The Public Speaking Mistakes That Are Keeping You Off Paid Stages (And How to Fix Them)

Here's something we've seen after working with thousands of women who want to become paid speakers: most of them aren't struggling because they have nothing to say.

They're struggling because a few, very fixable, mistakes are making their message land wrong - or not land at all.

The frustrating part? Most of these mistakes are invisible to the person making them.

You can't hear your own filler words.

You don't notice that you're rushing.

You can't see what your hands are doing when you're focused on remembering your next point.

So the same patterns show up again and again - talk after talk, presentation after presentation.

That's what this post is for.

The short version: the most common public speaking mistakes beginners make are almost never about content. They're about delivery, body, and preparation habits. And almost all of them are fixable faster than you'd think - once you know what you're actually looking for.

A few things worth naming upfront that most "public speaking tips" articles skip:

• Fixing one mistake at a time works dramatically better than trying to overhaul everything at once - attempting to correct your eye contact, filler words, pacing, and posture simultaneously usually makes everything worse before it gets better
• Some mistakes that feel enormous to you are nearly invisible to your audience, while the ones that actually cost you bookings are often the ones you'd never guess
• The goal is not perfect speaking - it's connected speaking, and those are two very different targets.

Let's get into it.

Mistake #1: Reading From Your Slides (Or Your Notes)

This is the one that kills more speaking opportunities than almost anything else, and it's also one of the most common public speaking mistakes beginners make.

You've put hours into your slides. They're detailed, they're thorough, they basically contain your entire talk. And then you get up there and read them to the room.

Here's the problem: the moment you turn your back to the audience or drop your eyes to a script, you've broken the one thing that makes a talk actually work - connection.

Your audience can read. They don't need you to do it for them. What they need is for you to talk to them, not at a screen.

This usually isn’t a content problem. In fact, it’s often the opposite - you’ve over-prepared what you want to say, and under-prepared how you’re going to deliver it.

When you know your talk well enough to own it, you don't need the slides as a crutch. The slides become visual support for what you're saying, not a script you're reading aloud.

The fix is less glamorous than most people want: practice out loud, without your slides, enough times that the shape of the talk lives in your body, not just in your notes.

If you can walk through the whole thing in your kitchen without looking at anything, you're ready. If you can't, you're not - and no amount of slide design will save you.

(Related: check out our Bookable Keynote Framework for how to build a talk structure that's easy to remember and deliver without notes.)

Mistake #2: Starting With an Apology

"I'm a little nervous today." "Bear with me, I'm not great at this." "Sorry, let me just pull up my slides real quick."

It seems harmless. It might even feel relatable.

But opening with an apology - or any version of minimizing yourself before you've said anything substantive - is one of the speaking errors that quietly erodes your credibility before you've had a chance to build any.

Your audience walks in willing to believe you're worth listening to. They're hoping you are - nobody shows up to a talk hoping the speaker tanks. When you open by flagging your own inadequacy, you're doing their skepticism's job for them.

What's actually happening when speakers do this is that they're trying to manage the audience's expectations to protect themselves from judgment.

Understandable. Completely counterproductive.

The audience doesn't need lower expectations - you need more reps so you stop feeling like you need the disclaimer.

The fix: prepare a strong opening line and commit to it. Walk up. Plant your feet. Start with the line. No preamble, no apology, no "so, um, yeah." Your first sentence should be something that earns the room's attention - a surprising statistic, a question, a story that drops them right into the middle of something.

We talk about how to build this in Mic Drop Workshop (our public speaking course), and the difference between women before and after they nail their opening is striking every single time.

Mistake #3: Rushing Through Everything

Nerves speed everything up. Your heart is going, your thoughts are racing, and your mouth is trying to keep pace with all of it.

The result is a delivery that clips along so fast your audience can't absorb what you're saying - and by the time they've processed one idea, you're three slides ahead.

Rushing is one of those beginner speaking tips that's easy to give and genuinely hard to internalize, because the pace that feels appropriate to you when you're nervous is almost always too fast for your audience.

What feels like normal speed to a nervous speaker often lands as borderline frantic from the other side of the room.

The counterintuitive truth: slowing down makes you sound more confident, not less. Speakers who pause, who let ideas breathe, who don't race to fill every millisecond of silence - those are the speakers who read as authoritative.

Rushing signals anxiety. Measured pacing signals someone who knows their material well enough to trust it.

Practical fixes that actually work:

• Record yourself on your phone and listen back at 1x speed - you'll almost always discover you were going faster than you realized
• Practice delivering your talk at what feels like an almost uncomfortably slow pace - this typically translates to exactly right when nerves are added
• Mark spots in your notes or outline where you want to pause deliberately - treat pauses as punctuation, not dead air
• Work on replacing filler words with breath instead of more words (more on this below)

Mistake #4: Letting Filler Words Take Over

"Um." "Like." "You know." "Basically." "So..."

Filler words are not a personality quirk - they're a habit your voice has developed to buy time while your brain catches up. And like most habits, you probably don't notice how often you're doing it until someone points it out or you watch yourself on video and can't unhear it.

The reason filler words matter for aspiring paid speakers specifically: event planners and meeting organizers often watch speaker videos before they book someone.

A reel full of "um" and "like" signals to a buyer that the speaker isn't polished enough for a professional stage - even if the content is excellent. It's one of those speaking errors that feels minor from the inside and reads as a significant red flag from the outside.

The fix is a two-part process.

First, you need to know your actual baseline. Record yourself speaking on any topic for three minutes and count your fillers. Don't estimate - actually count. Most people are genuinely shocked by the number. That shock is useful because it makes the habit visible, and you can't change a habit you can't see.

Second, replace the filler with a breath. Not silence - a breath. Breathing gives your brain the pause it needs without the verbal clutter, and it has the side effect of slowing your pace and opening up your voice.

It takes weeks of consistent repetition before it becomes automatic, but it absolutely works. Apps like Orai and Yoodli can help here - both give you AI-powered feedback on your filler word frequency when you practice, which is useful between coaching sessions.

Mistake #5: Ignoring Body Language

Your body is talking whether you're paying attention to it or not. Crossed arms, hands stuffed in pockets, weight shifting from foot to foot, eyes scanning the ceiling while you try to remember your next point - all of it is communicating something to your audience, and usually not what you want.

The mistake most beginners make isn't dramatic bad posture or wild gesturing.

It's the small, nervous energy habits that leak through when you're not thinking about your body: the constant small movements that signal discomfort, the hands that disappear when you don't know what to do with them, the eye contact that darts instead of lands.

Poor body language during speeches is one of the most common things we see in early-stage speakers at Mic Drop Workshop, and it's also one of the most fixable - because once you see it on video, you can't unsee it, and awareness is most of the battle.

A few specifics to build:

• Feet: shoulder-width apart, weight even, not rocking - this single adjustment does more for presence than almost anything else
• Hands: visible, relaxed, and used to gesture intentionally rather than flailing or disappearing - if you don't know what to do with your hands, let them rest at your sides rather than hiding them
• Eye contact: hold it through a complete thought, not just a word or two - pick one person, deliver a full idea, then move to someone else
• Movement: walk with purpose when you move, and be still when you're delivering something important - movement during key moments dilutes the impact

(For a deeper dive on how to build your confidence and overcome your fears, determine your message, and build the framework for your signature talk, grab your copy of The Speaker Journal)

Mistake #6: Winging It on Preparation

This one might sting a little. There's a version of "authenticity" that gets used to justify under-preparation - the idea that over-rehearsing makes you sound stiff, so it's better to just show up and speak from the heart.

Here's the reality: the speakers who seem the most natural and unrehearsed are almost always the most prepared. What looks like effortless spontaneity is usually the result of practicing so many times that the talk feels like a conversation instead of a performance.

You can't fake that. You have to earn it.

Winging it tends to produce talks that are longer than they should be, wander off point, end awkwardly, and leave the speaker feeling like they didn't quite say what they meant to say.

It also tends to be harder on your nerves, not easier - because without a practiced structure to fall back on, every pause feels like getting lost.

The preparation habits that actually work:

• Practice out loud, not just in your head - reading through notes silently is not the same as running the talk
• Practice in front of at least one real human before you go live - the energy of being watched changes everything
• Time yourself every time you run through it - talks almost always run longer under nerves, and knowing your timing cold prevents you from getting cut off or rushing the ending
• Have your opening memorized and your closing memorized, even if the middle is flexible - nailing both ends gives your talk shape and confidence

Mistake #7: Ending With a Whimper

You've given a solid talk. The audience is with you. And then you say: "So... yeah, that's kind of it. Um, any questions?"

Endings matter enormously - arguably more than the middle, because it's the last thing your audience carries out of the room with them. A weak ending undercuts everything that came before it. A strong ending is what makes a talk memorable, which is what gets you referred, invited back, and booked.

Most beginners end weakly because they haven't planned their ending as deliberately as they've planned their content. They run out of material and just... stop. Or they let the Q&A become the ending by default, which hands control of the room's final impression over to whoever asks the weirdest question.

Your closing should be as intentional as your opening. It should circle back to something you said at the start, issue a clear call to action or challenge to the audience, and end on a line you've actually rehearsed.

Not improvised. Rehearsed. Know your last sentence before you walk into the room.

Where You Are Right Now - And What to Do Next

Knowing which mistakes you're making is the first step. Knowing which ones to fix first is where most people get stuck. Here's a simple way to prioritize:

If you're brand new and haven't spoken much yet:

• Focus on preparation habits and nailing your opening and closing first
• Everything else is easier to fix once you have a structured talk to work with

If you're speaking regularly but not getting booked for paid gigs:

• Your delivery habits are probably where to look - filler words, pacing, body language
• Record yourself and watch it honestly, or get feedback from someone who will tell you the truth

If you're already getting some traction but want to level up:

• Focus on the subtler things - vocal variety, strategic pauses, command of the room
• This is where a coach or structured program makes the biggest difference, because the gains at this level require specific feedback, not just more practice

If you're not sure which category you're in:

• Record a three-minute talk on any topic, watch it back, and count: filler words, times you look away from camera, times you rush, times you apologize or minimize - your mistakes will tell you exactly where to start

Where These Insights Come From

The mistakes in this post aren't a generic list pulled from public speaking theory. They're the patterns that show up consistently when women come through Mic Drop Workshop, Mic Drop Club, and Mic Drop Academy at every stage of the speaking journey - from first-timers who have never held a microphone to women who have been speaking for years but can't figure out why they're not getting paid gigs.

The honest caveat: not every mistake on this list will apply to every speaker, and the priority order matters as much as the list itself. Trying to fix all seven things at once is a recipe for overwhelm. Pick one, work on it until it improves, then move to the next.

The speaking world is also changing - AI coaching tools like Orai and Yoodli are making it possible to get more reps with real-time feedback between live sessions, which is genuinely new and genuinely useful. The fundamentals of what makes a speaker compelling, though - presence, connection, a clear message delivered with confidence - those haven't changed and aren't going to.

The Good News About Every Single Mistake on This List

They're all fixable. Every one of them. None of them is a personality trait you're stuck with. None of them means you're not cut out for this. They're habits, and habits change with the right practice and the right feedback.

The women who go on to build paid speaking careers aren't the ones who started out perfect. They're the ones who stayed in the room long enough to get better.

If you want help building a talk people actually remember - and learning how to turn it into paid speaking opportunities:”If you want a clear starting point - a roadmap for how to build a talk people actually remember, how to pitch yourself for paid gigs, and how to stop leaving speaking opportunities on the table - this is where we'd point you:

→ Join the Free Public Speaking Workshop