Public speaking anxiety: Practical strategies to speak with confidence.

Public speaking anxiety is one of those annoying little human glitches that makes zero logical sense. You can deadlift your bodyweight, negotiate a salary, run a household, survive heartbreak - but put you in front of eight polite coworkers and suddenly your throat closes up like you’re about to confess to a crime you didn’t commit.

Here’s the reframe that stops this from being a personality flaw: your nervous system thinks “group attention” equals “risk.” That’s it. Your body isn’t being dramatic. It’s running old software. And the goal isn’t to magically become fearless. The goal is to become functional while the fear sits in the passenger seat.

One of the fastest ways to get leverage is learning to separate symptoms from meaning. Shaky hands? Dry mouth? Racing heart? Those are standard adrenaline outputs. They don’t automatically mean you’re unprepared or that you’re about to embarrass yourself. The American Psychological Association literally frames this as normal and manageable, and pushes the idea that you can work with it instead of trying to delete it. APA tips on fear of public speaking.

Now let’s get practical.

The first strategy is boring but brutal in its effectiveness: exposure, in tiny controlled doses. Not “throw yourself into the deep end” exposure. I mean a ladder. A clean progression your brain can survive without calling the emergency services.

Start here:

• Read your talk out loud alone (yes, out loud - your mouth needs reps).

• Record a 60-second version on your phone.

• Send it to one trusted person.

• Do the same 60 seconds live on a video call.

• Present to 2 people.

• Present to 5.

• Then your real audience.

You’re teaching your nervous system: “We did this and didn’t die.” Repetition turns threat into routine. You don’t need confidence first. Confidence is the receipt you get after the work.

Next: control the body first, then the mind. Because when your physiology is on fire, your brain starts inventing horror stories to justify it. This is where breathing stops being “wellness fluff” and becomes a steering wheel.

If you only learn one tool, learn a simple paced breathing pattern you can do anywhere, quietly, without looking like you joined a cult. The NHS recommends slow, steady breathing that drops the breath into the belly, using gentle counts, for at least a few minutes. It’s not mystical - it’s a way to shift the stress response down a gear. NHS breathing exercises can be found here.

If you want the science backbone: regulated breathing practices (like slow breathing and diaphragmatic breathing) are widely discussed in research as tools to reduce stress and anxiety symptoms. Review article here.

Here’s a dead simple 3-minute “before you speak” routine you can use:

1. Posture reset (20 seconds): feet planted, shoulders down, jaw unclenched.

2. Breathing (90 seconds): inhale through the nose for 4, exhale for 6. Repeat.

3. De-threat the moment (30 seconds): say to yourself: “This is adrenaline, not danger.”

4. First sentence drill (40 seconds): speak your first sentence three times. Slow. Clean.

5. Anchor (20 seconds): pick one person or one point at the back of the room as your “home base” for your eyes.

That’s it. You’re not trying to become a different person. You’re trying to arrive in your body.

Now let’s deal with the mental side, without turning this into a motivational poster.

Public speaking anxiety usually runs on three dirty lies:

• “I must be perfect.”

• “If I mess up, they’ll judge me.”

• “If they judge me, it means something about me.”

So you replace those with functional truths:

• “I need to be clear, not perfect.”

• “People are thinking about themselves more than they’re thinking about me.”

• “Even if this goes badly, I’m still allowed to improve.”

One more tactical move: structure reduces panic. Anxiety loves vagueness. Give your talk a spine.
Try this simple framework:

• Point: what you’re saying.

• Reason: why it matters.

• Example: a real-world proof.

• Close: the takeaway in one sentence.

When you have a track to run on, your brain stops sprinting in random directions.

And yes, practice matters - but not the kind of practice most people do. Reading your slides silently is not practice. That’s pretending. Real practice is:

• speaking out loud,

• timing it,

• trimming it,

• and doing it again.

This is where apps can be genuinely useful, because they give you reps without needing an audience on demand.

Handy tools and apps worth trying:

• Orai (AI feedback on pace, filler words, clarity)

• Speeko (speech coaching + feedback on delivery)

• VirtualSpeech (VR/online practice environments for presentations - a bit pricy)

• Ummo (tracks filler words and pacing while you practice)

Use these like a gym accessory. Not as a replacement for real reps, but as a way to get more of them.

A final note that sounds small but changes everything: stop trying to erase nerves. Aim to channel them. Nerves are energy. Energy is not the enemy. The enemy is the story you attach to the energy.

So the philosophy is simple: your body will show up with adrenaline, because it’s trying to help. Your job is to train your response so that adrenaline becomes fuel instead of a fire alarm. That’s the work. It’s not glamorous, but it’s reliable.

And once you’ve done it enough times, you’ll realise something quietly powerful: you’re allowed to be nervous and still be good.

Where to start?

You don’t beat public speaking anxiety by waiting for confidence. You build it the same way you build anything solid – effort, consistency, time. Start small. Take one rung on the ladder today. Record a one-minute talk. Run the three-minute pre-speak routine. Speak once more than is comfortable. That’s the work. Do it again tomorrow. Your nervous system will learn. And one day you’ll stand up, speak, and realise the fear never left – it just stopped being in control.

If this helped, save the routine, try one of the practice apps, and put your next speaking rep in the calendar. No more someday. Start where you are.