Oratrics Navbar

11 best Public Speaking Tips and Techniques from world’s top public speaking coach, Samad Shoeb

By /

11 Best Public Speaking Tips and Techniques from Samad Shoeb, India's Leading Public Speaking Coach

Ask most people what scares them more about public speaking or a trip to the dentist and you’d be surprised how many pick the microphone. It’s one of those fears that doesn’t really go away on its own. You can read every “10 tips to be more confident” listicle out there and still freeze up the moment you’re standing in front of a room.

That’s the gap Samad Shoeb has spent years working on closing. As CEO and co-founder of Oratrics: The Personality Enrichment School, he’s coached everyone from nervous teenagers giving their first classroom presentation to executives prepping for a boardroom pitch, across a network that now spans 22+ countries. What comes through in his approach isn’t a bag of tricks, it’s a fairly blunt insistence that public speaking is trainable, the same way fitness or a language is, and that most people just never practiced it properly.

Below are 11 of his go-to public speaking tips and techniques, the kind you can actually use the next time you’ve got a talk, a pitch, or even a wedding toast on the calendar.

Book a Free Demo Today
Notice writing format class 10 with proper layout, headings, and essential details
☰ Table of Contents

    Why This Still Matters (Maybe More Than Ever)

    We do a lot more of our “speaking” on video calls now, or in front of a phone camera for LinkedIn, than we used to in actual conference rooms. But the underlying skill hasn’t changed. It’s still about organizing what’s in your head and getting it into someone else’s, clearly enough that it sticks. Call it presentation skills, verbal communication, stage presence, whatever label you like. It’s the same muscle, and like any muscle, it responds to training, not luck.

    With that out of the way, let’s get into it.

    1. Figure Out Your Audience Before You Write a Word

    A mistake Samad sees constantly: people sit down and write their entire speech before they’ve thought seriously about who’s going to be listening to it. It’s backwards. He has speakers start with a few blunt questions instead:

    • What does this audience already know, and what are they tired of hearing?
    • What’s the one problem they actually want solved?
    • Would they respond better to something formal, or something closer to a conversation?

    Get those answers first, and the speech practically writes itself around them. Skip this step, and even a well-written talk can land flat because it wasn’t built for the people in the room.

    A small habit that helps: jot down three things your audience cares about before you draft anything, and build your opening line around one of them.

    2. Tell a Story, Don't Read a List

    Nobody remembers a bullet-pointed talk. People remember stories from the beginning, some kind of tension or problem, and a resolution. If you’re just stacking facts on top of facts, you might be technically correct and still totally forgettable.

    A structure that tends to work:

    1. A hook in the first 15 seconds or so, before people mentally check out
    2. Context — why should this room care?
    3. One to three core points — not ten, please not ten
    4. A clear ask — what do you want them to think, feel, or do once you stop talking?

    3. Pay Attention to Your Body, Not Just Your Script

    Your audience is reading you long before you say anything useful. Posture, hands, eye contact, all of it is doing communication work whether you’ve planned for it or not

    A few things worth actually practicing:

    • Stand with your feet roughly shoulder-width apart. It sounds trivial, but it changes how grounded you look.
    • Use your hands on purpose instead of letting them fidget or disappear into your pockets.
    • Move your eye contact around the room, not just the friendly face in the front row.
    • Watch for closed-off body language, crossed arms, hunched shoulders even when you’re not trying to send that signal.

    None of this means performing a version of yourself. It’s closer to just getting out of your own way so your natural energy can actually reach the back row.

    4. Speak With Pace, Pitch & Pauses

    You can have great content and still lose a room if you deliver it in a flat monotone. Vocal variety is one of those things people underrate until they hear a speaker who’s got it, and suddenly the difference is obvious.

    A few levers to pull:

    • Pace — slow down on the points that matter, and don’t be afraid to speed up through the connective tissue.
    • Pitch and tone — let your voice actually move. Flat delivery reads as either boredom or nerves, even when neither is true.
    • Pauses — this is the one Samad talks about most. A pause after a key line isn’t dead air. It’s you giving the room a second to actually absorb what you just said, and it reads as confidence, not hesitation.

    5. Lean on the Rule of Three

    There’s a reason “blood, sweat, and tears” stuck and a five-item list from the same speech probably wouldn’t have. Our brains just hold onto groups of three more easily than longer sequences.

    You can use this almost anywhere in a talk:

    • Three main points instead of five or seven
    • Three examples to back up an idea
    • Three steps, three reasons, three takeaways, wherever it fits naturally (don’t force it where it doesn’t)

    It’s a small structural trick, but it makes a talk noticeably easier to follow and remember.

    6. Practice Your Speech, Not Just Your Notes

    Reading through your notes in your head feels like preparation. It isn’t, not really. Sentences that look perfectly fine on a page can come out clunky the moment you try to say them, and you won’t catch that until you hear yourself say it.

    Practicing out loud does a few things: it exposes awkward phrasing, it builds muscle memory for how you move between points, and it gets you comfortable with your own voice under a bit of time pressure.

    If you can stomach it, record yourself and watch it back. It’s uncomfortable the first few times. It’s also one of the fastest ways to catch filler words and pacing problems you’d otherwise never notice.

    7. Deal With Nerves Through Preparation, Not Avoidance

    Everyone gets nervous before speaking including people who do it for a living. The goal was never to make the nerves disappear completely; it’s to keep them from taking over.

    A few things that genuinely help:

    • Slow, controlled breathing before you go on, to bring your nervous system down a notch
    • Reframing the feeling that jittery, adrenaline-heavy sensation is nearly identical whether you call it fear or excitement, so try calling it excitement
    • Over-preparing your first 30 seconds once you’re past the opening, most of the anxiety tends to burn off on its own
    • Visualizing the talk going well, ahead of time, rather than rehearsing every way it could go wrong

    The honest truth is that confidence is mostly a byproduct of repetition. The more familiar you are with your material, the less room there is for anxiety to take hold.

    8. Use Real Stories, Not Just Data

    Numbers inform people. Stories move them. A well-chosen personal anecdote or example does something a stat never can; it lets your audience see themselves in it.

    When picking a story for a talk, look for one that:

    • Connects directly back to your core message (not just a fun tangent)
    • Has some actual tension in it a problem, not just a happy ending
    • Is specific. Vague stories don’t land; specific, slightly odd details are what people remember

    This is one of the clearer differences between good speakers and forgettable ones: the good ones almost always tell you something, rather than just telling you about something.

    9. Handle Questions Like You Expected Them

    How you handle Q&A often does more for (or against) your credibility than the prepared part of your talk. It’s the unscripted moment where people can really tell if you know your stuff.

    A few habits worth building:

    • Pause before answering. You don’t need to fill the silence immediately.
    • Repeat or rephrase the question so everyone in the room actually heard it.
    • If you don’t know something, just say so and offer to follow up. Bluffing is usually obvious.
    • Keep your first answer short. You can always add more if they want it.

    Composure here is trainable, mostly through mock Q&A sessions where someone throws hard questions at you on purpose. It’s uncomfortable in practice and it pays off in the room.

    10. Let Your Slides Support You, Not Replace You

    If your slide has five bullet points and three sentences on it, you’ve built a script, not a slide  and the audience will read it instead of listening to you. Overloaded slides are one of the fastest ways to lose a room’s attention.

    Better habits:

    • One idea per slide, not five
    • More visuals, fewer paragraphs
    • Treat the slide as a visual anchor while you do the actual explaining out loud

    The audience showed up to hear you, not to read along silently.

    11. Keep Asking for Feedback

    Even speakers who are genuinely good at this keep improving, and it’s usually because they built a feedback loop instead of assuming they’d arrived. Public speaking isn’t a fixed trait some people are born with; it’s closer to a skill you keep sharpening, which is really the whole philosophy behind the coaching work at Oratrics.

    A simple way to build that loop:

    • Record your talks and actually go back and watch them
    • Ask someone you trust for specific feedback, not just “how’d I do?”
    • Look for workshops or speaking groups where you get regular reps
    • Pick one habit at a time to fix filler words, pacing, posture instead of trying to overhaul everything at once

    Conclusion

    If there’s one mindset shift underneath all 11 of these, it’s this: public speaking tips and techniques only work if you treat the whole thing as a skill, not a personality trait. Nobody walks on stage naturally gifted at this. The speakers who look effortless got there through a lot of unglamorous practice, plenty of awkward recordings of themselves, and a willingness to keep adjusting.

    Pick two or three of these to work on first. Don’t try to fix everything before your next talk. That’s a good way to overthink yourself right back into stage fright. Small, consistent changes compound faster than people expect.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Preparation, especially of your opening. Knowing your first 30 seconds cold removes most of the anxiety that trips up new speakers.

    Controlled breathing, thorough preparation, and reframing that jittery feeling as excitement rather than fear all genuinely help. The nerves rarely vanish completely; you just get better at working with them.

     It varies a lot by person, but most people notice real improvement within a few weeks of consistent practice, especially if they’re getting feedback along the way rather than practicing in a vacuum.

    No. It’s a learned skill, built through repetition and feedback not something you either have or don’t.

    Out loud, ideally recorded, and with someone giving you honest feedback afterward. Silent read-throughs don’t translate the same way once you’re actually speaking.

    Related Posts

    Leave a Comment

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Oratrics Footer
    Student studying

    Start Your Child's Learning Journey

    Join thousands of students excelling with our personalized educational development paths.

    Thank You! 🎉

    Your free demo has been booked! We will contact you within 24 hours to finalize your schedule.

    Book Your Free Demo

    Experience personalized learning tailored to your child's needs

    Scroll to Top