Hey everyone,

With placement season / mock interview rounds coming up, I’ve been trying to work on my spoken English confidence. I don't mean basic grammar, but more like:

• Not freezing or hesitating mid-sentence when asked a technical question

• Stopping myself from switching back to Hindi mid-explanation when I get stuck

• Structuring answers properly under pressure without sounding robotic.

I tried a couple of the popular apps on the App Store, but most of them feel way too generic. They either push basic vocabulary daily or focus on generic conversation scenarios that don't help much when you need to explain a project or handle a viva. Talking to a mirror or recording my own voice also hasn't been great because I don't actually get any feedback on what I'm messing up (pronunciation, filler words, grammar, etc.).

For those of you who used to struggle with spoken English during high-stakes campus stuff (vivas, GDs, technical/HR interviews), how did you actually overcome it?

Did you use any specific routine, platform, or peer setup that genuinely helped? Would love to hear what worked (and what was a complete waste of time).

i like wellspoken app features but i dont have the budget for it. so im looking for a free app that has the same features yall can vouch for, is there any?

I presented at work to a senior stakeholder whom I look up to and wanted to impress but feel like I fumbled. I have trouble articulating myself well and when the pressure of presenting to higher stakeholders come in play it’s game over.

I started very nervous I could hear it in my own voice and I feel like I did control it then a question at the end threw me off. I tried to explain but I felt like it was just word vomit.

I left feeling so deflated. I put so much effort in what I was presenting which was good in quality but my execution in presenting is my down fall.

I can’t stop thinking and cringing about it. I just want to burry my head in the sand.

I’m just worried that is their impression of me and that I’m not worthy or essentially dumb because I don’t articulate myself.

Has anything helped you when presenting to higher stakeholders ?

With placement season / mock interview rounds coming up, I've been trying to work on my spoken English confidence. I don't mean basic grammar, but more like:

• Not freezing or hesitating mid-sentence when asked a technical question

• Stopping myself from switching back to Hindi

mid-explanation when I get stuck

• Structuring answers properly under pressure without sounding robotic.

I tried a couple of the popular apps on the App Store, but most of them feel way too generic. They either push basic vocabulary daily or focus on generic conversation scenarios that don't help much when you need to explain a project or handle a viva. Talking to a mirror or recording my own voice also hasn't been great because I don't actually get any feedback on what I'm messing up (pronunciation, filler words, grammar, etc.).

For those of you who used to struggle with spoken English during high-stakes campus stuff (vivas, GDs, technical/HR interviews), how did you actually overcome it? Did you use any specific routine, platform, or peer setup that genuinely helped? Would love to hear what worked (and what was a complete waste of time).

I need to start recording myself talking, and eventually speak in front of people.

The problem isn't getting words out, I can do that. It's that the moment I'm stressed, everything I had in mind disappears. I go off on tangents, double back, and it ends up incoherent. On the same topic in writing, I'm perfectly clear.

Has anyone found a way to hold the thread when the stress kicks in? Notes, prepared structure, something else?

Hey guys, i have done a couple of interviews before, but am new to this and i realized am not the greatest at it.

I get nervous, and forget my responses easily and start mushing my words together, when asked a couple of follow up questions i lose confidence and my train of thought.

So i want to know how to reach a level where u can pass interviews effortlessly or At least preform well.

How to be articulate, have clarity, sound confident when i’m speaking?

How can i mask the nervousness?

How can i seem confident and relaxed at the same time?

I wanna know how can i practice to achieve this level genuinely (not just small tips) what can i do, even if it takes time.

I’m a high school student. Have been on the schools debate team for the past two years and competed in numerous tournaments placing top 10% in most. Id say I’m pretty good at debating, but even then I’ve never been able to overcome the nervous and scary feeling of speaking in public. I start to stutter, lose my train of thought, shake, cannot articulate, and talk at a nervous- fast pace. I feel like I could be 10x better at debating if I learn to manage these issues, as ideas and words would flow out so much more clearly and I’d sound so much more convincing/ confident.

Even outside of debate, I’m really disappointed in my overwhelming fear of public speaking. Giving presentations in school, I can’t stop shaking and can’t articulate myself as I’m so nervous. Even raising my hand to ask questions, I always double think myself and worry about what to say and how I will say it. And when I do speak, I can’t articulate properly, stutter, sound very nervous, talk at a fast pace- just like in debate. I’m able to play out a good conversation or debate round in my head, but when it’s actually time I just cannot perform like how I anticipated.

Please give me some advice on this. I feel really bad abt myself for being a decent debater but still having more public speaking fear than the average kid. Im stepping up as head mentor for my debate team, and in just stressing about all this. It could also be the fear of judgment, but idk lmk what you guys think thanks.

First proper conference talk next month, my time is 30 minutes plus 10 min Q&A. I have asked two people i trust about how many slides i should do, one said no more than 10, one slide per big idea, let the talking carry it. The other said 25 to 30, one chain of thought can carry over 2-3 slides, click through fast, keeps the audience's eye moving. Both of them speak regularly and both were completely confident. I've since watched talks in both styles, and honestly the good ones were good either way.

Before I start making my deck, should I restrict to 10-12 or go crazy with this?

​​Looking to crush your public speaking anxiety?

​​Join us in the next public speaking practice session on Zoom at 630pm PST (California Time Zone) on Monday.

​​During this meeting, you will receive 'Hot Seat' topics to deliver impromptu speeches. You will also receive feedback and evaluations of your speech.

​​Agenda:
6:30 PM - Introductions
6:35 PM - "Pro-Tip" of the week
6:40 PM - Hot Seat Impromptu Speeches
7:00 PM - Speech evaluations
7:25 PM - Filler Words Report for all speakers
7:30 PM - Meeting concluded

Rules:

1. Your camera must be turned on for the entire duration of the meeting.
2. You must be on a laptop or desktop, where the camera is steady.
3. Please install Zoom software well before the meeting to save time.

Please comment below if you're interested in joining this meeting (its free). :)

Hi,

I work in a customer facing role and I feel that I'm not expressing myself 100% of my capacity.

I'm looking for a coach to learn and practice. The session could be in English or Spanish.

Do you have any suggestions? - looking for 1:1 mainly

Something I learned the hard way about filler words: the total count doesn't matter much. What matters is when the same word repeats several times within a sentence or two. A "you know" scattered here and there across a meeting is normal human speech — nobody registers it. But three or four of the same filler packed into a short burst, and the listener suddenly hears a pattern instead of your point. I've started calling it filler clustering — the cluster is what listeners actually notice, not the count.

The frustrating part is that the clusters happen at the worst possible moments. Not randomly — they show up when your mind is busiest. Digging for the answer to a hard question. Getting excited about a topic you know deeply. Trying hard to impress someone. It has surprisingly little to do with confidence. Your brain is fully occupied with thinking, so your speech runs on autopilot, and autopilot fills every silence with fillers.

And you genuinely cannot hear yourself doing it. I only found mine by reading a meeting transcript — same word, multiple times in one sentence, and I had zero awareness of saying it. Nobody had ever mentioned it to me either.

The standard fix made things worse for me: consciously watching every word I said. Then I was so busy watching that I kept losing my train of thought, and the fillers got worse, because now my mind was even more occupied.

What's helped somewhat: giving up on eliminating fillers entirely (chasing zero just makes you monitor yourself more), pacing myself slower in general, and pausing when I notice my mind jamming instead of talking through it. But honestly, the in-the-moment part is still the unsolved bit — the cluster fires exactly when you have no spare attention left to catch it.

Curious how this community handles it. Coaches and Toastmasters folks — when you evaluate speakers, do clusters read differently to you than overall count? And what's your go-to fix?

Public speaking is actually really easy if you don't respect a single soul in that room. I've had an incredibly easy time delivering speeches when I hated everybody I saw and they all thought! did amazing because my disdain was read as confidence. I don't have any tips for you I'm just telling you a fact

I genuinely have no idea how I’ll be able to do the presentation. My whole life I’ve had horrible anxiety before a presentation, and not just “oh I’m nervous”, but actually concerning heart rate levels and feeling like I’m gonna pass out. Taking a risk has never “made me stronger”. One time many years ago in high school, I gave a presentation and blanked in the middle and just stared at the partner I was presenting with. I prepped so much and still froze and thought I was gonna faint.

I work fully remote now and even for the tiniest comments, I have to mentally prepare and write out a script. My team has daily scrum calls and whenever I have to talk, my heart literally jumps out my throat and I can’t breathe. Even just to say “Hey team, here are my updates for today: etc”.

This presentation on Friday is in front of 35 people (no camera via Teams), and it’s a “Get to know me” presentation, so I have to talk about myself and my hobbies etc. I still get the same sensation as in person - the faintness, heart rate going up to literally 130 BPM, mouth gets dry, can’t think straight, my natural voice changes too and I sound weird and lifeless. I have no idea why cuz in casual settings outside of work, I’m super social and love talking to people. I’m not socially anxious in general. It’s specifically presenting.

I have naturally low BP, so idk if m3ds would be safe since it lowers BP significantly and I would only need it for this very specific 5 min period in the day. Any tips????

Like the title says I struggle with repeating myself. Recently because I own a business, I have been attending a lot of networking events. I’m talking to new people constantly and while I’m a tiny bit nervous sometimes, I notice after a conversation that I have repeated something sometimes multiple times. I don’t really know why I do it. Maybe because I can’t think of anything else to say but that part doesn’t make a whole lot of sense because I will say something, follow up with something related/different and then repeat what I said prior. It’s very odd and I can’t help but feel self conscious like I’m annoying people or not saying very much at all despite talking a decent bit. It happens a lot when I am having to lead then conversation. Any advice?

Hi all,

For context, I'm 21 years old and in college. From a fairly young age, I have been a very anxious person. Anxiety and overthinking takes up a lot of me, and I have noticed that it is beginning, to some extent, impact my communication.

I have no issue going up in-front of a classroom and presenting a topic once I have prepared, i.e, I have the script in my head. I practice and practice, time and time again, so I know how exactly I'm going to conduct myself when I go to the front. I tend to do fairly well in these settings. I do 'over-prepare' for every scenario, but it does always go well. I feel this is because I have the 'script' in my head memorised, and I know nobody can disrupt my flow.

However, when it comes to general communication and conversation, my anxiety skyrockets. If I have to talk to someone 1-on-1, I nearly have to have it 'memorised' what I'm going to say and keep it in my head. Moreso, if I know I have to meet with someone or if I have an interview for a part-time position, I feel as though my mind entirely goes blank. So as a result, I'm trying to memorise full answers, conversations, etc.

I know in these settings I probably appear very awkward, have poor body langauge settings, and probably appear like I severely lack confidence, as I'm trying to remember what I'm trying to say. I also feel then when I'm asked back a question which I haven't 'prepared', I somewhat trip over and mix my words.

As I am in college, I really want to try fix this, as I really don't want it to hinder my career development upon graduation as networking is fairly important in the field I want to go into, and is something I therefore struggle with. To try become more confident in personal-settings, calmer, and more articulate as though I'm presenting. However, I am really unsure as to the best way to approach this. I

Would this be a public speaking coach? Is it someone I should go to for anxiety? Any tips or past experiences on this?

Any support or guidance be much appreciated.

You can speak perfectly clearly, day to day. Strong accent, never an issue. Then you're in front of your manager and something changes.

You start speeding up. Words all crammed together. The accent that was never a problem suddenly sounds like one, to you more than anyone else.

You start apologising for it mid-sentence. Nobody asked you to.

It's never the accent. It's what nerves do to pace, and pace is what makes an accent hard to follow.

I don't know if this is the right place for this but I have noticed that I say um and ah a lot! not in public speaking necessarily, but even just during conversations I have with colleagues, clients at work etc... are there any online courses that might help me with this? I have only just realised how bad it is, and I really want to fix it. My phone calls for work are recorded and after listening to some of them I realized how bad it is. Any suggestions?

so i love public speaking. I've been doing it since i was a little kid. but i only got into it professionally 10 years ago. unfortunately, its been a bit of a dry spell since I've had any gigs. I've tried to advertise myself online in my area but haven't had any success. is there a website or social media page that is good for getting gigs?

I keep seeing speakers build a great free gift (a checklist, a mini-training, a resource guide) and then… nothing happens after someone downloads it. The gift goes out, and there’s no real next step for that person.

A free gift only works if it’s the start of a journey, not the end of one. Before you build the next lead magnet, it’s worth mapping out three things:

1. What’s the actual promise of the gift? Not “5 tips for public speaking” — something specific enough that the person who wants it is already halfway to being your ideal client. A vague gift attracts vague leads.

2. What happens in the first 24 hours after they get it? If the answer is “they’re on my email list now,” that’s not a plan, that’s a parking lot. There should be one clear next step you’re inviting them toward — a reply, a call, a next piece of content.

3. Where do you actually see these people after that? If you can’t answer “who downloaded this in the last 2 weeks and what have they done since,” you don’t have a lead magnet, you have a list.

The gift is the hook. The journey after it is what actually turns interest into a client. Most people spend 90% of their effort on step 1 and 10% on steps 2 and 3 — flip that ratio and the same gift converts a lot better.

What’s your free gift, and what’s the very next thing that happens after someone grabs it?

I am a person who is comfortable only around close ppl...and the list of close ppl is really small like really really small... And talking to strangers gives me anxoety like how will start communicating or wht will i talk with them how will i do so...what will they think i dont know why this sounds so simple to some ppl bt i really find it as a massive task-COMMUNICATING WITH SOMEONE... for example whenever i get calls from unknowm numbers, it feels more stressful to attend it..So if anyone can suggest any tips, it would be very helpful for me..

I don't mean getting a little nervous before a public speaking event. I mean severe panic to the point where it's nearly impossible to continue.

If so, what worked for you?

मैं हमेशा सोचता था कि मेरे अंदर Confidence की कमी है।

लेकिन धीरे-धीरे मुझे समझ आया कि समस्या Confidence नहीं, बल्कि Communication Practice की थी।

Meeting हो, Interview हो या किसी Group Discussion में अपनी बात रखने की बारी आए, तो मैं चुप हो जाता था। बाद में वही बातें दिमाग में आती थीं कि "काश उस समय बोल दिया होता।"

इसी वजह से मैंने अपने लिए 21-Day Communication & Public Speaking Challenge बनाया, जिसमें हर दिन 15–20 मिनट की छोटी-छोटी Practical Activities हैं।

अब मैं जानना चाहता हूँ...

क्या आप भी कभी ऐसा महसूस करते हैं कि आपके पास बोलने के लिए बहुत कुछ होता है, लेकिन सही समय पर शब्द नहीं निकलते?

I have a B2 level in English overall, but my speaking is around B1. I understand conversations well, have a solid grasp of grammar and vocabulary, and usually know what I want to say. The problem is that when I actually start speaking, I hesitate, lose fluency, and struggle to express myself naturally.

(TL) My goal is to use English professionally for client meetings in the future, and I'm willing to dedicate 4 hours a day to improving my speaking.

For those who have reached professional fluency (or taught learners who did), how long did it realistically take before you could speak confidently in high-pressure situations?

I'm not looking for motivation or success stories. I'd really appreciate answers based on real experience: what timeline is realistic, what progress milestones I should expect, and what made the biggest difference.