyone up, and your first sentence sets the pace for the rest. Say it at half the speed that feels natural. How to speak slower has drills for this.
• Give each thought to one person. Finish a sentence or a point while looking at one face, then move to someone else in a different part of the room. A crowd turns into a run of short conversations.
• Let your hands move. Gesturing as you would in conversation helps your words come out. Between gestures, rest your hands loosely at your sides or lightly together at waist height, and leave the lectern alone.
• Swap your ums for pauses. When you feel a filler coming, close your mouth and pause instead. A pause sounds like thinking, while an um sounds like searching. There's more on this in how to stop saying um.
• If you lose your place, stop and sum up. Look at your notes, take a breath and say what you've just covered in one sentence. It usually brings the next point back, and a few seconds of quiet is ordinary to an audience.
• Finish on purpose. Say your last line, stop, hold the pause, then say thank you. Trailing off with "so, yeah, that's about it" undoes a good ending.

How do you get better at public speaking?

You get better at public speaking by doing it more often, in small, low-stakes doses, and looking back at each attempt. A big talk once a year gives you too few chances to improve, however much you rehearse for it.

A few ways to get those reps in:

• Speak once in every meeting, even if it's only to sum up what's been agreed.
• Talk for one minute, out loud, on a random topic each day. It builds the habit of finding words on your feet.
• Record yourself once a week and watch it back, looking for one thing to change.
• Join a speaking club. Toastmasters is a non-profit network of clubs where members give short talks and get feedback, and there's likely one near you.

Work on one thing at a time. If you try to fix your pace, your eye contact and your filler words in the same week, usually none of them moves. Pick the habit that bothers you most, practise it until it feels normal, then move on.

Stagefright is built for this kind of practice. You can record a 60-second rehearsal on a new topic every day, for free, on your phone or computer. It measures your pace in words a minute and counts your pauses and filler words. Then it gives you one concrete thing to try on the next run.

How can you be a confident public speaker?

Confidence in public speaking usually follows experience. Each talk you get through tells your body it went fine, and the alarm is a little quieter next time. That means you can't wait to feel confident before you start. You build it by speaking while still nervous.

In the meantime, you can look confident well before you feel it. Most of what an audience reads as confidence is a few visible habits:

• feet planted and still, about hip-width apart
• a pause before you begin
• a slow first sentence
• eye contact that stays with one person for a whole thought
• an ending you stop on, rather than trail off from

The audience can see very little of what you feel. Your racing heart and churning stomach are invisible from the third row, and a slight shake in your voice is usually far less obvious than it sounds to you. Watching a recording of yourself is the quickest way to believe this.

It also helps to read the nerves differently. The rush before a talk is the same response you get before anything that matters to you. Plenty of experienced speakers still feel it and treat it as energy for the talk. The aim is to know your opening well enough that the nerves don't run the show. Our guide to stage fright goes deeper into what's happening in your body and how to work with it.

When it's more than nerves

Some nerves before speaking are normal and healthy. If the fear is stopping you doing things you need to do, keeping you awake for days before a talk or affecting your health, talk to your GP. In the UK you can also refer yourself to NHS talking therapies, which offer CBT for anxiety, including fear of speaking.

Where to start

You don't need all of these tips at once. Pick two from the list before the talk and one from the list for while you're speaking, and use them on your next meeting, presentation or toast. The pause before your first word is a good first choice, because it costs nothing and changes how the rest of the talk feels.