How to Start a Career as a Public Speaker when you have stage anxiety
I used to get anxiety so badly that, before hosting a workshop, I wouldn't be able to sleep for weeks, knowing it was in the diary.
So last week, when someone asked me how to get start their career as a public speaker, I felt like I had a lot of advice to give as a girl who went from hoping the venue would get flooded overnight to being booked for conferences like Atomic and Confidence Live.
If you want to step onto bigger stages, overcome performance fear, and land paid speaking gigs, here are the four mental shifts and practical public speaking tips that transformed my career.
1. Don't try to be good, just try to get through it
Public speaking is a skill that looks easy because the people who excel at it are skilled at making it look natural. This leads folks to falsely believing that they don't need to prep or practise. Nope. Public speaking is like roller skating. The first few times are messy.
You don't get good until you've done about 10 talks. Until then, aim for a 5/10 talk. Get through your lines. Watch yourself on video and give yourself feedback. Reduce the pressure to be perfect and just allow yourself to be a human-in-progress
(My first talk ever was awful. Sorry if you were there)
2. Don't wing it. Write the script. Practise regularly
When I'm afraid, I'll often procrastinate. To avoid that, I once set up a weekly co-working session with another speaker two months before a big event. When I arrived at the venue and my slides didn't work, I was relieved that I didn’t need to rely on them because the words were painted in my memory.
When you haven’t practised your talk, it’s easy for your on-the-day-anxiety to hijack your prefrontal cortex, leading to stuttering, filler words, awkwardness and other strange behaviour. It’s not a pretty sight. Please don’t wing it.
(this goes for online public speaking too: teaching a course, hosting a webinar, running a membership, online audiences still want to be entertained)
3. Don't give a boring talk
Two summers ago, I spoke at Wellnergy festival (picture yoga mats, cocoa, and natural energy drinks) My slot wasn't until 2pm, so I had a chance to sit and watch the other speakers. After a few sessions, I realised that everyone had the same stats and studies about stress, the nervous system and wellness. By the 3rd talk I could predict exactly what the next speaker was going to say. They had all followed some invisible rule book that said talks must start with a devastating personal story, then share a stat or two, and a few bullet points on how to avoid the same fate.
Let's put this formula to bed.
Use the first 10 minutes of your talk to move people. Make me laugh. The speakers who stood out had personality. Be one of those speakers. Know what is expected from your talk, and then subvert the rules.
4. What if something goes wrong during your first few talks?
To be clear, something will go wrong. Your slides won't work, the train will be cancelled and you’ll struggle to find your Uber, you'll spill coffee on your shirt, and yet none of that will ruin your career. No matter how terribly you fail, no one can stop you from getting up and trying again tomorrow.
If you want to build a career as a public speaker, now is the ideal time to start pitching for upcoming conferences and industry events. Event organizers plan their lineups months in advance.
Make a list of 10 stages or conferences you would love to speak at. They should be relevant to your industry or have an audience filled with your ideal clients
Find the event organizers on LinkedIn
Send a concise pitch email introducing who you are, your core topic, and the value you bring to their audience
Ready to get booked in 2027? Join the £69 workshop
How to Find & Pitch Speaking Gigs
Stop waiting to be discovered. In this step-by-step workshop, you'll learn:
How to source hidden speaking opportunities and conference line-ups before they go public.
The exact cold pitch framework I use to land paid keynotes and panel spots.
How to structure your speaker pitch so event organizers say yes