3.6: Conclusion: Speaking Confidently
Stephanie Morrow
Speaking confidently is not about eliminating nerves. It is about learning to work with them. Communication apprehension will never vanish completely, but with preparation, self-awareness, and practice, you can transform anxiety into energy and presence. Beyond the podium, confidence is less about how you feel in the moment and more about the resilience you build each time you face an audience. Every shaky breath, every pause, every recovery from an unexpected distraction strengthens your ability to stand and be heard.
Confidence also comes from realizing that the audience is not your adversary; they are participants in a shared act of communication. When you see them not as critics but as partners, your focus shifts outward and your message becomes stronger. This shift is where authentic confidence lives. It is not in the absence of fear, but in the presence of connection.
But confidence is not only about how you speak. It is equally tied to how you listen. Public speaking is not a one-way performance. It is a dialogue shaped by the feedback, needs, and responses of your audience. In the next chapter, we turn to the art of listening–an often-overlooked skill that makes every speaker more responsive, ethical, and effective.
Key Takeaways
- Plan ahead for how to cope with unexpected difficulties such as forgetting part of your speech content, having technical trouble with visual aids, or being interrupted by external distractions.
- Communication apprehension refers to the fear or anxiety people experience at the thought of being evaluated by others. Some anxiety is a normal part of the communication process.
- The psychological threat individuals perceive in the communication situation prompts physiological changes designed to help the body respond. These physical reactions to stress create the uncomfortable feelings of unease called speech anxiety and may include sweaty palms, shaking, butterflies in the stomach, and dry mouth.
- A great deal of conventional advice for managing stage fright is misleading, including suggestions that speech anxiety is neurotic, that telling a joke is a good opening, that imagining the audience naked is helpful, that any mistake is fatal to an effective speech, that memorizing a script is useful, that audiences are out to get you, and that your audience sees how nervous you really are.
- Communication apprehension stems from many sources, including the speaker’s personality characteristics, communication context, nature of the audience, or situation.
- Many factors exaggerate communication apprehension. Formality, familiarity, novelty, perceived similarity, and subordinate status are a few of the factors that influence our tendency to feel anxious while speaking.
- There are many steps you can take during the speech preparation process to manage your communication apprehension, including thinking positively, analyzing your audience, clearly organizing your ideas, adapting your language to the oral mode, and practicing.
- You can employ a variety of techniques while you are speaking to reduce your apprehension, such as anticipating your body’s reactions, focusing on the audience, and maintaining your sense of humor.
- Stress management techniques, including cognitive restructuring and systematic desensitization, can also be helpful.
References
Beebe, S.A., & Beebe, S. J. (2000). Public speaking: An audience centered approach. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Carnegie, D. (1955). Public speaking and influencing men in business. New York, NY: American Book Stratford Press, Inc.
Cook, J. (2025, February 20). Best AI tools for improving as a public speaker [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHhiPDdXTBM.
McCroskey, J. C. (1972). The implementation of a large-scale program of systematic desensitization for communication apprehension. The Speech Teacher, 21, 255–264.
McCroskey, J. C. (2001). An introduction to rhetorical communication. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Metcalfe, S. (1994). Building a speech. New York, NY: The Harcourt Press.
Perelman, P. (2024, April 4). “Can AI help with public speaking? A review of AI platforms.” Duarte. https://www.duarte.com/blog/review-of-public-speaking-ai-platforms/.
Puri, V. (2023, May 3). How AI can help you improve your public speaking [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CVsdayG2kw.
Witt, P. L., Brown, K. C., Roberts, J. B., Weisel, J., Sawyer, C., & Behnke, R. (2006, March). Somatic anxiety patterns before, during and after giving a public speech. Southern Communication Journal, 71, 89.
Wallechinsky, D., Wallace, I., & Wallace, A. (1977). The people’s almanac presents the book of lists. New York, NY: Morrow. See also Boyd, J. H., Rae, D. S., Thompson, J. W., Burns, B. J., Bourdon, K., Locke, B. Z., & Regier, D. A. (1990). Phobia: Prevalence and risk factors. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 25(6), 314–323.
Witt, P. L., Brown, K. C., Roberts, J. B., Weisel, J., Sawyer, C., & Behnke, R. (2006, March). Somatic anxiety patterns before, during and after giving a public speech. Southern Communication Journal, 71, 87–100.
