From Fear to Applause: How Anyone Can Master Public Speaking

Public speaking is often seen as a talent you either have or don’t. Let’s listen to Christopher Lübbers, Speaker & Communication Coach, how he is busting that myth right away.

Effective public speaking doesn’t require talent. What it does require is a shift in focus. The harsh truth? It’s not about you. It’s only about the audience. The key to becoming a great speaker lies in creating value for your listeners. Here are five essential steps to get there:

Understanding Your Audience

Before you even think about your slides or anecdotes, analyze your audience. What do they care about at this very moment? What are their biggest priorities or concerns? In the corporate world, common themes include budget, revenue, employee satisfaction, costs, and risks.

💡 Key Takeaway: Think about what their bonuses depend on — this is often a good indicator of what truly matters to them. If you want to take it a step further, link an emotion to these priorities. Are they feeling pressure, relief, or excitement? Understanding both their priorities and emotions allows you to craft a message that resonates deeply.

Focus on a Single Idea

It’s tempting to showcase everything you know, packing your speech with data, charts, and endless anecdotes. But more information doesn’t equal more impact. The best speeches revolve around one clear idea.

💡 Key Takeaway: Instead of overwhelming your audience, look at your main idea from different angles. Offer various interpretations, applications, and perspectives. By making your message light and easy to retain, you ensure it sticks.

Use Storytelling to Engage

Stories make ideas memorable. The secret to great storytelling? Don’t just tell — relive. Instead of explaining what happened months ago, bring your audience into the moment.

💡 Key Takeaway: Use vivid metaphors and intuitive analogies. A well-chosen metaphor paints a picture that is easy to understand and remember. Keep it simple and impactful — complex imagery might impress you, but it will likely confuse your audience.

Master Delivery with Pauses and Melody

How you say something is just as important as what you say. The single most powerful tool? Pauses. Silence creates anticipation, allowing key messages to land with impact.

💡 Key Takeaway: Vary your vocal melody. Monotone speech puts people to sleep, while a dynamic voice keeps them engaged. Emphasize excitement in some moments, then slow down when something critically important is coming up. Think of your speech as a song — variation makes it compelling.

Practice, Practice, Practice

Rehearsing isn’t just about memorization — it’s about freeing up mental space. When your speech moves from short-term to long-term memory, you gain the capacity to breathe, smile, and even react spontaneously to your audience.

💡 Key Takeaway: The more you practice, the more confident you become. And confidence is the foundation of every great speech.

Conclusion: The Applause is Yours

By combining audience analysis for value creation, a single idea for retention, storytelling for engagement, delivery skills for impact, and practice for confidence, anyone can become a great speaker. Public speaking is not a talent — it’s a learnable skill. So take the stage, own your message, and get ready for the applause you deserve.

About Christopher Lübbers

Speaker & Communication Coach at Lübbers | The Power of Speech

Chris Lübbers is the founder of Lübbers | The Power of Speech and the lead speaker coach for TEDxLausanne. He firmly believes that many people already possess more of the necessary skills to speak confidently and joyfully in front of an audience than they realize. His goal is to help develop these skills further, ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to inspire the world with their words and convey their message in a way that feels truly authentic to them.

Chris is speaker coach for our DisruptHR speakers, to help them bring out their very best. DisruptHR is an event, organized by SPOT ON, with around 10 speakers presenting a disruptive HR idea in jus 5 minutes. To date, more than 80 speakers have taken the stage at our events.