About This Site

What this site is

Public Speaking Tips is a small, independent reference site about speaking to an audience. One person writes it. Every guide is built to be used rather than admired: specific numbers, specific drills, and an honest note when something is uncertain or when the popular advice does not hold up.

There is no course to buy, no newsletter wall and no gated PDF. If a guide helps you get through a talk, that is the whole objective.

Who writes it

Everything here is written by Daniel Reyes, who has coached engineers, founders and sales teams through more than 600 talks, ranging from eight-person standups to conference keynotes, and has been a Toastmasters club member since 2014. There is no editorial team behind that byline: it is one coach, which is why the guides say "I" rather than "we".

The perspective throughout is that of a coach rather than a natural performer. Most of the advice here exists because it fixed a specific problem for a specific person, repeatedly.

How the advice is put together

1. Coaching practice first. The core of every guide is what actually works with people in a room, not what reads well.
2. Checked against research where research exists. Speaking is a field with a lot of confidently repeated folklore. Where I cite a study I name it and link it, and where a well-known claim is shaky I say so rather than repeating it. Claims that come from my own practice are labelled as mine. The full standard is in the editorial policy.
3. Specific over general. "Three to five seconds of eye contact" is useful. "Make good eye contact" is not.
4. Reviewed and dated. Every guide carries an updated date and gets reviewed as advice or costs change.

Corrections

If something on this site is wrong, out of date, or contradicted by better evidence, I want to know. Corrections are made openly and the updated date changes when they are. Get in touch through the contact page.

What this site is not

This site is not medical advice. Speaking anxiety sits on a spectrum, and at the severe end it overlaps with social anxiety disorder, which is a clinical matter for a doctor or therapist rather than a website. The fear guide says where that line sits.

It is also not a substitute for standing up in front of people. Nothing here works until you use it on a real audience, which is why one of the nine guides is entirely about finding places to practice.

Where to start

New here, read the 11 public speaking tips guide. It covers the whole method and links out to everything else. Or browse all nine guides and pick the one that matches what is currently going wrong.