A practice-based approach to speaking anxiety

Waiting to feel confident before practicing creates a difficult loop. Useful repetition gives your brain evidence that you can recover, continue, and finish.

Lower the stakes, keep the realism

Practice the real opening, standing up, with a timer. Keep the audience imaginary at first. Increase the difficulty gradually as the routine becomes familiar.

Review with kindness and precision

Replace “that was bad” with an observation you can act on: the opening was rushed, the example lacked context, or the close needs one clean sentence.