Context

Whether on a call with a client or explaining an issue to a vendor, leading a team session, speaking at an event, or celebrating loved ones at a wedding, I've found that the need to be an effective public speaker has only increased over time. And it never quite feels easy. But I have gotten better at it with intentional practice.

Here are tactics that I've used to improve, build confidence, and reduce anxiety as a public speaker over the years.

Prompted by a friend seeking advice on preparing for attending his first industry conference years ago, I took some of my own advice and prepared these notes to share.

Start with Why

Who is the talk for and what should they hope to get out of it?
Who are you and why should the audience trust you?
Why are you giving the talk?

Meta commentary: I hope to have achieved this with the intro to this (and every other) post.

Know your content - practice

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The best response to nervousness is preparation.

Practice. Seriously. Simply making your presentation deck doesn't count.

Practice in the way that you will present

If you are going to be presenting physically, then stand.

If you are going to be virtual, get comfortable in your space and with your surroundings.

Whether you are in person or virtual, your physical presence matters. People can "hear" if you are smiling or slouching. Sit or stand tall, smile, make eye contact

Practice out loud

Silently going over your content in your head isn’t sufficient.

You think and read faster than you speak. Practicing out loud exposes stumbling points, awkward transitions, and other potential gaps that you can address. Also, you can get away with starting a sentence over midway or not finishing a thought when reading in your head. But going through it out loud forces you to work through those stumbles, which is itself a skill.

Dry runs let you see where you need to tweak your content (reorder, trim, etc). Practice first by yourself, then with a friend, family member, or colleague if you can.

Time yourself

Timing yourself during practice is especially important when you have tight time limits.

My process is usually to do one end-to-end run through to establish a baseline. Comparing that with the target time/time limit can then inform how I adjust the content and/or how I present it.

Know yourself

Learn your cues

I get cold when I get nervous, so I hold a cup of tea when I present (whether in person or virtual). That also has bonus effects of

Giving me the opportunity to take organic pauses
Giving me something to do with my hands other than fidget

Your mouth might get dry, so have access to water. It also gives you a chance to pause, calm down, leave room for questions to be answered, etc

Choose your mindset

Some people find it effective to tell themselves,

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"I'm not nervous, I'm excited. Nervousness is a choice".

If that mindset works for you, leverage it!

But that mindset doesn't feel congruent to me. What I've found to be more honest and as a result more effective is this:

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"I'm nervous and that's OK because it means I respect your time and want you to get something out of this experience".

Both can be true. Talk to yourself in the language that you are most receptive to.

Live in the house that authenticity built

Building awareness of your cues and mindset choices ultimately make it easier to show up authentically. There is useful information to be gleaned by understanding your internal state - especially when you’re feeling challenged. That understanding can guide your preparation and help you to show up in ways that will likely resonate with your audiences.

Feel nervous about the content? Go polish it

Feel nervous about presenting the content? Go practice it

You've polished and practiced as much as time permits? Regulate yourself. For instance, focus on your breath to calm yourself and increase the odds for delivering your best performance.

Know your audience

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You don't need to reach everybody, just the people you are trying to reach (and who are open to receiving).

This is important as knowing who you are talking to will inform what information you assume to be common knowledge vs what you need to explain. E.g. If it's an advanced talk for pros, you can assume they know the basics. If it's for beginners, the basics might be the entire point. I've spoken about being a software engineer to people in the medical field. I was able to establish the relevance of the talk by focusing on the core parts of leadership and communication that are relevant across fields.

Know your tools

If you’re going to rely on virtual speaker notes, make sure you’re familiar with the A/V setup of the venue ahead of time so that you know if, where, and how those notes will be visible. I’ve spoken at events where the A/V team fully controlled the presentations for all speakers (either by design or after a clicker stops working, etc). In those cases, having them figure out how to present notes to you but not the audience is often not feasible. In those cases, you’d want to have notes accessible independently (e.g., on a laptop or paper).

Know your design principles

You do the talking, not your slides

Favor text-light slides. Use the slides to remind yourself and the audience of what you plan to discuss for the next minute or so.

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Soft guidance: 1-3 bullet points, 1 minute per slide max.

The rationale for this is text-dense slides may

Prompt your audience to read more than listen
Make it more difficult to read because of crammed text formatting

So it's sort of a lose-lose proposition: people may experience friction both with listening and with reading.

Accessibility considerations

The counterpoint to the text-light approach is that including more text may make your slides more accessible to those with hearing impairments or language barriers. I think, then, a better solution may be to distribute materials beforehand or after the fact to the extent feasible.

Conclusion

A former track and field coach once told me,

You play how you train.

That's stuck with me and, since then, I've tried to approach personal development as perpetual training.

Public speaking, like all skills, improves with intentional practice and self-awareness.

Training starts with proper preparation: practice out loud, time yourself, and rehearse in the format you'll actually present.

Understanding your audience allows you to tune your message so that it lands with the people that you intend to reach. Understanding yourself - your authentic mental and physical states - enables you to show up as your best self on game day.

Keep slides minimal so that you do the talking, familiarize yourself with technical setups beforehand, and start by establishing context and purpose. Ultimately, nervousness signals that you care about delivering value to your audience, which is a good place to start from.

Prepare well, show up authentically, and trust that the work you put in will show when it’s game time.

On presenting well: lessons in preparation, presence, and the art of public speaking