Audience, main points, notes, breathing, pace, eye contact

Tips for public speaking

Tips on public speaking follow your clock: structure and notes days ahead, practice out loud the night before, breathing and a first line in the final hour. Which ones matter depends on how long you have.

How long until you speak?

  1. A week or more away
  2. Tomorrow
  3. Less than an hour

Not sure how ready you are? This sends you to Confidently's store page for iPhone or Android; a brief spoken round there marks your starting point.

Your countdown

How long do you have?

Tags: Preparation & Structure also called Structure and Content · Delivery & Voice also called Delivery and Body Language · Managing Nervousness also called Managing Nerves

  1. A week or more out

    • Know your audience

      Preparation & Structure

      Learn who will sit in the room, what they already know and what they want to leave with.

    • Limit your points

      Preparation & Structure

      Choose three to five main points and cut the rest.

    • Keep slides minimal

      Preparation & Structure

      Keep visual aids simple: one idea per slide, so people listen to you instead of reading.

    • Use simple notes

      Preparation & Structure

      Put cue words on a card, not full sentences, so you look up more than down.

  2. The night before

    • Practice out loud

      Preparation & Structure

      Stand up and say the whole talk, start to finish, with your slides. AmberWillo's tips for beginners suggest timing each run so you stay inside your limit.

      0:00

    • Stand with purpose

      Delivery & Voice

      Rehearse where you will stand and what your hands will do, so you plant your feet instead of pacing.

  3. The last hour

    • Normalize the anxiety

      Managing Nervousness

      A pounding heart before a talk is common. AmberWillo's presentation tips suggest a short walk or a quick shake-out, and a look at the stage beforehand so it feels familiar.

    • Breathe deeply

      Managing Nervousness

      Also called: Control your breathing

      Breathe into your belly without forcing it, in through the nose and out through the mouth, counting steadily from one to five each way, as the NHS breathing exercise describes.

  4. The first minute

    • Focus on the start

      Managing Nervousness

      Also called: Start strong

      Know your opening line cold. Once it is out, the rest follows more easily.

    • Project to the back

      Delivery & Voice

      Speak to the last row. If they can hear you, everyone can.

  5. While you talk

    • Slow down your pace

      Delivery & Voice

      Also called: Pace yourself

      Nerves push your speed up, so aim for a pace that feels a bit slow to you.

    • Embrace the pause

      Delivery & Voice

      Stop for a breath after each main point instead of filling the gap with um.

    • Maintain eye contact

      Delivery & Voice

      Give each thought to one person, then turn to someone new.

That's your list. Want to know which tip matters most for you? The free app rates a half-minute round and picks one. Find your one tip

Why this order works

Public speaking tips are small habits that make a talk easier to follow and easier to give. Some need days, some seconds, so the clock sets the order.

Limit your points comes first because it shapes everything after it. A 2001 review in Behavioral and Brain Sciences put the limit of short-term memory near three to five chunks, about four on average, not the seven people often quote.

Practice out loud belongs to the night before, because reading in your head hides the stumbles. The open textbook Stand Up, Speak Out says to rehearse until a planned talk still sounds spontaneous, and suggests a few friends as a first audience. AmberWillo's tips for students add two habits: rehearse with your visual aid, and practice without memorizing so you stay natural.

Maintain eye contact comes last because it only happens live. The textbook warns that staring at the wall above people's heads tends to look mechanical.

If practicing out loud is the step you keep putting off, try one short spoken round in the Confidently app.

Three tips worth dropping

"Words are only 7% of your message"

The split credited to Mehrabian came from narrow experiments. Stand Up, Speak Out notes it is widely misread, and Mehrabian himself said so. Your words carry your talk.

"Look over their heads"

The same textbook says it comes across as mechanical. Look at real faces instead.

"Memorize every word"

A memorized script sounds robotic and falls apart when one line slips. Know your points, not your sentences.

When there's no countdown at all

Impromptu speaking means talking with little or no preparation: a surprise question in a meeting, a toast nobody warned you about. Keep one move ready: one point, one example, then stop.

When there's no notice at all, the countdown shrinks to seconds; practice that moment with a timed impromptu speech drill.

After this talk

AmberWillo's advice for beginners is to look for small, low-stakes chances to speak and let the audience and the length grow over time.

These tips carry you through one talk; for the skills underneath, a practice plan on how to improve public speaking takes them one at a time.

If you want a teacher and a room of listeners on a schedule, public speaking classes run in person, online and sometimes for free.

Do one round now

One spoken round, whatever the clock says

If the clock says less than an hour, there's still time for one round. Confidently picks two words, you speak about them for a half-minute round, and it grades your voice and face, then tells you what to work on first.

Get Confidently on your phone

For iPhone and Android. On Android this goes to Google Play; on anything else, the App Store.

With a week or more, add real listeners. On AmberWillo you join a small group on live video, each person speaks in turn, and notes come after every round.

Quick questions

How to speak more clearly?

Slow down, finish the ends of your words, and pause where each sentence ends.

How to connect with the audience?

Learn who they are before you start, keep your eyes on one listener per thought, and use examples from their world.

What is impromptu speaking?

Speaking with little or no preparation, like answering a surprise question in a meeting.

How to speak like a leader?

Use short sentences, make one clear ask, and let steady pauses carry some of the weight.

What are the 3 B's of speaking?

People pass it around as be brief, be bright, be gone. No single source owns it.

How many main points should a speech have?

Three to five at most. Short-term memory holds roughly that many chunks, per a 2001 review in Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

Sources

  1. Breathing exercises for stress. NHS, page reviewed June 2026.
  2. The magical number 4 in short-term memory: a reconsideration of mental storage capacity. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 2001. PMID 11515286.
  3. Practicing for Successful Speech Delivery. Stand Up, Speak Out: The Practice and Ethics of Public Speaking, open textbook.
  4. 10 Public Speaking Tips for Beginners to Build Confidence. AmberWillo.
  5. 10 Presentation Tips for Public Speaking Success. AmberWillo.
  6. 11 Public Speaking Tips for Students to Build Confidence and Engage Your Audience. AmberWillo.

Checked against these sources on .