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Why is public speaking so scary? What could you accomplish if you overcame that fear?
Public speaking anxiety is legendary. But, public speaking is extraordinarily powerful—both for the audience and the speaker. The audience gains knowledge and gets inspired. The speaker gets their message across, spreads their influence, and develops skills for success.
Keep reading to learn about the power of public speaking and several misconceptions and truths that surround it. We’ll also share practical tips on how to gain confidence in public speaking by attacking the speech and attacking your fear.
The Power of Public Speaking
Dale Carnegie, founder of the Dale Carnegie Institute and author of best-selling books that include How to Win Friends and Influence People, was born the son of a poor Missouri farmer. In 1902, Carnegie was impressed by a traveling lecturer who had transformed himself by learning public speaking. In college, Carnegie, who didn’t initially have confidence in public speaking, entered speaking contests and eventually became such a successful speaker that others began asking him for lessons.
After college, Carnegie offered a public speaking class in New York City, which was an overnight success. Thereafter, in books and seminars, he touted public speaking and developing a winning personality as essential skills for succeeding in the competitive business world. Carnegie’s books and training continue to be popular, as are organizations such as Toastmasters, which was established in 1924 to give people opportunities to gain confidence in public speaking.
Since 1984, TED Talks have come alongside these other public speaking institutions. TED Conference curator Chris Anderson explains in his book TED Talks that, by learning to speak effectively, you’ll experience greater confidence and success—particularly in your professional life. Great public speaking has the power to influence. With the right presentation, your ideas can spread like wildfire and inspire positive change.
In addition, when you share your expertise and unique way of thinking, Anderson says new opportunities will find their way to you. The ability to influence others combined with a constant flow of opportunities is a recipe for professional and personal success.
Communication is one of the most sought-after skills in the workforce. In addition to the benefits discussed here, it’s also valuable because effective speaking results in fewer misunderstandings and better outcomes. If, at the end of your presentation, your colleagues or employees know exactly what to do and are fired up, they’re likely to complete their assigned task with quality and enthusiasm.
The Fear of Public Speaking
Despite its power, most people lack confidence in public speaking. In fact, public speaking is one of our greatest fears. Jerry Seinfeld observed that “according to most studies, people’s number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two. Does that sound right? This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you’re better off in the casket than doing the eulogy.”
Why do so many people lack confidence in public speaking? Chris Anderson says that public speaking anxiety is two-fold: There’s the in-the-moment fear of temporary humiliation—stumbling over words, forgetting what to say, and so on. Then there’s the long-term fear of a damaged reputation. Most people care deeply about what others think of them, and they worry that a public flop will change the way they’re viewed.
While public speaking anxiety is common, Anderson stresses that it must be overcome. Why? Because you’ll likely have to speak publicly at some point, whether you fear it or not, so you might as well cultivate confidence in public speaking and reap the rewards.
Misconceptions and Truths
Chris Anderson says the first step is to face your public speaking anxiety by debunking common misconceptions.
Misconception: Great public speakers are eloquent and perfectly polished.
Truth: Incredible speeches can be delivered in a conversational style.
Misconception: You need to have a stage and an audience to be a public speaker.
Truth: The internet is available to anyone, and there’s always an audience waiting. Online public speaking is so common that it now has a name—digital oratory—and it’s being taught as a skill in all levels of education.
Misconception: To be worthy of a public speech, your idea must be revolutionary.
Truth: Small but meaningful ideas and observations have value. People love to learn—in fact, neuroscientists have shown that humans receive a rush of dopamine (the feel-good hormone) in their brains when they learn something new. As Anderson says, this isn’t to say that the idea needs to be new to the world; it need only be new to your audience.
How to Gain Confidence in Public Speaking
If you have intense public speaking anxiety, psychologists recommend that you attack the speech and the fear separately. Let’s look at strategies for both attacks.
Attack the Speech
To cultivate confidence in public speaking, you must attack the speech. You can do this by speaking your passion, being prepared, dressing with confidence, and using confident body language. Let’s unpack each of these.
Speak Your Passion
Author Susan Cain lacked confidence in public speaking, yet it was something her work often required her to do. In her book Quiet: The Power of Introverts, she explains how she employs passion to overcome her nerves. Speaking on subjects she’s excited about enables her to focus on the topic more than on the audience. Since she’s interested in the topic, she doesn’t have to project enthusiasm she doesn’t feel. She also treats every speech as a creative project and enjoys the research and preparation. That enjoyment carries over into the presentation itself.
In the book Talk Like TED, communications coach Carmine Gallo shares nine principles of effective public speaking that frequently feature in successful TED talks. The first principle is to pick a topic you’re passionate about. For example, if you’re asked to give a presentation about one sale you’ve made this month, discuss the sale that excites you the most. You’ll be so excited that you won’t feel nervous about your talk.
Sometimes, you’ll have to speak on a topic that you don’t feel passionate about. In such situations, Gallo says that you shouldn’t try to fake passion. People are good at discerning whether passion is genuine, and they’ll distrust what you’re saying. Instead, frame the topic in a way that does excite you and appeal to your passions. For example, if your passion is bringing added efficiency to your workplace, and you’re asked to give a presentation on a piece of dull accounting software that you don’t really care about, focus your presentation on how efficient the software is.
Be Prepared
The more prepared you are, the more you’ll find comfort and confidence in public speaking. Preparation includes outlining, writing, and practicing your speech and determining (or knowing) how the stage should be set up.
Outline Your Speech
In Talk Like TED, Carmine Gallo explains that effective planning involves working out exactly how you want your speech or presentation to unfold. Your talk is much more likely to run smoothly if you have a clear idea of what you want to say rather than making your points up as you go along.
One planning tool you could use is a message map: a one-page summary of everything you want to include in your talk. Creating a message map involves three steps:
- Step 1: At the top of a sheet of paper, draw an oval. In the oval, write a short “headline” that summarizes the main message of your talk.
- Step 2: Draw three arrows pointing down from your headline. At the end of each arrow, write a sub-point that will support your overall argument. For example, if your overall argument is that buying your product will benefit customers, write three reasons why this is the case.
- Step 3: Below each sub-point, write all of the supporting material you’re going to include when discussing it. For example, are you going to tell a story that proves your sub-point is valid?
Write (or Don’t Write) and Rehearse Your Speech
Outlining might be as far as you go with “writing” your speech, but you could choose to script it completely. In TED Talks, Chris Anderson puts speeches into four categories:
- Scripted and memorized
- Scripted and read
- Unscripted but planned out
- Unscripted and given off the cuff
Anderson strongly discourages giving speeches off the cuff, as he considers them disrespectful of the audience and their time (most experts agree that it’s a bad idea). He explores the benefits and rehearsal strategies for the other three types of speeches.
Category 1: Scripted and Memorized
When you script your speech, you can ensure there’s time for everything you want to say, you can choose your words carefully, and you can practice your speech in front of other people to get feedback. For people who suffer from intense public speaking anxiety (glossophobia), scripting and memorizing is the favored option because it gives a feeling of control and preparedness.
At the beginning of rehearsal, the speech will come out passionately but not super smooth. Once you achieve memorization, the speech will come out smoothly but without passion. Anderson says it’s key to push past this stage and continue to practice. You’ll eventually know the speech so well that you’re no longer concentrating on the words, and the passion will return to your voice.
Category 2: Scripted and Read
Anderson says there are two occasions when reading your speech works well:
- The speech is paired with gorgeous imagery, and your audience’s eyes are on your images instead of you.
- You’re a gifted writer, and the audience understands that they’re hearing a piece of written work.
With the right tools (such as a teleprompter) and lots of practice, you can master reading without drawing attention to yourself. We discuss these tools in the section on stage setup.
If you’re a writer reading a written work (such as a poem), Anderson recommends you still know your speech well enough that you can look up at your audience from time to time and so that your voice will sound natural. He adds that, with read speeches, it can be especially impactful if you deliver your last paragraph without reading. Amanda Gorman balanced reading and looking up at the audience—to great effect—while reading her poem “The Hill We Climb” at President Biden’s inauguration ceremony.
Category 3: Unscripted (But Planned Out)
An unscripted speech is passionate, fresh, and in the moment. Anderson says the audience feels your authenticity and wants to go on the journey with you.
Even with an unscripted speech, rehearsing is crucial. While you aren’t planning out the exact words to use, you do need a structure in place to keep you on track. Start by identifying the point you’re trying to make (your “big idea”), and then decide how you’ll get there. You can use the process involved in the outline step above.
Set Up the Stage
Anderson argues that, if you have your speech memorized and feel confident speaking without notes, setup isn’t important—it’s just you and the stage. However, having a strategic setup in place gives most people more confidence in public speaking. Anderson recommends choosing a setup early in your planning so that you can practice using the chosen tools many times.
Note Cards
Advantages: Anderson believes that this is the most invisible way to reference notes. A small card held in your hand is less obtrusive than a lectern, and it’s less off-putting to the audience than your eye-line moving to a teleprompter.
Disadvantages: If you have multiple notecards, there is the risk of dropping them or getting them mixed up. For this, Anderson recommends you keep them in order on a keyring.
Another expert suggests using just five cards—one for the introduction, three for your main points, and one for the conclusion. On each card, he details how to set up a keyword outline, which includes word prompts rather than full sentences.
Small Lectern
Advantages: If you need to have your full speech available to read, Anderson says the best option is a small, unnoticeable lectern. A podium with a thin or transparent stem with enough room for a few sheets of paper is all you need.
Disadvantages: Even with a small lectern, you have an object between you and the audience, which can affect the connection. If you choose this setup, Anderson recommends you know your speech as well as possible so that you can connect with the audience through lots of eye contact.
If you choose to use a music stand or small lectern, be sure to rehearse using the same stand. It’s not unusual for a speaker to rehearse using a sturdier piece of furniture, only to have a clumsy moment when they lean on a tinier one during the actual speech.
Confidence Monitors and Teleprompters
Advantages: With a confidence monitor, you can see your slides with added notes (called “presenter view”) that will keep you from turning around and checking the slides that your audience is viewing. Teleprompters display your written speech in scrolling format so that you don’t have to find your place on a piece of paper.
Disadvantages: Anderson cautions against this setup, as he finds that speakers tend to rely on them and don’t connect with the audience as a result. Even if you use the right vocal inflections, the audience can tell by your eye-line that you’re reading, and this is off-putting.
A common mistake is transfixing your eyes on the prompter, which leads to an unnaturally stoic facial expression and robotic vocals. One tip is to practice using the prompter while manipulating an object in your hands. By doing another action that pulls focus, you’ll learn to read without staring intently at the words.
Dress With Confidence
As TED’s content director for 17 years, Kelly Stoetzel sent wardrobe recommendations to all of the TED speakers. Her advice includes some guidelines that could affect your confidence in public speaking.
- Above all, dress in something that makes you feel great. This means something that is physically comfortable and also makes you feel confident. This is not the time to try out a new style—you want to feel like the best version of yourself.
- Avoid accessories that make noise. Jangly bracelets, dangling earrings, and high heels or boots may not seem loud in a normal setting, but a microphone will amplify them. Any extra noise will distract the audience and perhaps even get you off track from your speech.
- Consider where your microphone will go. Are you going to have a microphone clipped to your lapel, over the ear, or on your waistband? Ask the coordinator so you can plan your outfit accordingly and not be distracted by its placement.
- Practice your speech in the outfit. An outfit might be great in theory, but you won’t know if it’s good for your talk until you move around in it. Wear the exact outfit, down to the undergarments, to pinpoint any problems you might run into on the day of your talk.
Prevent and Recover From Wardrobe Malfunctions
You’ll notice that several wardrobe recommendations aim to limit distractions. Of course, you don’t want your audience to lose their focus on you. But, you also don’t want to lose focus on your talk. Perhaps the most distracting wardrobe-related situation is a “wardrobe malfunction.” To prevent wardrobe malfunctions, take these actions:
- Bring a backup outfit in case something goes wrong with your first choice.
- Keep a Tide instant stain-removing pen in your bag to remove small stains.
- Carry a travel-size sewing kit to repair loose buttons. Be sure that it includes tiny scissors to cut loose threads.
Even if you follow these tips, nothing is guaranteed. So, what should you do if your outfit experiences a sudden stain? Or rip? Or a button falls off? Etiquette expert Diane Gottsman offers advice for handling wardrobe crises like a pro:
- Laugh—if it comes naturally. Forced laughter will make everyone feel uncomfortable. But, if your natural instinct is to poke fun at the situation, it will lighten the mood.
- Acknowledge the snafu. It’s very difficult to focus on what someone is saying when you’re wondering if they know about the run in their stocking or the stain on their tie. If you want your audience to give you their full attention, acknowledge the problem from the beginning so everyone can move on.
- Don’t post it online. Even if you think the situation is funny now, you don’t want a momentary mistake to live on in infamy on the internet.
- Accept the situation, and move on. You can choose to let this slip-up derail your speech, or you can quickly accept that the situation isn’t perfect and still deliver an impactful talk. Make sure that your talk—not your appearance—is the star.
Use Confident Body Language
In Talk Like TED, Gallo discusses the importance of body language when it comes to confidence in public speaking. If you fail to appear confident, your audience will trust you and your opinions less. After all, why would they believe what you’re saying if you don’t seem certain of it yourself?
There are a number of things you can do to exude confidence through body language:
- Stand up straight—don’t slouch.
- Hold your head up high, rather than looking downwards.
- Make frequent eye contact with the audience.
- Resist the urge to fidget—for instance, play with your hair or scratch your nose.
If you’re not sure which of these confident actions you’re taking already and which you aren’t, video yourself making a speech. Then, watch the video and identify where your problem areas lie.
If you’re already feeling confident about your speech or presentation, confident body language will likely come naturally. However, if you’re feeling nervous or insecure, you might doubt your ability to hold your body in a way that’s contradictory to your emotions.
If you’re in the latter situation, Gallo says don’t be afraid to “fake it ‘till you make it.” In other words, keep practicing confident body language no matter how insecure you actually feel. Studies have shown that doing so can actually make you experience more confidence in public speaking. Standing in a confident position increases your levels of testosterone—a hormone which, amongst other functions, increases your confidence in public speaking—while simultaneously reducing levels of the stress hormone cortisol.
What should your face be doing? In Simply Said, communication expert Jay Sullivan writes that your facial expression should convey that you want to be there. Even if you’re delivering bad news and deem it inappropriate to smile, wear a sincere expression that shows you’re ready and willing to provide support.
Position Your Body Confidently
Sullivan explains that your body language should be open and neutral whether you choose to stand or sit.
Standing
Stand with your feet directly under your hips with your weight evenly distributed and your hands apart—this keeps you from fidgeting or crossing your arms, which makes you look closed off. It also leaves you free to use hand gestures to emphasize your points.
In Talk Like TED, Gallo emphasizes the importance of standing up straight and not slouching. As well as ensuring that your body language is confident, you also need to make sure that it’s not too boring. A common mistake that speakers make when giving a standing presentation is staying still and rooted to the same spot for the entirety of their talk. Such rigidity will make you seem dull and unenthusiastic about your topic. Instead, continually walk around your presentation space or stage, moving from one end to the other. Your constant movement will keep your audience engaged and make you seem more dynamic.
Seated at a Table
When you present from a sitting position, Sullivan recommends that you sit up straight at a table, staying fairly still (no swiveling) and keeping your forearms on the table with your hands on either side of your notes.
Make Eye Contact
In TED Talks, Anderson explains why eye contact is so important when it comes to confidence in public speaking. Neuroscientists have proven that, when you look into someone’s eyes, your emotions naturally sync up. Look into the eyes of a nervous person, and you’ll start to feel nervous. Look into the eyes of someone who is sad, and you’ll feel sad. Eye contact with an occasional, genuine smile will make your audience feel relaxed and trust you. Help them feel relaxed, and, in turn, they will make you feel relaxed.
Anderson’s advice: Greet your audience, choose a few people to make eye contact with, nod hello, smile, then begin.
According to speech analysts, three seconds is the ideal amount of time to hold eye contact, and 10 seconds makes the other person uncomfortable. There are cultural differences to consider, however, and this is the recommendation for public speaking in America. If you’re speaking in another country, it’s a good idea to research what is customary there.
Use Hand Gestures
In Talk Like TED, Gallo indicates that studies have shown that making hand gestures will increase the audience’s confidence in you and what you’re saying. That, in turn, will feed confidence back to you. Also, using hand gestures prevents you from using your hands to fidget, thus helping you to exude confidence.
Gallo recommends that, as you speak, don’t simply hide your hands in your pockets. Instead, use gestures to add emphasis to what you’re saying. For example, if you’re talking about how much a problem has grown in size, create a small circle with your hands and expand it. If you want to emphasize that you’ve personally experienced this problem, point at yourself.
Gallo writes that you should keep your gestures within the “power sphere.” This is the area of the body from the eyes down to the navel. Placing your hands any lower than the navel suggests a lack of confidence and energy.
Body Language for Online Presentations
What about delivering a presentation online? Live and recorded video presentations are becoming more and more common. To keep your audience engaged during your online presentation, experts recommend the following tips:
- Maintain eye contact by focusing on your webcam. It helps to position your webcam on the same level as your eyes; prop up your laptop, if needed.
- Sit up straight. Sit on the edge of your chair to keep you from slouching and make you look more engaged.
- Keep the upper half of your body visible on screen so that people can see your hand gestures. Even if they can’t see your hands, don’t stop yourself from making natural hand gestures; you’ll look more genuine that way.
- Make your face the focus by being expressive. Smile and nod, and be sure that you’re actually seen. Keep your light source in front of you.
- Minimize distractions by having a clutter-free background.
Attack the Fear
Now that you’ve learned how to attack the speech, you must learn how to attack the fear by managing your nerves and, well, just doing it. Let’s take a look at both of these strategies to cultivate confidence in public speaking.
Manage Your Nerves
In TED Talks, Anderson explains that, whether you’re a seasoned speaker or not, adrenaline comes with the territory. Adrenaline gives you energy and animates your voice, which can be great for your speech. However, in large doses, it can also make you shaky, give you dry mouth, and cause anxiety. The following are ways that Anderson says you can manage your adrenaline and project confidence in public speaking:
- If your adrenaline is high enough to make you shaky, do something physical to get rid of the excess. Anderson doesn’t say how far in advance you should do this, but we can infer that you should allow for enough cool-down time that you won’t be out of breath when you walk onto the stage.
- Five minutes before you speak, drink five or six ounces of water. This is enough to keep dry mouth at bay but not enough to fill your bladder. Even if you’re hydrated, your mouth can still get dry because of nerves. For the stage, experts recommend that you stick to flat, room temperature water.
- In the minutes before speaking, focus on your breathing. Make sure the oxygen is going all the way down into your stomach (shallow breathing does more harm than good), and hold it for a moment or two before exhaling. Too much oxygen in the blood raises its pH and leads to dizziness, tingling, anxiety, and chest pain. If you’re experiencing these symptoms, breathe into a paper bag or hold your breath for a few seconds before exhaling.
If all else fails (you begin stuttering or your mind goes blank), Anderson says to simply tell the audience you’re nervous. They want to root for you, and admitting that you’re experiencing nerves only makes you more relatable. Mark Twain is famously quoted as saying, “There are two types of speakers: those who get nervous and those who are liars.” Nobody in the audience is going to judge you for feeling nervous.
Just Do It
How well placed is your lack of confidence in public speaking? Are you actually really bad at it? In Talk Like TED, Gallo contends that most people who believe they’re intrinsically poor at public speaking simply lack confidence. They have all the skills they need to be a strong speaker: They just need to overcome their nerves to let these talents shine through.
If you struggle with public speaking anxiety, Gallo advises forcing yourself to do it anyway. Practice speaking in public again and again until you prove to yourself that you can do so successfully. Likewise, work hard to implement the strategies in this article. You’ll find that people will respond well to your presentations, which will give you the boost you need to overcome your fears and exude confidence in public speaking.
Wrapping Up
Confident and effective public speaking takes effort, no doubt. But, just think about what difference you could make if people heard what you had to say and were moved by it.
Whether it’s a talk on the joy of birdwatching, a presentation on the latest marketing trends, or a sermon about the hope of eternity, your message deserves to be heard. Your message deserves your confidence. And, who knows? Chances are, you already have what it takes if you just get out there and do it.
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