The Real Reason Public Speaking Is Stressful and How to Overcome It
Liam Sandford
Liam Sandford is a Head of Marketing, public speaking expert, and 2x Best Selling Author including the book Effortless Public Speaking. He helps ambitious professionals and entrepreneurs communicate with impact to get noticed, grow their career, and build their business.
Public speaking triggers stress in almost everyone, and it works the same way as any new skill, like learning to drive or starting a new job. At first it feels intimidating because it is unfamiliar: your heart races, your mind goes on alert, and your stress levels climb. That is a normal response, not a sign you are bad at it.
Over time, driving becomes automatic. You stop thinking about every gear change and every junction. Public speaking can go the same way if you approach it deliberately. The stress is rarely about the topic itself, it comes from a lack of practice, an unfamiliar setting, and low confidence.
Understanding where the stress comes from is the first step. Once you know why public speaking feels stressful, you can put strategies in place that bring the anxiety down and let you perform consistently. It is not about being perfect. It is about getting comfortable, familiar and confident with the act of speaking itself.
How Lack of Practice Causes Public Speaking Stress
Public speaking feels stressful when the skill is rusty. Without regular reps between the high pressure moments, the speeches, the board meetings, the interviews, your delivery becomes unpredictable, and unpredictability is exactly what the nerves feed on.
Stress is a natural response to the unfamiliar. Just like driving, the more you practise in low pressure settings, the more automatic and confident the performance becomes, because repetition moves public speaking out of the high stress box and into the familiar one. The problem is that most people only rehearse a presentation right before the event, and that is not enough to build real confidence. Your body and mind remember patterns, so without frequent speaking the anxiety builds by default. Regular practice does not just lower the stress, it sharpens your delivery and clarity too.
Build Confidence With Daily Speaking Repetitions
Confidence is success remembered. The easier it is to recall a time you spoke well, the more confident you feel, and that confidence is what lowers the stress, because you already know you can handle the moment.
So practise speaking every day, even informally. Use work meetings, a voice note, social audio, or a conversation with a friend as a chance to speak with intent. Even five minutes a day strengthens the foundations and gets you ready for the higher-stakes moments. Daily reps quietly drill the mechanics, clear articulation, pacing, reading the room, and they reinforce the habit of speaking with confidence, so a formal presentation feels less like a leap and more like more of the same.
Reduce Stress by Mastering Different Speaking Environments
Public speaking happens in several formats: in person, on video, over the phone. Each one brings its own challenges, and being comfortable in one does not automatically make you comfortable in another.
The move is to expand your comfort zone one setting at a time. If phone calls make you anxious, take more of them and treat each as practice. If video makes you nervous, keep your camera on in every virtual meeting. If the stage intimidates you, start with small groups and grow the audience gradually. Exposure builds familiarity, and as each setting starts to feel routine, your attention shifts off the nerves and onto the message, which is exactly where it should be.
Use the Nano Speech to Make Every Conversation Count
Everyday conversations turn into real speaking practice once you run them through the Nano Speech. The structure fits an exchange of any length and turns a casual chat into a deliberate rep:
Open, Body, Close
For example:
Open: I have been watching [programme] on TV
Body: share a short insight or story about it
Close: have you been watching it?
Practise this daily and you build confidence and familiarity with the structure of speaking, and because the other person has no idea you are practising, there is no pressure attached. That is what makes it such a reliable rep: it translates straight into calmer, clearer delivery when a formal moment arrives. Use it in work discussions, casual chats and online, and over time it trains you to think quickly, structure your points, and speak with confidence in any situation.
Why Daily Practice Reduces Public Speaking Anxiety
Stress shows up when you face something new or high-pressure, and public speaking stacks three of those at once: you are being evaluated, the setting is unfamiliar, and there is a performance expectation on you. Daily practice dismantles all three by making the act familiar and stacking up positive memories to draw on.
The more you speak in varied settings and through the Nano Speech, the less your mind reads public speaking as a threat. Each low pressure rep builds a little more mental and physical comfort, so by the time a real opportunity arrives, your system treats it as routine rather than danger, and your focus is free to land on the message and the audience.
Actionable Public Speaking Tips to Overcome Stress
With a presentation coming up, do not just rehearse the presentation, practise speaking in general to shake off the rust. Do not leave your performance to chance.
Diversify the settings you can speak in. Audio only, video and in person all matter, and confidence in one does not guarantee confidence in the others.
Use the Nano Speech to build a daily speaking habit, so everyday interactions quietly become speaking practice.
For more on reducing stress and speaking with confidence, work through the Ultimate Guide to Public Speaking.
Frequently Asked Questions About Public Speaking Stress
Why is public speaking so stressful?
Because your brain treats it as new and high pressure, stacking novelty, judgement and performance pressure on top of each other. It is the same response you had the first time you drove a car. The stress is rarely about the topic, it is about a lack of practice and familiarity, which is also why it fades as you do it more.
How do you overcome the fear of public speaking?
Build familiarity through regular, low pressure reps rather than waiting for the big moments. Practise speaking every day in small ways, expand the settings you are comfortable in one at a time, and use the Nano Speech to turn everyday conversations into practice. As the act becomes routine, your brain stops sounding the alarm, and the stress drops on its own.
Does practising really reduce public speaking anxiety?
Yes, because confidence is success remembered, and practice gives you a bank of successful moments to recall. Each rep also makes the act more familiar, and familiarity is the opposite of the unfamiliarity that drives the stress. Even five minutes a day, used deliberately, moves public speaking from a high stress event towards something your system treats as normal.
How can you practise public speaking every day?
Use the moments you already have. Speak up with intent in work meetings, leave a voice note, take phone calls as practice, or run a conversation with a friend through the Nano Speech of open, body, close. None of it needs an audience or a stage, and because nobody knows you are practising, there is no pressure, just steady reps that add up.
Why does speaking in different environments matter?
Because comfort does not transfer automatically: being relaxed in person does not mean you will feel the same on a video call or the phone. Each format has its own challenges, so the way to remove the nerves is to deliberately rack up reps in each one. As every setting starts to feel routine, your attention is free to focus on the message instead of the medium.
TL;DR: How to Overcome Public Speaking Stress
Public speaking stress is normal and shrinks with consistent practice, varied exposure and a simple structure.
Treat public speaking like learning to drive: regular practice turns the anxiety into familiarity and confidence.
Build a daily speaking habit through meetings, casual chats and voice notes to sharpen delivery and steady the nerves.
Practise across different settings, phone, video and in person, so each one feels routine.
Use the Nano Speech, open, body, close, to make everyday conversations count as reps.
Aim for familiarity, not perfection, to lower the stress and free your focus for the audience.
More from Liam Sandford
Read my book: Effortless Public Speaking. Learn how to speak confidently, reduce stress, and turn public speaking into your competitive advantage. These actionable public speaking tips will help you improve your presentation skills for any audience.
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