Top Tips for Effective Professional Speaking It's true that professional speaking is not easy. From preparing engaging content to captivating the audience and ensuring they leave with memorable takeaways, there are many success factors to consider.

If you're an expert looking to break into the professional speaking circuit or someone looking to level up their talks, who better to learn from than award-winning speakers? In this feature, the winners and highly commended speakers from The Speaker Awards 2025 have exclusively lifted the lid on their insider top tips for effective professional speaking.

Get yourself into a calm state
"I can't tell you how often people have said to me: 'You've got to be nervous before you go on stage to give your best performance'. I disagree," says Kate Ancketill, winner of Best AI and Future Technology Speaker 2025. "Neuroscience tells us that the stress hormone, cortisol, actually prevents our brains from functioning efficiently. If anything, being nervous makes you literally unable to think," she says.

"My superpower is to put myself into a light hypnotic trance just before I go on stage - slowing my breathing and pulse, so that I'm as relaxed on stage as if I were sitting in my kitchen having a cup of tea. This frees my brain to do its thing unimpeded by stress hormones. As a bonus, my stomach doesn't flutter, and my palms don't sweat. It's simple when you know how…" Ancketill notes.

Never step on stage without assessing the audience
"First impressions count. So why not take the opportunity to make the most of them?" argues Alex Atherton, winner of Best Newcomer 2025. "As a speaker, you want to understand the energy levels in the room before you say a word. Do you need to bring the levels up? Do you need to bring it down a bit so you start with everyone listening? How many are on their phones? In short, is your audience ready to engage so that they can make the most of what comes next?" he points out.

"Then there's making the most of the time you spent working the crowd before you got near the stage. Are you able to make eye contact with those you spoke to because you have spotted where they are sitting," Atherton adds."Time on stage is only a part of the gig. Make sure you make the most of all the rest."

Create a shared message and experience
"Don't just share content, create an experience," argues Speaker of the Year 2025 Jim Steele. "People might forget the details of what you said, but they'll remember how you made them feel, how you got them thinking differently, and whether they left ready to act."

"The secret? Get under the skin of your client's vision, values, and priorities. Make your message feel like it's theirs, not just yours. When your insights help leaders and teams to lean in and move forward faster, you become a strategic partner, not just another speaker," Steele suggests.

Truth is funny!
"The mistake I see most speakers make is trying to force in corny jokes - which usually has the exact opposite effect to what they're intending, creating distance, instead of connection," argues Beth Sherman, Highly Commended in the Best Live Speaker 2025 category.

"After 30 years as a comedian and TV comedy writer, here's the big secret: Truth is funny. Life is absurd. People are bonkers. All we do as comedians is observe and report the truth we see, especially about ourselves and our own contradictions and imperfections. It's relatable. So instead of trying to be 'funny,' just be human," Sherman says.

Serve the audience and prioritize clarity
"As a futurist, my role is to translate complex ideas - from science and demographics to global trends and technological advancements - into clear, compelling insights that resonate with everyone in the audience," highlights Nikki Greenberg, Highly Commended in the AI and Future Technologies Speaker 2025, and Thought Leadership Speaker 2025 categories.

"In a room with 1,500+ people with different life experiences, levels of tech-savviness, and knowledge-bases, my job is to make the future accessible and exciting. My top tip: remember that your role is to serve the audience, not to showcase how smart you are." Greenberg says. "Avoid jargon, stay grounded, and focus on clarity. A great keynote doesn't just inform - it inspires, translates complexity into meaning, and motivates people to take action."

Show your humanness, not perfection
"A professional speaker is an expert, but most importantly, they're human," says Vanessa Sturman, Highly Commended in the Best Virtual Speaker 2025 category. "I make sure the audience walks away with something useful. I show up as myself. No pretending I was just blessed with skill or that things have to be perfect to get results."

"I'm a Health Coach focused on performance, weight management and resilience through sustainable habits for busy lives (which we know have challenges), and I share my story of overcoming binge eating twenty years ago. Not for sympathy, but because it's relevant," Sturman says. "I didn't just wake up and decide to help people with food - I had to learn and make progress while life happened. Actions and habits need to be doable within real life. If an audience thinks they need perfection to succeed, they'll just do nothing with the knowledge. It's wasted. I get them a result because they see practical and doable action that will fit in their busy and imperfect life," she concludes.

Seek support where needed
"When working as a speaker professionally, it's so easy to quickly get lost in the preparation, the travelling, the marketing, the negotiating, the research, the networking, the hotel booking, the leaving important things on trains…," notes Adele Bates, winner of Best Storyteller 2025. "My biggest tip in the midst of all that is to get support so that you can still enjoy what you do. When you enjoy what you do, the audience will too, it becomes a beautiful cycle of presence and connection," argues Bates.

Make yourself easy to work with
"It's not just about what you say on stage, it's everything that leads up to it," says Emma Henderson MBE, winner of Booker's Choice 2025. "Be clear on your offer, meet deadlines without fuss, tailor your talk to the audience, and turn up prepared, positive, and professional." Bookers aren't just hiring your keynote, they also want peace of mind. Strong content and confident delivery are essential. But being low-drama, high-impact, and easy to recommend is what I have found gets you rebooked," Henderson suggests. "What you focus on grows. So focus on this and you never know where it can take you. The stage is only half the job. The other half happens before your feet even touch it," she says.