Public speaking practice. Build confidence out loud.

Why practice out loud

Most speaking nerves come from doing something rarely. You give a talk a few times a year, so each one feels like the first. The most reliable fix is the plain one: more reps. Exposure, meaning speaking again and again in a setting that feels a bit like the real one, is the best-studied treatment for public speaking anxiety. A 2021 meta-analysis of 11 studies with 508 people found large reductions in speaking anxiety after exposure therapy delivered with real audiences or in virtual reality (*Behavior Modification*, 2021).

The other half is feedback. Rehearsing alone in your head skips the parts that go wrong on the day: the opening that takes a minute to reach the point, the “um” at every transition, the slide you rush because you're least sure of it. Saying it out loud and hearing it back is how you catch those.

How a practice session works

1. Say what you're preparing for. A team update, a conference talk, a toast, a class presentation. Tell Ace who's in the room.
2. Speak out loud. Give your talk or your opening the way you will on the day. The AI audience listens and asks the questions that room would ask.
3. Get the analysis. A few minutes later you see your strengths and the one thing to change, with clips of your own moments.
4. Redo the part that fell flat. Rehearse just that section again and hear the difference.

A daily session takes 5 to 10 minutes: a 1-minute warm-up drill, a practice call of about 4 minutes and a 3-minute drill aimed at your habit. Video is optional.

What Ace listens and watches for

Ace Coach reads more than 35 signals across what you say, how you sound and how you look on camera. For public speaking, these matter most.

Fillers and hedges

“Um”, “like”, “kind of” and where they cluster, usually at the start and at transitions.

Pace

Your words per minute, and whether you speed up on the hard parts.

Pauses

Whether you leave a beat after your key line, or fill every silence.

Voice

How your voice rises and falls, so the important line sounds important.

Eye contact

Whether you look up at the audience, or the camera, on the lines that count.

Your main point

Whether there's one line people will remember and repeat.

Three habits to build first

• Open with the point. Your first sentence should be the thing you want remembered, not “so, I'm going to talk about…”.
• Pause instead of filling. Close your mouth where an “um” would go. A one-second silence sounds deliberate to the audience.
• Reframe the nerves. In a study of 140 people giving a persuasive speech, those who said “I am excited” beforehand were rated more persuasive, competent and confident than those who said “I am calm” (Brooks, 2014).

More detail in the guides on the fear of public speaking, saying “um” less and talking too fast.

Have a specific talk coming up? Use presentation practice to rehearse your opening, key points and audience questions.

What you need

Use Ace in your browser on a phone or computer. Bring a microphone; the camera is optional. Turn it on for feedback on eye contact.