How to Effectively Practice a Speech or Presentation

This article outlines step by step instructions to help you prepare, practice and deliver a speech with confidence.

Why is the Fear of Public Speaking so Real?

It is you, standing in front of people who are all staring at you.  You don’t want to mess up and have these people judge you.  As a recovering perfectionist, I can relate to these feelings on so many levels. My drive to improve my public speaking and speech preparation skills is the direct result of a short speech failure.  I worked in Business Development for a national construction company and my job was to grow the higher education portfolio of projects.  We had a big interview to build a new culinary school at a community college.  I had built deep relationships with the decision makers and I was going to kick off the presentation. Easy right?  I put in the speech preparation time and wrote a killer 5-minute speech.  I practiced again and again and if I didn’t remember the exact word written on my outline or if I stumbled, I would start over and try to get through the entire script flawlessly.   

During our practice sessions at the office, I nailed my intro every time.  Then, when I got to the actual presentation, the physical manifestations of stress started to take over my body.  My heart was racing and as I stood up in front of a live audience, I felt the pressure of 20 faces staring at me.  I kept thinking: “Don’t mess up….don’t mess up.”  

My Speech Delivery Failure

I started….the first two sentences came out right and then I forgot a word.  BLANK.  I forgot it all. I even said “I completely forgot what I was going to say next,”  The audience members were kind and encouraging.  They wanted me to succeed and just said “You are fine! Start over!”  I totally would except I *literally* couldn’t remember a thing.  I was holding a small note card (which I don’t recommend and will explain later) and was able to stumble over the next 4 minutes but it was awful and I was so embarrassed.  The audience probably forgot this stumble quickly but for me, it was one of my lowest professional moments.  I vowed to never have that happen again.  

Here is what I did…

Joined Toastmasters International

I had heard of Toastmasters from a friend’s Dad who was in sales. Toastmasters is a public speaking club and it sounded kind of old school but…there was a local chapter right near my apartment in Chicago so I recruited my brother and we started attending weekly meetings. The physical manifestations of stress associated with public speaking are real and for me and, will likely never go away completely.  The goal of practice is to learn how to manage the stress and work through the inevitable stumbles that will happen.  We are humans, not robots. Speech delivery doesn’t have to be perfect but practice is a great way to make it easier.  

Toastmasters offers a 10-speech curriculum which gives you practice time in front of a real, but incredibly encouraging and safe practice audience.  All speeches are recorded so in addition to getting feedback from the group, you can self-assess your delivery including body language, facial expressions and eye contact. If you aren’t ready to jump into the speech curriculum right away, each meeting offers smaller, different ways to practice public speaking.  Other roles include:

• Emcee the meeting
• Introduce a speaker
• Keep track of, and report, filler words for each speech. 
• Table topics

Think of Toastmasters as the practice grounds to implement the speech preparation and public speaking tips outlined below. Practice is the only way you will improve.  Now, let’s dive into the most effective ways to prepare for speaking in front of an actual audience. 

Organize your Speech into 3-5 Main Points

Before you can practice how to say something, you need to outline what you are going to say.  Brevity is best when it comes to keeping your audience’s attention.  Ideally you will organize your speech into 3-5 main points. A sample outline might look like this: 

Topic: How to Increase Business Email Reply Rates

• Introduction to Topic – Explain why email reply rates for business emails are so low today.
  • Main Point 1 – Create a short, compelling subject, ideally 2-4 words.
  • Main Point 2: Keep the actual email body to 100 words or less.
  • Main Point 3:  Personalize 20% of the email.  Let the reader know that you are a human being who has done their research and has earned the right to a reply. 
  • Main Point 4: Have a clear Call to Action.
• Closing: If the audience follows the above steps, they can expect to see a 10x increase in email reply rates.  

Write out the Speech Content for each Main Point 

Now, write/type out supporting details for each main point. You won’t be memorizing your speech word for word but I find it incredibly helpful to type out the actual words supporting each point. Once you feel good about the speech script, read the words out loud to see if they flow.  Tweak as needed. If you have a speaking time limit, reading out loud gives you an idea of your timing for each section. This whole process is familiarizing your brain with your message.  Practice has already begun!

Stand Up and Simulate Actual Speech Delivery

Now that you have a crisp, concise outline, you can begin your structured speech practice. The goal is to get super comfortable with your content, without memorizing the speech word for word. You are going to do an actual dry run, where you stand up and practice the whole speech as if you were in front of a real audience.  Ideally you can practice in front of a test audience (colleagues, friends or family could all work). I fondly refer to this as the “awkward run through” because the first time you practice your speech, it WILL be clunky.  Actual practice is one of the best ways to work out the kinks not only with your main points and content detail but with your actual speech delivery.  It is ok if your key points come out a little bit different each time.  By standing up in front colleagues or family, in front of a mirror or just an empty room in your house, you are simulating what the actual environment will feel like.  These practice rounds will help you manage all the feels that come with delivering the actual speech because you have put in the time to practice.

If you stumble over a particular word when you practice, work through it; don’t start over because it wasn’t perfect.  Failure to work through stumbles, during practice, was part of the reason I struggled during my actual speech. I was so used to starting over if I hit a roadblock so when I hit a roadblock in the actual interview, I couldn’t pivot. 

Practice your Eye Contact

Whether delivering a speech in front of an audience or just casually speaking to a group, eye contact is extremely important.  Instead of going back and forth with your eyes quickly scanning the room or group, you want to practice locking eye contact with one person for 5 seconds before moving on to the next person and doing the same.  This eye contact strategy accomplishes two things:

1. It makes members of the audience feel a stronger connection to you because of the prolonged eye contact.
2. It keeps you more grounded and focused during the actual speech because you aren’t constantly scanning your eyes and head.

You can start practicing the eye contact approach immediately: 

• During everyday conversations – lunch with your friends, at the dinner table. 
• At a casual business meeting. 
• In a room by yourself pretending that objects are people.

Like anything, practice will make this feel more natural. During your actual speech, people will feel more invested in what you are saying and you will likely get more head nods and focused attention.

Body Language

This is a big one.  What do you do with your body when you are speaking in front of an audience?  Let’s start with your hands.

Hands

I do not recommend holding note cards or anything other than required visual aids or a clicker if you’re giving a powerpoint presentation.  By practicing your actual speech several times, you will be able to deliver your main points and supporting content.  A couple things can happen if we bring notes to a speech: 1) your hands will likely shake with nervous energy while holding the notes and this can be distracting for the audience. Instead of focusing on your words, the audience is focusing on your shaky hands 2) Notes can be a crutch. Instead of making eye contact in 5-second intervals with each person, you may be tempted to look down at your cards. Even if you forget an entire section of your speech, the audience will likely never know so ditch the note cards as they can serve as a distraction for the audience. Pro tip: I place an outline of my speech nearby on a table or podium just in case I have a moment and need a quick reminder.  

Movement

Ideally you want to stand squarely in front of your audience with both feet firmly planted on the ground.  Shoulders back.  Let your arms naturally hang at your sides and then use them for emphasis during your speech.  If you are a hand talker, you will be able to assess if your gestures are excessive when you watch a practice video recording.  It is perfectly fine to remain in one spot during your speech.  If you want to move, your movements should be intentional vs. pacing back and forth.  My recommendation is to walk a few paces and then stop.  Re-square your shoulders and re-plant your feet on the ground.  You can then move to another spot in the room after remaining in this spot for a few sentences or even an entire section of your speech.

Face

Avoid touching your face at all costs. With nervous energy flowing during speech practice and actual delivery in front of an audience, you may feel inclined to occupy your hands by fixing your hair, touching your beard, scratching your nose etc.  Like everything else we have been talking about, this is a distraction. We want the audience to be laser focused on the key points you worked hard to draft and deliver.  

Ask for Feedback

Once you have worked out the initial kinks and made it through a decent dry run – ask for feedback on your speech delivery. I can’t emphasize the importance of this enough.  Were your main points clear?  How was your eye contact and body language?  Constructive feedback is part of the core mission of Toastmasters International.  Embrace the process, incorporate the feedback and jump into another dry run. 

Use a Recording Device

I know, I know….you don’t love this idea and I get it.  When you deliver a speech, the entire audience is going to see you…don’t you want to get a sneak peek of your performance first?  When I did my first Toastmasters speech (a 5-minute introduction), I was confident that I had nailed it.  I delivered strong main points, made good eye contact and my body language had presense.  When I watched the recording the next day however, I was shocked to hear how fast I spoke.  I naturally talk fast (I’m from Chicago afterall) but felt like I made a conscious effort to slow down during my speech.  It was only by watching the recording that I realized I needed to double down on my practice efforts to slow down. Because I had spoken so fast, much of my message may have been lost by the audience. 

Watching a recording of your speech can also allow you to analyze the following:

1. Were any of my body movements distracting (swaying, touching your hair, pacing).
2. How was my eye contact?
3. How was my volume?
4. Was I succinct with my message?
5. Was my voice too monotone?
6. Did I use a surplus of filler words like ah, um, like?

By seeing an actual playback of your speech, you can more easily see where you need to focus on improvements. Your goals should be two-fold: 1) how do I deliver the best speech in the short term? and 2) how do I become a better public speaker in the long-term? Slowing down my pace didn’t happen overnight but with intentionality and practice, it has significantly improved over time.

Ask for Feedback…Again

Ok, you made it.  You gave your speech in front of a live audience.  By following the practice steps outlined above, ideally you felt improved confidence and were able to manage the physical manifestation of stress that accompany speaking in front of an audience.  Public speaking is a craft that improves over time with practice and feedback.  So, ask 1-2 people whom you respect and trust from the audience to give you constructive feedback on your speech.  Request both “glows and grows” not only on the actual content but on your speech delivery.  Incorporate that feedback into your future practice.