How to Have Confidence when Public Speaking: A Handy Guide

Gaining Confidence through Mental Priming

Your emotional state is largely determined by what you focus on. Psychological studies have shown that our thoughts, feelings and behaviours can be ‘primed’ by various stimuli, and that this happens all the time beneath the level of our awareness.

We are being primed all the time whether we like it or not.

In this way we can overcome our lizard brain and access confidence. We can do this by deliberately asking ourselves helpful questions and running mental movies through our heads.

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Exercise: Strategic Self-Questioning 

Replace disempowering questions with confidence-building ones:

Instead of Asking	Ask Yourself
“What if I mess up?”	“When have I communicated effectively in the past?”
“Will they judge me?”	“What value can I bring to this audience?”
“What if I forget my content?”	“What parts of my message am I most passionate about?”

Common Mistake: Allowing negative self-talk to go unchecked will allow your brain to answer whatever questions are being posed by it. Therefore, ask yourself better questions!

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Reframing Anxiety as Excitement

Anxiety and excitement are physiologically extremely similar emotions. Both put you into what psychologist call ‘high arousal’ states. Your heart beats faster, your breathing quickens, and your body releases adrenaline. The key difference is cognitive: anxiety is a negative interpretation of what you are experiencing and feeling, while excitement is positive.

Relabelling anxiety as excitement can significantly improve performance. This works because:

• It shifts you from a threat mindset to an opportunity mindset.
• It works with your body’s natural response rather than fighting it.
• It focuses your attention on potential positive outcomes rather than potential failures.

Instead of trying to suppress natural physiological reactions, you’re reinterpreting them constructively. Don’t fight that feeling, work with it!

Exercise: Physiological Redirection

1. Place your hand on your chest or stomach where you feel the sensation.
2. Mentally relabel each physical symptom.

For example:

Physiological Experience	Redirection Label
Heartbeat Racing	“I’m excited to share my message.”
Dry Mouth	“Reminds me to stay hydrated & pace my delivery.”
Butterflies in Stomach	“I care about connecting with my audience.”

Common Mistake: Trying to eliminate physical sensations rather than reinterpreting them as helpful preparation signals.

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Gaining Confidence Through our Body

Renowned Harvard Social Psychologist, Amy Cuddy’s research demonstrates that physical posture affects not just how others perceive you, but your actual hormone levels. Her research shows that expansive “Power Poses” increase testosterone (confidence) and decrease cortisol (stress).

Exercise: The 2-Minute Power Pose Protocol

1. Find a private space before your presentation.
2. Stand tall with feet apart, hands on hips or raised in a victory position.
3. Hold for 2 full minutes while breathing deeply.
4. Focus on feeling powerful and in control.

Common Mistake: Closed body posture (crossed arms, hunched shoulders, looking down) signals insecurity to both your audience and your own nervous system.

Exercise: Neck, Shoulder & Spine Rolls

1. Neck Rolls: Stand or sit in a neutral comfortable position, slowly roll your head in circles (clockwise & then anti clockwise).
2. Shoulder Rolls: Move your shoulders up to your ears then shrug in a downward motion, do this a couple of times before rolling your shoulders forward over and backwards in a circular motion.
3. Spine Rolls: If able, stand with your feet hip width apart, leading with your nose, start moving your head forward and down, rolling your spine/body downwards until you are hinged forward at the hips and hanging. Feel free to shake your body lose here and move in whatever way feels good. Then slowly (one vertebra at a time) roll back up your spine so that you come to a comfortable and well-aligned standing position with eyes forward and the crown of the head facing the ceiling.

Benefit: Tension often builds in the neck and shoulders, especially when nervous. These exercises release that tension, prevent stiffness, and help you speak more fluidly.

Common Mistake: Going too quickly. Take your time so that you are in control of your movement. You don’t want to cause injury or become dizzy.

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Finding Your Confident Voice

Your voice is your primary instrument when public speaking. Research suggests that vocal quality can significantly impact the audience’s perception of the speaker and their credibility. Here are some simple exercises for you to take more control of your vocal delivery and control. With enough practice you will see results.

Exercise: Diaphragm Breathing Routine (5-5-5)

1. Stand with feet shoulder-width apart.
2. Inhale for 5 seconds, filling your belly (not chest).
3. Hold for 5 seconds.
4. Exhale for 5 seconds, completely emptying your lungs.
5. Repeat 5 times before speaking.

Common Mistake: Chest breathing can create vocal strain and increases anxiety. Diaphragmatic breathing is a great to regulate breathing, stabilise your voice and help with nerves.

Exercise: Humming

1. Hum on one note. Release sound on the outtake of breath, gauge the feeling of the vibrations on this note.
2. Extend the hum to sliding up and down a scale without strain, changing the pitch and playing with resonance. You should feel vibrations and buzzing sensations in different parts of your body as the sound hits it. For example, when humming a lower pitch, you are likely to feel vibrations in the chest, whereas a higher pitch will be more present in the face, nose and even the forehead.

Benefit: These exercises help you produce a fuller, more powerful and clear sound when speaking.

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Ideas for Pre-Presentation Preparation

Physical Preparation Routine

Performance psychologists have found that physical state management directly has an impact on mental performance. If it’s good enough for athletes, it’s good enough for us!

Exercise: 10-Minute Pre-Speaking Physical Activation

1. 2 minutes: Light movement (jumping jacks, walking).
2. 3 minutes: Vocal warm-ups (humming, over-pronunciation of words- hitting constants hard!)
3. 2 minutes: Facial relaxation (exaggerated expressions aka silly faces, pretending to chew gum, massaging the face).
4. 3 minutes: Power poses with visualisation (see above).

Common Mistake: Mistaking caffeine or sugar for sustainable energy. These create energy spikes followed by crashes, while physical activation creates stable energy. Get those natural highs instead, you’re already going to be adrenalised. Have drinks that hydrate and food that offers slow releasing energy in the lead up.

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Mental Preparation Framework

Exercise: Success Visualisation

1. Find a quiet space and close your eyes.
2. Imagine yourself delivering your presentation with confidence.
3. Include all senses: what you see, hear, and feel.
4. Visualise handling challenges smoothly.
5. End with seeing the audience’s positive response!

Common Mistake: Focusing only on content rather than delivery state or emotion. Both are essential for a confident performance.

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Rehearse. Rehearse. Rehearse.

One of the most important elements that will undoubtedly give you more confidence when public speaking, is to get up and rehearse!

Rehearsing will give you the opportunity to iron out mistakes, become familiar with your content and get comfortable with what you are going to communicate.

You can start off by practicing your speech in low-stake environments, such as in front of the mirror, to your phone camera, or to friends. This will help you build up your technique and experience, helping you to engage with your audience with ease in potentially high-pressure situations.

With enough practice by yourself at home or in front of others (friends, colleagues or strangers), one day, without realising it, you’ll be delivering a presentation and will have become the one that looks and feels ‘confident’.

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Anxiety thrives on uncertainty. A structured preparation routine creates certainty that builds confidence.

The Pre-Speaking Checklist: