5 Top Online Public Speaking Courses to Build Your Confidence

Boost your public speaking and communication skills with these top courses for beginners, and ace your next presentation

Even when we are passionate about our creative output, our self-confidence can disappear when we’re faced with a presentation, review, or speech about our work. It's very common to have a fear of public speaking, but with the right tools for your skillset, it needn’t be so scary.

These five courses on presentations and public speaking for professionals, students, and creatives will guide you towards better communication. You’ll learn to give speeches as well as making clear, visual slideshows or infographics you look forward to talking through.

Get ready to become an effective and confident communicator for any audience.

1. Public Speaking: Find Your Unique Voice, a course by Dasha Dollar-Smirnova

Good public speaking combines storytelling with confidence. Dasha Dollar-Smirnova (@dasha_dollar_smirnova) is the founder of Frog Talk, a company that provides public speaking training workshops. Dasha worked in the field of drama and theater, where she built her confidence and found her voice, before earning a masters in Psychology.

In this course on finding your unique voice, you’ll understand where your anxiety comes from and how that affects your body and voice. Learn body language and persuasive storytelling skills to build your presentation step by step, rehearsing and memorizing the talk before you present it.

2. Communicate with Confidence: Learn to Give Powerful Speeches, a course by Kyoko Takeyama

Creatives often have a strong sense of purpose and big dreams for where they want their career to go. But how do you power that growth through public speaking? Kyoko Takeyama (@kyokotakeyama) teaches professionals to become conscious communicators through coaching. Her clients include IESE, University of Barcelona, and Digital Design Days.

With a specific understanding of creatives, Kyoko teaches you how to communicate your creative expertise with career growth in mind. For your final project, you’ll identify your core goals and strengths, and record a one-minute video where you present yourself to an audience.

3. Visual Thinking: Organize and Present Powerful Ideas, a course by Hermen Lutje Berenbroek

If you’re looking for a communication solution that also makes the most of your drawing skills, then look no further than this Visual Thinking course by Hermen Lutje Berenbroek (@hermen). He launched his brand Artifizer in 2019, where he offers a variety of services from visual maps to presentation development and workshop training for international clients in a variety of industries.

Throughout the course, you’ll develop a powerful visual language for exploring and communicating ideas. Try drawing exercises, learn about visual frameworks, organize your information, and translate it into infographic images that are accessible, friendly, and powerful.

4. Storytelling and Communication to Sell Creative Projects, a course by Vanesa Rodríguez Agüera

Are you a writer at heart, most confident when you can communicate using carefully crafted words? Vanesa Rodríguez Agüera (@vanagrama) has a background in copywriting and is now a Creative Director at advertising agency Grow in Madrid. She notes that it’s not always the best ideas that get approval, but the best-sold ideas.

In this course, you’ll learn how to sell a creative project to potential clients, exploring ways to both present and defend your ideas. That means preparing a pitch and recording a video presentation, and planning for feedback and negotiations with your audience.

5. Principles of Presentation Design, a course by Katya Kovalenko

Visual aids can turn a simple speech into an impactful story that stays with your audience. Just ask Katya Kovalenko (@katyakovalenko), who created Quiet Studio to shift away from loud advertising to a more personal and quietly powerful approach. As presentation and data designer there, she creates presentations, infographics, and brand identities for clients like Meom, Article Group, and Chelsea & Co.

In this presentation design course, you’ll discover the history of visual presentations and dive into the theory of this medium. Learn about narrative storytelling, develop both the structure and “look and feel” for your design, then make your presentation. Katya demonstrates using Keynote, but Powerpoint and other software will work too.

Share your ideas confidently with these resources

If these expert-led courses have inspired you to present your work more effectively, we have some further reading you’ll want to check out…

1. Get eight public speaking tips from Kyoko Takeyama and learn more about this discipline.

2. Learn how to build a healthy relationship with your clients as a creative professional.

3. Watch this free tutorial on how to connect with decision makers via LinkedIn.

4. For more career inspiration, learn how eight creatives overcame their doubts to reinvent their lives.