If you’ve ever taken a public speaking course, you’ve likely been taught the “rules”: Make eye contact. Use gestures. Vary your pitch. Pause for effect. Maybe you even practiced saying someone’s name to get their attention or drilled your filler words into oblivion.
And yet—despite all that—you might still freeze in real conversations. You might still feel disconnected in presentations. You might still find yourself thinking: Why do I still feel stuck?
Here’s the truth: most public speaking advice is about performance, not connection. And performance without connection is forgettable.
At Ultraspeaking, we meet people every day who’ve mastered traditional speaking skills but still struggle to feel authentic, present, and confident. That’s because the missing piece isn’t a technique—it’s how you relate to the moment. And that changes everything.
Why Traditional Public Speaking Advice Fails
Most conventional speaking advice is rooted in control: control your gestures, your voice, your body language. But that control often backfires. It creates more self-monitoring, more pressure, and less connection.
Let’s look at a few of the “classics”—and why they can actually make you worse.
1. Overthinking Body Language
You’ve been told to use hand gestures like Bill Clinton, to stand with open posture, to move with purpose.
But here’s the problem: if you’re thinking about how to move while speaking, you’re not really present. Your focus is on performing for your audience, not communicating with them. It creates a robotic quality—even if the gestures look “right.”
At Ultraspeaking, we don’t train gestures. We help speakers feel safe enough to let natural gestures emerge. When you’re connected to your message, your body will speak for you.
2. Eliminating Filler Words
“Ums” and “ahs” have been demonized by traditional speaking coaches. But trying to remove them can create a paradox: you speak less fluidly because you’re busy monitoring every sound.
The truth? Filler words aren’t the problem. Disconnection is. When you’re in the moment, focused on your thoughts and your audience, your speech naturally becomes more compelling—even with an occasional “um.”
We help speakers get comfortable with silence, embrace spontaneity, and trust themselves—because fluency isn’t about perfection, it’s about flow.
3. Using Tricks to Grab Attention
Saying someone’s name. Telling a rehearsed joke. Starting with a shocking fact.
These tactics can feel manipulative or forced, especially if they’re used as a substitute for genuine engagement. And audiences can tell.
The most powerful attention-grabber? Being real. When you speak from a place of curiosity, openness, or vulnerability, people lean in—not because you tricked them, but because you showed up as a human being.
The Real Secret: It's Not About Technique—It's About Comfort
Memorable speakers don’t captivate because they’ve mastered a list of tips. They captivate because they’re comfortable being themselves—even in high-pressure moments.
That comfort is what creates connection. It allows humor to emerge naturally, stories to unfold authentically, and ideas to land powerfully.
We call this psychological safety in real time—the ability to navigate uncertainty, missteps, and nerves without losing your voice or your connection.
So What Does Work?
Here’s what we’ve learned from working with thousands of professionals, founders, and leaders:
- Presence is more powerful than polish. Your audience cares more about how present you are than how perfect you sound.
- Comfort beats confidence. Confidence is a byproduct of feeling safe. When you stop trying to “perform,” you unlock your real power.
- Connection is everything. If you can stay connected to your thoughts and your audience—even when things go sideways—you’re already a great speaker.
The Ultraspeaking Approach
We don’t teach public speaking as performance. We treat it as a practice of self-trust.
Our method is rooted in interactive, real-time exercises that stretch your comfort zone and build fluency under pressure—not by rehearsing, but by playing. We train people to think on their feet, speak without a script, and connect without relying on old-school tricks.
If you’ve tried all the techniques and still feel stuck, it’s not because you’re broken. It’s because the traditional model wasn’t designed for real, human communication.
Ready to stop performing and start connecting?
You don’t need to be someone else on stage. You just need the space to be fully you—under pressure.
That’s where we begin.
