This one-time, hour-long, low-pressure class invites students to explore concrete strategies for minimizing their public speaking nerves.

Taught by an experienced college professor, speaking program director, and painfully-shy-student-turned-professional-public-speaker, this class will offer your teen a new outlook on their speaking potential and concrete tools to get their nerves under control.

I will share five specific tools for managing different aspects of speaking nerves, including:

- How to develop a powerful mindset
- How to calm your physical body
- How to find inspiration
- How to take measured risks
- How to grow confidence over time

With each tool, I will offer discussion and tips for implementation and will provide a simple writing prompt to help your teen capture their ideas about how they might put these tools into practice.

Regardless of the reason for your teen’s public speaking nerves–general shyness, lack of experience, a bad previous experience, neurodiversity, feeling different, a perceived lack of ability, or something else–your teen will leave the hour not only having encountered new ideas but with a step-by-step plan of action in hand tailored to their unique needs.

High schools and colleges in the US are increasingly assigning individual and group presentations as part of the graded learning activities in classes across the curriculum. Beyond school, public presentations and speeches are common activities in the workplace and in civic life. But most people experience nervousness, fear, or downright anxiety at the idea of public speaking. The good news is that speaking confidence is a skill that can be learned!