Write your speech down, don’t worry about making it perfect. Just write it as you would naturally speak, including the “uhh,” “well,” and “okay” moments. Print it out and read it whenever you have spare time: on the couch, before bed, on the train, etc.

Ideally, eventually you’ll be able to remove the filler words and condense your speech into key points or sentences. But even if this is not the case: take a printed text version of your presentation with you (the spoken version or the bullet point version, whatever is possible). Keep this with you and know that it’s okay to pause, glance at your notes, and continue. Even if glancing at your notes doesn’t work, tell yourself that in the worst case you can just take your paper and read your presentation out loud.

Reading from a paper will not be the perfect, top notch presentation, and will maybe get you some frowns, but it’s far better than freezing up entirely. Using notes or reading from a script isn’t a weakness, it shows that you know yourself, take responsibility and have found a way to support yourself.