Tips for hacking your speaking skills: 1) Most importantly, practice it out loud. Do it about 20 times and you'll be comfortable enough to deliver it with onl

Tips for hacking your speaking skills: 1) Most importantly, practice it out loud. Do it about 20 times and you'll be comfortable enough to deliver it with only glances at note cards. 90% of being nervous comes from not knowing what you're going to do or say. 2) Second most important, make it relevant to your audience. Have you ever tried to carry on a conversation with someone you knew wasn't interested in what you had to say? It's the only thing that to this day still makes me nervous. I've given network neutrality speeches to college students in liberal arts programs, and the thing that works here is heavy use of metaphors. I had the single most attractive girl from class walk up to me at a bar later that week and she told me that she told all her friends how serious network neutrality is. I was baffled. 3) There are actually a set of rules you can follow, giving presentations can be seen as more of a science now (even the part about making your presentations entertaining is written in there). Take a class in school, or two. You really need to learn how to get up in front of large crowds and talk confidently about something. Don't let fear be your reason not to do it.