“When I got over my fear of public speaking, my income went up, my connections went up, life started to change for me,” Anne Lackey told Madison County High School students. Now she’s teaching them the same skills that transformed her career.

Lackey, co-founder of HireSmart Cares, a local nonprofit focused on empowering the next generation, spoke Oct. 2 with the Madison County Chamber of Commerce’s Youth Advisory Board, which is made up of Madison County High School seniors and alumni of the Chamber’s Youth Leadership Program. This year, the Georgia-based youth advisory board will publicly address a community issue important to them, and Lackey’s talk provided guidance on how to make an impactful presentation.

Lackey acknowledged that public speaking is widely feared, but she shared perspective from her years on stage, including presentations to thousands at venues like Atlanta’s Fox Theater.

“Do you know nobody’s ever thrown a tomato at me?” she told the students. “Nobody’s ever booed me. People really do care and want to hear what you have to say.”

Lackey structured her presentation around five tips. But before diving in, she shared an exercise from a public speaking training session she attended that helped her overcome nervousness: standing silently before an audience for 30 seconds with her arms above her and stretched out, then turning around and standing silently again.

“Make yourself uncomfortable and be comfortable with being uncomfortable,” she said. “Because if you have something to say, you need to be able to say it and say it with clarity and say it with energy.”

Then she demonstrated what she meant. Lackey asked everyone to stand and say three words: “I am a leader.”

First, quickly and flatly. “I’m a leader,” they said quietly.

“Now again,” Lackey said, pausing between each word. “I. Am. A. Leader.”

This time their voices filled the classroom. The difference was unmistakable.

“Which felt better to you?” she asked.

That exercise illustrated her third tip about speaking with energy. But she started with the foundation: know your message and be clear about what you’re trying to say.

“Think about what’s the one thing you want people to walk away with today,” she said.

Structure matters too, she said. Like writing a paper, presentations need a beginning, middle and end.

“Our human brains like to have ones, threes, fives and sevens,” she added, which is why she chose five tips.

Her fourth point addressed something most nervous speakers do wrong.

“When we get nervous, we talk really fast, and then nobody can really understand what we’re saying,” Lackey said. Her advice? Slow down intentionally. “If you can breathe and if you can pace yourself, you will command more authority.”

For her final tip, Lackey demonstrated poor body language, crossing her arms and twisting her legs.

“Open yourself up,” she said, straightening and making eye contact around the room, finding friendly faces in different sections of the audience.

Throughout her presentation, she demonstrated what she preached, making eye contact with different students.

“You want them to feel like they matter, because if you have a message that you want to convey, if you don’t connect with a crowd, they’re not going to connect with your message,” she said.

Before wrapping up, she taught them a practical breathing technique for calming nerves: breathe in for four counts, hold for four, exhale for four. She led them through it.

“People respect people that are on stages; people respect people that can command a room,” said Lackey.

And she noted that even if the students aren’t going to speak in front of large crowds, they’ll need public speaking skills in a variety of settings.

“You do have to speak in a job interview,” she said. “You do have to do a classroom presentation.”

She urged the students not to be afraid in delivering their message to an audience.

“You have a message that message needs to get out,” she said. “Make sure that you deliver it in a way that’s friendly, confident and able to reach the most people. Don’t be afraid of public speaking.”

HireSmart Cares is a Georgia-based 501(c)(3) that provides time, tools, teaching, and technology to K–12 students so that they graduate with skills and perspectives needed for meaningful careers without the burden of college debt. Educators with innovative approaches to preparing students for industry-relevant skills can apply for a HireSmart Cares grant at hiresmartcares.org/ideas-application. To donate to HireSmart’s grant initiatives, visit https://hiresmartcares.org/donate/.