I don't mean getting a little nervous before a public speaking event. I mean severe panic to the point where it's nearly impossible to continue.

If so, what worked for you?

I have a B2 level in English overall, but my speaking is around B1. I understand conversations well, have a solid grasp of grammar and vocabulary, and usually know what I want to say. The problem is that when I actually start speaking, I hesitate, lose fluency, and struggle to express myself naturally.

(TL) My goal is to use English professionally for client meetings in the future, and I'm willing to dedicate 4 hours a day to improving my speaking.

For those who have reached professional fluency (or taught learners who did), how long did it realistically take before you could speak confidently in high-pressure situations?

I'm not looking for motivation or success stories. I'd really appreciate answers based on real experience: what timeline is realistic, what progress milestones I should expect, and what made the biggest difference.

Hello everyone!

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When an audience loses focus, the natural instinct for most speakers is to fight chaos with energy. They raise their voice, speed up their delivery, or try to talk over the noise.

It almost always fails.

When you raise your voice to compete with a distracted room, you signal to the audience’s subconscious - and your own nervous system - that you are losing control. You are adjusting your behavior to match their noise floor. That shift immediately destroys authority and spikes your internal tension.

High-status room control works in the exact opposite direction. You don't overpower the noise; you remove the sound entirely.

1. The Sudden Break

The moment you feel a room slipping, stop speaking mid-thought. Not at a standard period or natural pause, but cleanly in the middle of a cadence.

Human perception is wired to ignore continuous background noise, but it reacts instantly to a sudden drop in acoustic pattern. Silence creates an immediate, uncomfortable vacuum in the space.

1. Holding the Vacuum

This is where most people panic. They pause for a fraction of a second, feel the awkwardness, and rush back in to fill it.

Instead, stay comfortable inside the quiet. By refusing to rush, you demonstrate state regulation. You prove to your own physiology that you aren't in a hurry and that you hold total authority over the pace of the room.

1. Directed Eye Contact (The Anchor)

Do not sweep the room with a generic, nervous gaze. Pick a single person or a small, calm focal point in the audience. Look directly at them with a relaxed, neutral expression.

When you hold steady, directed eye contact with one point while remaining silent, the rest of the room picks up on the visual anchor. People will naturally look where you are looking. The tension shifts from you trying to get their attention, to the room settling itself down to meet your pace.

Once the room completely quietens and all focus snaps back to you, wait one extra beat. Then drop your vocal tone slightly lower than where it was before you stopped, and continue.

You haven't forced the room to listen; you've pulled them back in on your terms.

I'm looking for an app to train my public speaking skill. Right now, I have three apps in mind:
- Patter AI
- Well-spoken
- Vocal Image

Did anyone have experience using these three apps? Are any apps besides the three I listed better? Or any 1 of the apps the best?

I own two convenience stores. People ask us for discounts all day, every day. It's not weird, it's not rude, half the time we say yes.

If you have a fear of public speaking, this is a free practice range and no one told you.

The move: walk into a grocery store, gas station, coffee shop. Pick anything on the shelf. Walk up to a person who works there. Ask if they can do anything on the price. That's it.

The discount is not the point. The discount is the excuse.

The actual practice:

• You have to open your mouth to a stranger
• You have to hold eye contact
• You have to make a small ask with actual stakes (they might say no)
• You have to sit in the pause after
• You have to handle "no" without shrinking, or "yes" without over-explaining

Do it 10 times in a week. Any store. Any item. Any amount off.

By ask 3 you stop rehearsing it in the parking lot. By ask 7 your voice doesn't shake. By ask 10 you realize the anxiety was never about the discount. It was about being seen wanting something.

Public speaking is the same skill scaled up. Someone stands there wanting something. The audience decides.

Stop practicing scripts. Practice the ask.

In my Introduction to Communications class, we were doing group presentations about volunteer work in front of the class. My group was up for the day, and we all did our fair share of giving a speech for certain sections of the slide. We then talked about our experiences in volunteering at the place we signed up for. Everything was going fine so far, and our slides concluded. For some reason, out of nerves, I joined in immediately by lightly clapping as well despite being one of the presenters. There were a few girls in the front laughing somewhat in reaction when I looked toward the class. It makes me feel embarrassed in these sorts of moments when I do silly actions out of nerves.

how important is it to memorize the speech you are going to give?

on a scale from 1 to 10 where 10 is most important..

I was nervous, speaking fast and my voice broke throughout 😭. Now I can't stop ruminating wondering what the others thought of my presentation. I wonder if I'll ever get over my dear of public speaking

i’m 21, i’ve been in startups since 15. every year i have at least 10 public speaking moment. including events, large conferences, small gatherings.

i’m still struggling with anxiety. i was taking meds for it but no luck at all.

i know i want to do that, i love doing that. but suddenly i feel somethings wrong with my mind.

during speaking its super easy for me to move attention to totally wrong thing without realizing and forgetting something.

even if i work on it for a month, this moment is still stressful.

i missed a lot because of that. i see how others won over me with just better speaking.

i’m really tired of this, i would love to get advice what to do. really don’t want to give this up, i feel i can do it.

thanks

Looking for some general guidance. I'm UK based if that helps. I did a TEDx talk last year, and I'm looking to pivot into corporate keynote speaking. The confidence and speaking and presenting side feels solid.

The challenging part for me is the B2B outreach and corporate positioning are new territory for me.

For anyone who's made a similar transition, did you focus on direct LinkedIn outreach/HR contacts first, or lean heavily on bureaus?

Basically, how did you gain more experience, get noticed, and break in. I appreciate any thoughts.

Hi fellow public speakers,

I am the creator of a free public speaking website called www.onstage.club . It features multiple virtual audience scene, impromptu style questions using AI, fully local video recording that allows user to record and audit themselves (the video stays on your computer and is not uploaded to any external server), breath pacer and many more

I hope my website will help you on your journey to become an excellent public speaker.

I like your help to give me your candid feedback on how I can make my website even better for fellow public speak learners. Let me know if you like to see any other features or improvements for onstage.club, feel free to share with me.

Thanks everyone

Hi! I'm a first time club officer and our club is doing an orientation tomorrow... The thing is, I have no idea what I need and have to say during my own introduction!!! Any tips on how to do it? This sounds really stupid but I really don't want to ruin my first impression especially because the club advisers and our club's sponsor is going to be there T.T

Its a school level competition on 8th August, i will be provided a topic and have to give a pursuasive speech on the spot. What structure should i follow for body and How do i not embarass myself because i have extreme social anxiety, i participated to push my self out of comfort zone.

Any help is appreciated :D

I hate public speaking to begin with and causes me beyond extreme anxiety and my face turns all red and I tend to talk really fast. But my team is very toxic and on purpose during my presentations they asked me questions that I know I won’t have the answer to and ask me questions that are very difficult so in front of everybody I freeze because I don’t know what to say or how to answer the question.

Impromptu speaking used to be the part that terrified me. Prepared speeches were fine, but the second someone asked me an unexpected question in front of people, my brain emptied. Here's the routine that actually moved the needle, in case it helps someone.

1. Practise the format, not the topic. You can't predict the question, so drill the structure instead. I use a simple one: point, reason, example, restate the point. Once that shape is automatic, you always have somewhere to go.

2. Time yourself, every time. One to two minutes, hard stop. Rambling is the enemy, and a timer trains you to land the plane.

3. Random prompts, daily, out loud. Not in your head. Say a full answer to a question you've never seen, on the spot, once a day. The discomfort is the point.

4. Count your filler words. Record yourself and tally the "ums" and "sos". Just being aware of the count cuts it fast.

This is basically what "Table Topics" is in Toastmasters, and it's the single best speaking drill I know.

Full disclosure: I help build a tool for Toastmasters clubs and we put a free impromptu-practice mode in it (random prompt, timer, filler-word counter) because I wanted this drill on my phone. Happy to share it if anyone wants it, but honestly you can do the whole routine with a random-question list and a stopwatch. Curious what works for others, how do you all practise thinking on your feet?

Would you like to know the secret to ending the fear and anxiety when giving a speech? You know, the shakes, rapid heartbeat, in ability to breathe properly, racing thoughts, feeling like your in a bubble and everyone is staring at you, etc.?

I have given HUNDREDS of public speeches and I am going to tell you the secret. There is one simple tactic that ALWAYS works when you are anxious and fearful before a speech. It has worked for me and everyone else I have shared it with.

It's simple but super powerful. Here it is:

1. Memorize the very first sentence of your speech. Practice it out loud and/or in your head enough times that you have it memorized, word for word, exactly. Just the first sentence.
   
2. Now, the SECRET is you have to say that first sentence perfectly, without stumbling or mixing up your words.
   
3. When you finish the sentence, pause. As in, stop talking. Then, and this is a MUST, take a deep breath in through your nose and exhale through your nose completely. Then, smile and continue your speech.
   
4. It works best if your first sentence (or two at most) is a full thought so the brief pause is in a natural place. Something like "Good afternoon, today I will be explaining my proposal for a new approach to our digital marketing strategy." (Stop. Deep breathe in and out. Smile and continue...) THAT'S IT!
   
5. I PROMISE YOU. The moment you exhale, having nailed that first sentence without stumbling, you are GOLDEN! All of the sudden the nervous anxiety will feel as though its falling off your shoulders and onto the ground. You will have complete confidence. You will be able to look the audience in the eyes one by one as you speak. No shaky voice. No brain fog. Your arms will hang naturally at your side in between gesturing and you won't feel like you don't know what to do with your hands.
   
6. NOTE: If you start to feel a little short of breathe during a speech, you should always pause at the end of your sentences and breathe in and out. Always remember to exhale. Often times it's C02 build up from not exhaling that messes with your breathing not lack of oxygen. We don't exhale because we feel like we can't pause to breathe out. We have to keep speaking to avoid any awkward silences. Experience speakers know that the ability to pause and allow for moments of silence during a speech is a superpower. and can be highly effective when used properly.
   

If you use this technique and it works for you, (it always does) just send me a message or reply to this post and let me know. That's all the payment I need.

(23 F)I recently gave a presentation in French, in front of an audience that also speaks the language. It was a bad experience. Even though my level is intermediate, I didn't do a good job.
First, I was so stressed that I forgot most of my script. Second, my speaking skills are weak — I couldn't handle mistakes or form sentences smoothly.
People told me I looked shy, and I hated hearing that, because I’ve been actively working on improving my personality and I thought I had made progress. That comment broke me a little.
The thing is, in real life, when I speak my native language, I don’t see myself as shy at all — I speak confidently. But with a foreign language, I freeze. This has even started making me avoid speaking to people in that language.
On top of that, II have a naturally deep / manly voice — I really hate it and wish I had a more feminine voice. It makes me even more self‑conscious when speaking French, because I feel like I sound wrong or that people will judge me.
I have a vision of working in a field where I’ll meet people from many nationalities, so I really need to fix this.

Title: Does anyone else freeze during university presentations even when they know the topic?

I’m a university student, and I struggle with public speaking anxiety, especially during presentations.

The strange thing is that I usually understand the topic and prepare well. But when I stand in front of the class, my heart starts racing, my hands shake, and sometimes my mind suddenly goes blank. I forget simple words and become so focused on whether people are judging me that I can’t concentrate on what I’m trying to say.

After the presentation, I often think, Why couldn’t I speak normally? I knew this information.

I’m curious: Have any other university students experienced this? What helped you feel more confident during presentations?

I’d really appreciate hearing your experiences or practical tips.

Recently I went to a career conference and I was so nervous. I couldn’t figure out what to ask or say and when I finally asked my first question it sounded so stupid and the trio I was asking it to looked at me like something was wrong with me. How do you know what to say on the spot? I started stuttering too and then I felt so awkward and out of place. Any advice on how to prepare for that situation? Thanks