Public Speaking & Confidence

I heard a trick to looking at the audience, is to look over their heads, and towards the back of the room. This still gives the impression that you're looking at them and engaging with them through eye contact, but you're not directly looking at anyone in particular, so you're less nervous.

Also, if you're using a microphone, get used to hearing your own voice projected back to you, which is unnerving at first, but concentrate in the topic you want to speak and present to others. 

When you have to speak to anyone, to appear confident, you have to have comfortable body language. If you imagine a place that you have freedom to be yourself, (when you're in your room, when you're outdoor hiking, etc.) that you can be comfortable enough to genuinely laugh and express anything you want to, then that's a good mentality to be in. When you are in that kind of mentality, talking to anyone is a lot easier for you, and it comes across as being confident to them, that you're not holding back or hesitating which is caused by fear, that you have the freedom to say anything you'd like to say. 

I heard a trick to looking at the audience, is to look over their heads, and towards the back of the room. This still gives the impression that you're looking at them and engaging with them through eye contact, but you're not directly looking at anyone in particular, so you're less nervous.

Also, if you're using a microphone, get used to hearing your own voice projected back to you, which is unnerving at first, but concentrate in the topic you want to speak and present to others. 

When you have to speak to anyone, to appear confident, you have to have comfortable body language. If you imagine a place that you have freedom to be yourself, (when you're in your room, when you're outdoor hiking, etc.) that you can be comfortable enough to genuinely laugh and express anything you want to, then that's a good mentality to be in. When you are in that kind of mentality, talking to anyone is a lot easier for you, and it comes across as being confident to them, that you're not holding back or hesitating which is caused by fear, that you have the freedom to say anything you'd like to say.