r/PublicSpeaking

I have something called orals in my college and we're supposed to talk on a particular topic for like 2-3 minutes. Its like a part of our final assessment. Its super important. Now the teacher doesnt wanna any emotinal topics (like death) or any topics talking about a specific person in class or any topics related to religious and political matters and religious wars and stuff. It also cant be childish topics, something thats got substance to it. I know i can look up topics on chatgpt but all im finding are "why should homework be banned" and "why should monday be banned" and other such topics. Ik these r pretty good topics, but they're more on the humorous side and id usually want to lean away frm humorous topics because im not really good at making things sound funny😭 Can someone please help me pick a topic.

I’ve spent more than a decade working as a tech consultant, mostly behind products and teams. Recently, I started sharing my own work and thoughts more openly, and I was surprised by how uncomfortable it felt.

A lot of the hesitation had little to do with whether the post was good. I was imagining an old colleague or friend finding it and watching me start from zero in public.

I’ve become more comfortable with every post, so I ended up writing down what I’ve learned in an article.

When the work stays private, I can continue imagining that it might be good.

Once I publish it, I have to find out. Annoyingly, finding out is also how the work improves.

I'm in corporate and I know my speaking needs work. I use way too many filler words and honestly sometimes I don't even land my point clearly, I just kind of trail off or circle back.

Been looking at apps that give you a daily speaking score and I'm kind of torn. Part of me is skeptical like am I actually improving or is it just measuring stuff that's easy to measure (um count, pace, etc) instead of whether I'm actually communicating better? But I've also heard people say just the act of recording and reviewing yourself daily genuinely helps with confidence, separate from whatever the score says.

Has anyone actually used one of these consistently? Did it change anything? Did you just get good at gaming the score without getting better at speaking? Also open to non-app suggestions if there's a better way to fix this before I'm doing this in real meetings.

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I’m a college student and recently I suggested a classroom learning idea to my professor.

The idea was that students could study a topic beforehand, and then some class time could be used for discussion, participation and short student presentations. My main goal was to improve communication, public speaking and practical learning, rather than focusing only on marks.

I’m one of the top students in my class, and I genuinely feel that college should help us develop these skills too.

What happened

At the end of class, my professor was taking attendance. Two sections were combined, so quite a few students were around.

I suddenly said, “Ma’am, I need to talk to you for a minute.” She asked me to continue, but I said I wanted to talk privately.

I went outside and tried twice to find a private moment, but it didn't happen. I was extremely nervous, my heart was racing, and I was seriously considering just dropping the idea.

Then I thought, “I've already approached her twice. I have to say it now.”

So I explained the whole idea in front of the few students who were still around.

She listened, although I don't think she understood the exact model I had imagined. I also told her that many students hesitate to speak and that this could help with presentations and communication.

She said we could perhaps do something like this in the last 5–10 minutes of class, so she basically accepted the concept, although not exactly in the form I had imagined.

Now I'm worried about the reaction

Three guys who were around me afterwards heard the conversation, and the information has already spread.

I know that once the activity actually starts, everyone will probably figure out that I suggested it.

My concern is that some students—especially those who aren't interested in this kind of participation or skill development—might blame me:

“Why did you have to suggest this?”

I obviously can't go around explaining my reasoning to 70 people individually.

One of my classmates actually told me, “You're the class topper, you think differently from most of us,” and after I explained my reasoning, he agreed that communication and presentation skills will be useful later.

But I still can't stop worrying about the negative reaction.

So I want an honest opinion:

Did I do the right thing by speaking up despite the awkward situation and the possibility of being blamed?

Would you have said something in that situation, or waited for a better opportunity?

And now that I've already done it, how should I deal with it if some classmates actually blame me?

I’m especially interested in opinions from people who have been in similar college/classroom situations.

Hi good people,

I am an ambitious technology professional looking to increase my impact and network and also perform a quantum leap in my personal development journey (what's more quantum than going from introvert and shy to speaking in conferences).

I have done speeches via Zoom a lot of times (I have a contract with a university) and people praise me for the engagement I can bring to the speeches. Apart from some brown bags between friends, family or teammates at work I have never spoken in a physical public setting with strangers.

So what is more normal than joining a Toastmaster club? First meeting, they bring me up for an impromptu speech and they ask me to talk about myself. I am pretty good at explaining things about my profession or areas I am passionate about. But speaking about myself? Meh...

Impromptu speeches are challenging themselves, let alone how my difficulty speaking about myself. So I blacked-out and even though I persisted for the whole minute and didnt bail, it was the worst speech I could give. I rewind it in my mind and it was a compilation of absolute nonsense, to the degree I believe I am an inside joke for the "old gang" of the club.

I now feel like, even doing an icebreaker presentation in Toastmasters, is a giant task and I have not even opened my learning path. Let alone speaking in the conferences I am targeting. Speaking on camera though? Not a problem baby, I just delivered one today.

Any help, tips, hints, baby-talking or sincere yelling etc is appreciated. :)

P.S: I have recently started speaking to my phone camera and watching myself. I am NOT freaking out, looks pretty normal. I dont know if it says something or if it is irrelevant

Hey guys,

I noticed that I started fumbling words and not articulating properly while speaking to someone like I will be using unrelated words and using word irrespective of their tenses...

I don't know why it happens but I been very confident and fluent for last 2 weeks all of the sudden I will lose the flow and this is not the first time it happened to me so many times...

If there is a problem or any advice for it please help

I want to really participate in activites like group discussion and debate type in my college but the problem with me is that -

. I don't have good communication skill

. My English is not so good

. My heartbeat goes so high while even trying

. My friends make my fun

. Don't even able to make correct thinking lines

. Have fear to being jugded beacuse i am 3d year student and tried alot but can't able to speak confidently

......

What can I do to improve my English, to built confidence

And to practice group discussion or debate in my room alone ??

I’m wondering what steps you usually follow to prepare for a pitch, not necessarily to a VC.

Do you write it down first? Do you practice in front of a mirror or record yourself? Do you rehearse with friends or coworkers? Do you pay attention to what you wear or how you present yourself?

I’m also curious about how you decide what parts of the pitch need the most practice. Do you focus more on the opening, the main points, or the questions you might get afterward?

How many times do you usually practice before you feel ready?

I’d be very interested in hearing your preparation process and any tips that have made a real difference for you.

This has become a serious professional problem for me and I’m trying to understand what’s actually going on.
I’m articulate with friends/family like I can argue about politics, history, philosophy etc. But put me in a room with senior people or clients and I become almost completely silent. Sometimes someone asks me a simple question and I genuinely can’t form a coherent sentence.
It’s not just nervousness, I assume.
I’ve tried preparing scripts, but that’s becoming a crutch. I’m now experimenting with webinars where nobody knows me, extempore speaking, recording myself, and gradually speaking without scripts.
\*\*Has anyone experienced this exact difference where you articulate normally, but cognitively blank under professional/status pressure and actually managed to change it? What genuinely worked for you?\*\*
I’m especially interested in people who used to be \*the quiet person in the room\* and aren’t anymore. What changed?

I have been researching different keynote-speaker niches in the U.S., not just looking at who is famous, but at what each speaker actually stands for, what problems they solve, who books them, and what makes their story different. That research has led me to an interesting group of top U.S. keynote speakers across very different niches, and I am sharing it because I think it is important for meeting planners, conference organizers, corporate event teams, and anyone researching the best keynote speakers in the US to look beyond the generic label of motivational speaker.

John Livesay is one of the keynote speakers who stood out to me because he has built a strong niche at the intersection of sales, storytelling, persuasion, and business communication. Known as “The Pitch Whisperer,” John helps sales professionals and business teams understand how to use stories to connect with buyers and communicate value more effectively. He is the author of four books, including The Sale Is in the Tale, and his TEDx talk, “Be The Lifeguard of Your Own Life,” has reached a large audience. His work makes him particularly relevant when someone is looking for a sales keynote speaker, storytelling keynote speaker, sales kickoff speaker, persuasion speaker, or business communication keynote speaker in the US. What I find interesting about John is that he has not simply positioned himself as a motivational speaker; he has connected storytelling with a specific business outcome; helping people sell, persuade, and communicate more effectively.

Mark Sanborn represents another important category within the U.S. keynote speaking industry: leadership. He is best known as the author of The Fred Factor, Mark has built a long career around leadership, employee engagement, service, organizational performance, and developing better leaders. His speaking experience includes thousands of presentations, and his approach combines practical leadership lessons with stories that audiences can apply to their professional and personal lives. His research and content around leadership keynote speakers and organizational complacency further strengthen his association with leadership and organizational performance. For meeting planners searching for a leadership keynote speaker in the US, a corporate leadership speaker, an organizational performance speaker, or a business conference keynote speaker, Mark is a good example of how a speaker can build a recognizable category around practical leadership rather than relying only on motivation.

Joey Havens thrives in a vey important niche, closely connected to one of the biggest challenges organizations face today: workplace culture. Joey's career included more than three decades at HORNE, where he eventually helped lead a large organization while focusing heavily on people-first culture. He is the author of Leading with Significance and delivered a TEDx talk focused on creating magnetic workplace culture. His work addresses leadership, belonging, trust, flexibility, employee engagement, retention, and building a stronger leadership pipeline. That makes him particularly relevant as a workplace culture keynote speaker, employee engagement speaker, organizational culture speaker, leadership keynote speaker, and workplace leadership thought leader in the US. His positioning demonstrates how a keynote speaker can own a very specific organizational problem rather than competing for the broad “motivational speaker” category.

Randy Gage has perhaps one of the most distinctive personal transformation stories in this group. His journey went from being in a jail cell as a teenager to becoming a New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling author and an advisor to founders, CEOs, and social entrepreneurs. His work focuses heavily on entrepreneurship, wealth creation, mindset, personal transformation, and business growth. That makes him relevant to another important U.S. keynote speaker category: the entrepreneurship keynote speaker, wealth mindset speaker, founder speaker, business growth speaker, and entrepreneurial success speaker. His story itself is a powerful differentiator because it gives his work a narrative of transformation that goes beyond conventional business advice. For young founders and CEOs who want to build successful businesses while developing the mindset necessary for wealth creation and personal growth, his positioning is particularly distinctive.

The more I research the U.S. keynote speaker industry, the more I realize how many different categories exist within it. There are leadership keynote speakers, sales keynote speakers, storytelling keynote speakers, workplace culture speakers, employee engagement speakers, entrepreneurship speakers, innovation speakers, artificial intelligence speakers, technology speakers, customer experience speakers, resilience speakers, change management speakers, women in leadership speakers, future-of-work speakers, marketing speakers, creativity speakers, high-performance speakers, and many other specialists. There are also speakers who sit at the intersection of several categories, which can make their positioning even more valuable to meeting planners.

That is why I think the question for a conference organizer should not simply be, “Who is the best keynote speaker in the US?” The better question may be, “What does our audience need to learn, feel, or change after this keynote?” A sales kickoff may need a sales keynote speaker who understands persuasion and revenue growth. A leadership summit may need a leadership keynote speaker who understands organizational performance. A company struggling with employee retention may need a workplace culture keynote speaker. A founder conference may need an entrepreneurship keynote speaker who understands business growth and wealth creation. A conference trying to make complex ideas memorable may need a storytelling keynote speaker. And an organization going through transformation may need a change management or future-of-work keynote speaker.

I am continuing to research these different keynote-speaker niches because I believe there is a real opportunity to create a useful resource for meeting planners, conference organizers, corporate event professionals, and companies looking for keynote speakers in the United States. The more specific the speaker's expertise, audience, story, and business outcome are, the easier it becomes for an event organizer to understand why that particular speaker belongs on their stage.

I am interested in adding this list & hearing from meeting planners and conference organizers on who else should be included among the notable keynote speakers in the US, and what specific niche or business problem do you think they have become known for.

I’m a marketer and nervous about public speaking. I’ve got a short presentation coming up and would love some professional help. Budget is about $50/50 min. I’ve only seen PrePly but wanted to see what else is out there.

Thank you!

I did my lead. I practiced it. I used an excerpt of my original, shortened it, and spoke. It was authentic. I did NOT read from a script.

I'm glad I did this because even though I practiced it a few times when I gave the lead I wanted to breakdown and cry. I told myself to keep pushing forward.

I'm glad I overcame my anxiety.

i've been struggling with this for years, but it's getting much worse now that i'm in law school.

when i was in school, there was one time when i was reading aloud in class and mispronounced a word. a girl started laughing, and for some reason that moment has stuck with me ever since. since then, whenever i have to read aloud or speak in front of the class, i get extremely nervous. once during giving a presentation in class, i started shaking infront of everyone aswell.

now, our english professor randomly asks people to read aloud from the text, so sometimes i know there's a possibility that i could be called on. but even when other professors ask for volunteers and say that we can raise our hands if we want to read, i still get nervous. so it's not really the fact that it's unexpected. we're also given the readings and resources beforehand, and i actually read the text aloud to myself before class so that i'm familiar with it. i know how to pronounce the words and i know what i'm reading. but as soon as i imagine having to read it in front of everyone, i start panicking. i even read a whole page out infront of my roommate, and didn't struggle at all.

my heart starts beating really fast, my hands get sweaty, and i start shaking. sometimes i feel like my mind just goes blank.

the weird thing is that i know i can speak properly. i can read perfectly well when i'm by myself, and i'm completely fine speaking in front of one or two people. i can articulate myself properly and my english is actually pretty good. english is my second language, but i can write perfectly fine, so i don't think it's really about not knowing the language.

it's specifically being watched and having everyone listen to me that scares me.

now i'm in law school, where participation and speaking in class are obviously a huge part of everything, and it's getting worse. i haven't said anything in class yet. i was extremely nervous even during introductions, and i keep thinking about how i'm eventually going to have to participate.

i know realistically that mispronouncing a word isn't a big deal, but my body reacts like i'm in actual danger. i'm terrified of embarrassing myself or having people laugh at me again. it's gotten so worse that i want to quit law school even though it's just been a week.

has anyone else experienced something like this? how did you get yourself to start speaking in class? im scared to take the first step. 

Hi, first off, English isn't my first language so sorry for any mistakes ahead.

I just wanna ask how to speak confidently Infront of everyone, I used to be very afraid of public speaking, my voice shakes, my mouth dry, my face red, then I began taking pr∅p®@n0|0| and it help me, I barely stutter anymore, I'm not afraid as I am before but I still can't make eye contact in the audience, I can deliver speeches but only short😢 and the fear is still there, is there any tips that can help me

I’m a marketer and nervous about public speaking. I’ve got a short presentation coming up and would love some professional help. Budget is about $50/50 min. I’ve only seen PrePly but wanted to see what else is out there.

Thank you!

I wrote this because I found it very disturbing that a lot of people were talking about using drugs to deal with stage fright. There is nothing wrong with your brain. You are not stupid. You are not weak. This is a problem of perception, and perception can be changed.

Before I go further, let me be clear about what I mean, because I know this is a sensitive subject. I'm not talking about anyone managing a diagnosed anxiety disorder with their doctor. That's between you and your doctor and it's none of my business. I'm talking about people reaching for something to get through a presentation, a pitch, a wedding speech. That's what I've seen people describe, and that's what this post is about. This is my own view, not medical advice.

Extreme fear isn't actually the problem. Fear is resistance, a defense mechanism your mind uses to stop you from facing something painful. If you're afraid of something extreme, the fear itself isn't what needs fixing. What's underneath it is.

That's why most advice doesn't work for extreme fear specifically. Breathing techniques, positive self-talk, gradual exposure, they all work on the fear directly, which means they're treating the consequence, not the cause. You can manage the symptom for a while, but it tends to resurface, because the actual source was never addressed.

So what's actually underneath extreme fear? In almost every case, it traces back to past experience, sometimes one specific event, more often a series of them, where the mind learned to associate a specific situation with danger. It isn't always dramatic. It can be one moment that landed hard, or years of smaller ones that added up. From those experiences, the mind builds images, of the situation, of other people, of what they might think, sometimes of yourself, and those images are what you're actually reacting to, not the present reality in front of you.

There's an old teaching that captures this well: you're walking at dusk, you see something coiled on the ground, a snake. Your heart pounds, your body freezes, panic floods through you. You shine a light on it, and you see a rope. And in that moment, the fear doesn't just reduce. It vanishes completely. Not gradually, not with effort, instantly, because the threat was never real to begin with. The fight-or-flight response simply switches off. Your mind created the danger, and the moment it sees clearly that the danger isn't there, there's nothing left to be afraid of. The fear was completely real in your body. But it was never actually about what was there. It was always about what you thought was there.

Extreme fear works the same way. The intensity of the fear tells you how convinced your mind is that the threat is real, not how real the threat actually is. Once you see clearly what's actually there, once the images get corrected, the fear has nothing left to attach to, and it dissolves. Not because you fought it down. Because there was never a real threat to begin with, just a story your mind was reacting to.

The second piece, often overlooked: even once a specific fear clears, some people still don't feel like the person who isn't afraid. That's identity, not fear, and it's a separate piece of work.

James Clear has a line worth borrowing here: "every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become." Most people try to build a fearless identity that way, one small brave action at a time. That route works. It's just slow. The faster path is to shift the underlying self-image first, directly, and let the actions follow naturally afterward. Once you no longer see yourself as "someone who has this fear," you stop needing to vote your way there. You're simply acting in accordance with who you already are.

Once you understand what's actually driving the fear, there are many ways to work with it. Here are two simple ones worth trying on your own, not because they're the only ways, but because they're accessible and they can genuinely alleviate the problem and create real change.

But first, before you can question anything, you need to know what you're actually afraid of. Not the surface answer. The real one underneath.

A simple way to find it: ask yourself "What am I afraid will happen?" Write down the answer. Then ask it again about that answer. And again. Keep going until you can't go any deeper.

For stage fright it might look like this:

What am I afraid will happen? I'll freeze and forget what I was saying.
And if that happens, what am I afraid will happen? They'll think I'm incompetent.
And if that happens? I'll lose the opportunity, the job, the deal, whatever was on the line.
And if that happens? I'll have failed. I'll have proven I'm not good enough for this.

There it is. That last belief, "I'm not good enough for this," that's what the fear has been protecting all along. Not the presentation. Not the audience. A story about yourself that your mind has been treating as fact.

Once you can see it clearly, written down in front of you, you can start questioning it.

The first: question the belief like a lawyer cross-examining a witness.

Once you've named the worst-case thought, "I'll make a fool of myself," "I'll show I'm incompetent," whatever it is, ask: is it true? Can I absolutely know it's true? What evidence do I actually have that backs this up? And just as importantly, is there evidence contradicting it?

A personal example. Growing up, my dyslexia made reading out loud hard. Teachers would call on me, I'd stutter, people would laugh, and I felt deeply embarrassed. From that, I built a belief: "I'm not good at learning." For years, I avoided new things because of it.

When I questioned it directly, by collecting outside evidence, it fell apart fast. I'm great at picking up games, languages, even random movie trivia. Once I had a mental portfolio of contradicting evidence, the old belief couldn't survive the barrage.

The second: revisit the memory that created the belief and look for other interpretations.

In my case, the memory was being asked to read out loud and stuttering. My takeaway was "I'm not good at learning." But looking back, I could interpret it differently, maybe the teachers simply weren't teaching in a way that worked for how I learned. Maybe other students had parents who helped them study at home, and I didn't. Maybe that one memory never said anything about my capacity to learn at all, just about the conditions I learned in.

Once I saw there were multiple valid interpretations of the same memory, not just the one I'd been carrying, the belief weakened on its own. And with each subsequent questioning, each time I examined the images my mind had been reacting to rather than reality itself, the fear lessened. Not all at once, but steadily. Until one day I realized it simply wasn't there anymore. The belief couldn't survive being looked at clearly.

Same applies to stage fright. Whatever memory or moment convinced you of the worst-case belief, you can either build outside evidence that contradicts it, or revisit the memory itself and find other ways to interpret it.

These aren't the only ways in, but they're two of the most direct. Worth sitting with, even just journaling your answers can start to shift something. There are other approaches too, some that go much deeper and faster than self-inquiry alone, but that's more than one post can hold.

And there's one more piece worth naming.

Even when the fear clears, and it can clear completely, some people still don't feel like the person who walks into that room with confidence. That's not fear anymore. That's identity. A self-image that was built around being "someone who struggles with public speaking," and that image doesn't automatically update just because the fear is gone. This is actually what makes public speaking fear seem so stubborn for so many people, it's not just the fear itself, it's who they've come to believe they are in relation to speaking in front of an audience. And that's a different problem entirely.

It goes deeper than one post can fully address. But here's a small thing worth trying.

Ask yourself: who would I be if this was no longer a problem for me?

Close your eyes and sit with that question for three minutes. Don't force anything. Let your mind fill in the picture, how would you wake up the morning of a presentation? How would you feel walking into the room? How would you speak, move, carry yourself? What would be different about how you see the audience? Don't try to make it happen. Just let the image come.

I call this the 3x3 method, three minutes, three times a day, done sporadically throughout the day whenever you remember.

For me, it worked almost magically. Some people I've shared it with have found the same. Others have struggled with it, the mind wanders, the image won't come, or it just doesn't seem to land. That's okay. Everyone is different, and no single approach works for everyone. But for those it clicks with, it can start shifting the self-image in a way that feels almost effortless.

One last thought.

My two cents, and this is just what I believe from my own experience: drugs are not the solution here. They mask something that was never really there to begin with. Again, I'm not talking about anyone working with their doctor on a diagnosed condition, and I'm not telling anyone to stop anything.

And this applies to you even if your fear isn't extreme. Even mild nervousness, a slight tension before you speak, a subtle holding back, that's still resistance. And even that small amount is enough to stop you from expressing yourself fully and performing at your best. The threat behind it may be smaller, but it's still not real. And it still doesn't need to be there.

I hope this helps somebody out there. So many people truly struggle with this, and I know for a fact that it doesn't have to be this way.

I paused for 5-10 seconds again and again and again and I forgot everything and I started talking without turning the mic on and after turning the mic I didn't put it closer to my mouth and teacher had to come and put it near my mouth and I didn't look at the audience, it was a little big something like partison horror remeberence day and they recorded me and I am done

Done

It's all done