What are the 5 ways to become a better public speaker?

The five on this page: record yourself, do the filler-word drill, practice pausing, try improv and practise in front of real people. Pick one a week. If you'd like feedback today, Confidently counts your filler words and shows whether you sped up, free on your phone.

What are the 7 powerful speaking tips?

There is no single official list. Ours: practice out loud, record yourself, ask for honest feedback, know your audience, speak from notes, pause instead of saying um, and breathe out slowly before you start. Honestly, the first two do most of the work.

What are some tips for making effective presentations?

Skip the "Today I'm going to talk about" opener. Start with a surprising fact, a short story or a quote, use slides only where they clarify, and end by reviewing your main points with one line people remember (Stand Up, Speak Out). More in presentation skills.

Do and don'ts for presentation?

Do: know your audience, work from an outline, look at people and adapt when you see confused faces. Don't: read your script, pile on slides or try to be perfect. Nobody expects perfect.

How to write a good speech?

Start at the end. Pick the one sentence you want people to repeat, then outline your purpose, your central idea and a few main points that lead there. Our speech writing guide walks through it.

How to improve public speaking

How to improve public speaking fastest: work on the one area that breaks first for you, not all twelve skills at once. Practicing in your head feels productive, yet only runs said out loud and recorded show what goes wrong.

Do you want people to actually listen when you speak?

Not right now

Nerves, breathing, filler words and feedback are where most speakers get stuck. If you're working out how to improve public speaking past them, the fix is a plan: practice out loud, record each run, work on one skill at a time and find a real audience early.

Practice out loud
Know your audience
Embrace the pause
Control your breathing

Last reviewed October 22, 202612 skills5 exercises17 sources

How to improve public speaking: the practice plan

Which skill first?

NervesStructureDeliveryFiller words

Preparation and Structure

Know your audience: Learn who will be listening before you write. Their needs decide your words, your examples and how much detail you give. (Stand Up, Speak Out)
Organize clearly: Give the talk a clear introduction, body and conclusion. Open with a short attention-getter and close by reviewing your main points, with a line people remember. (Stand Up, Speak Out)
Avoid word-for-word memorization: Speak from notecards with key words and phrases, not a script. (Stand Up, Speak Out) That is extemporaneous speaking, the style most talks call for.
Practice out loud: Say it, don't just think it. Run the full talk out loud in front of other people several times, spread over several days. (Stand Up, Speak Out) Record each run on your phone and watch it back once. No audience yet? Here is how to practice public speaking alone.

Delivery and Stage Presence

Make steady eye contact: Hold eye contact with individual people across the room instead of sweeping your gaze. (Stand Up, Speak Out) Finish a thought with one person, then move on. Where to look.
Use purposeful body language: Stand up straight with an open posture and use a few well-planned gestures for emphasis. Drop nervous habits like clicking a pen. (Stand Up, Speak Out)
Vary your voice: Change your pace and pitch so you don't sound flat or rushed. (Stand Up, Speak Out) One recommended band is 120 to 170 words per minute. (100th Monkey) Voice is one of the twelve public speaking skills in this list, each with a drill.
Embrace the pause: Slow down and use a brief silent pause where the um or uh would go. (Stand Up, Speak Out) Silence reads as calm. Stop saying um.

Managing Anxiety

Reframe nervousness: A racing heart is your body getting ready. People who say "I am excited" out loud before a performance do better than people who try to calm down. (Brooks, 2014) If the fear keeps you from saying yes at all, start with our stage fright guide.
Control your breathing: Slow, deep breaths slow your heart rate. (ASCA) In a trial of 108 people, five minutes a day of breathing with long exhales lifted mood more than meditation did. (Balban et al., 2023)
Start small: Build public speaking confidence in low-stakes rooms first: a friend, a small online session on AmberWillo, then a team meeting.
Accept mistakes: If you slip, don't stop to correct it: keep going. Audiences don't perceive the level of nervousness speakers feel. (Stand Up, Speak Out) If the same slip keeps coming back, this guide on how to get better at public speaking finds your weak spot first.

Practice with feedback

How to improve public speaking with feedback on your next run

On your phone, Confidently does the listening for you. Answer a random prompt out loud in 60 seconds, record a full speech of up to 30 minutes, or upload a video you already have. It shows whether you sped up, how many times you said um, how your face looks and where you trailed off, plus a confidence score. Recordings stay private; there is no feed.

When you are ready for faces instead of a camera lens, AmberWillo has small online video sessions, fifteen people at most, nobody judging. You speak out loud and get a confidence score, coaching notes and a milestone after each round. Free to start, from home. Of the 1,851 nervous speakers who told AmberWillo their biggest challenge, 38% said their mind goes blank, 21% speak too fast and 11% worry most about filler words. (AmberWillo)

Try a free practice rep

Free on iPhone and Android

Download on theApp Store Get it onGoogle Play

Exercises

Public speaking exercises

A public speaking exercise is a short drill you repeat to train one skill. Each one gives you feedback you can act on. When it comes to how to improve public speaking, the value of an exercise is the number of honest reps it gets you. The payoff is real: in one study, college graduates named oral communication the most useful skill in the business world. (Stand Up, Speak Out)

Public speaking exercises at a glance
Exercise	What it trains	How long	Backed by
Record yourself	Pace, body language, filler words	Short runs: clarity peaks at 20 to 59 seconds	Stand Up, Speak Out, Confidently
Filler-word drill	Filler words, pause	One short recorded talk a day	Stand Up, Speak Out
Pause practice	Pause, voice, pace	Five reps of a 50-second answer	Stand Up, Speak Out, Confidently
Improv	Nerves, thinking on your feet	A beginner course over several weeks	Seppänen et al., 2020, AmberWillo
Real audience	Audience, feedback, impromptu speaking	One small session a week	AmberWillo, Stand Up, Speak Out

Record yourself

Trains: Pace, body language, filler words
How: Film a full run on your phone, standing up. Watch it once with sound and once on mute.
Time: Short runs: clarity peaks at 20 to 59 seconds
Check: Write down one thing to fix in the next run.

Filler-word drill

Trains: Filler words, pause
How: Record a short talk and tally every um and uh. Redo it slower, with a silent pause where each filler was.
Time: One short recorded talk a day
Check: Fewer tallies than on the run before.

Pause practice

Trains: Pause, voice, pace
How: Mark a slash in your notes after each key point. Stop there for a full beat, then go on.
Time: Five reps of a 50-second answer
Check: On playback the pauses sound calm, not stuck.

Improv

Trains: Nerves, thinking on your feet
How: Join a beginner improv class or play word games where you answer without planning.
Time: A beginner course over several weeks
Check: You keep talking after a surprise. A small study found improv training might lower stress before a performance, and improv makes nervousness familiar (AmberWillo).

Real audience

Trains: Audience, feedback, impromptu speaking
How: Try an AmberWillo session (free to start), where up to fifteen people practise the same thing online, or visit a local speaking club as a guest.
Time: One small session a week
Check: You get a confidence score, coaching notes or spoken feedback from people who watched you.

Go deeper