I'm not great now, but used to be an absolutely dreadful public speaker. While I was in college I got a most of a year warning that I would have to give a techn

I'm not great now, but used to be an absolutely dreadful public speaker. While I was in college I got a most of a year warning that I would have to give a technical presentation to an audience of a few hundred. At that point I could not do that. I told myself, "If you are going to stand in front of that many people and talk, you need practice". So for the next 8 months EVERY time a professor asked for a volunteer I said yes. No matter how ill prepared I was. Once I got myself into a real pickle. I volunteered to do a homework problem on the board for a homework I had not done yet on a subject I was weak in. It went ok. I had to ask the class for help, and announced what steps I thought I should do. After that I began to trust the advice that the audience wants you to succeed. When it came time to giving the presentation I practiced a huge amount. Recorded it and watched it again and again. I also spent time thinking of every question that could be asked and prepared backup slides (with quick links) to visuals to support the top 10 questions I guessed might be asked. I got to use two of those visuals to answer questions. Overall it was a great experience and I was able to place 4th at the national level of the competition.