Should You Hire a Speaking Coach?

When learning a new skill—whether it’s cooking, computer programming, or public speaking—you could do it on your own. With so many resources and so much information in your reach, you could look up tutorials, read how-to books, and try to achieve it on your own. 

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But it’s entirely different to be mentored through the learning process by people who have mastered that process. 

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As we step into 2025 and think about goals for the coming year, many speakers consider hiring a speaking coach to uplevel their speech and increase their impact onstage. 

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We celebrate each person who makes the decision to pursue mastery in public speaking. Focusing on your technique and delivery with a speaking coach can help you build confidence, improve vocal delivery, and enhance storytelling skills.

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While one-on-one coaching is a fantastic way to get individualized attention, personalized feedback, and expert guidance, it’s not for everyone. And there are some limitations you might want to consider. 

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When Is Private Coaching the Right Choice?

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Private coaching is an isolated learning experience—it takes the “public” out of “public speaking.” Yes, you get unique and individualized attention from your speaking coach, but you don’t get the valuable feedback of a live audience. And one-on-one coaching has its limitations. 

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If your coach has truly mastered and applied the art and craft of public speaking and knows how to teach it effectively, this type of training can help you improve (if you have the budget—quality private coaching isn’t cheap). 

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However, some speakers seek advice from one coach after another, without ever actually training in the craft of speaking. As a result, they often don't ever really integrate any coach's guidance fully, nor do they uplevel their skill set as a whole. With too many cooks in the kitchen, speakers can become frustrated and confused—and even come to a stand-still in their progress. 

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Other speakers develop a dependency on their coaches, becoming overly reliant on their guidance and approval. This makes it difficult for them to make performance-related decisions on their own. It may be a sign they aren’t actually developing speaking skills, but instead, getting really good at following instructions. 

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That being said, if a speaker already has a strong foundation of performance and speaking skills, and wants to improve a certain aspect of their speech—for example, their signature bit, a key story, or blocking and staging—working one-on-one with a coach could be just what they need. 

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Additionally, private coaching is useful for speakers who want to work on a one-time gig. You’ll get the specific feedback you need to improve the speech you’re working on, but be forewarned—one-on-one coaching likely won’t uplevel your understanding of the craft of speaking and stage performance over all. 

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To be frank, it’s also useful for individuals who simply cannot enroll in a more comprehensive but time-consuming speaking-training program due to scheduling (almost all of the celebrity speakers we’ve worked with choose our private coaching options for this reason). 

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However, for the majority of speakers who are looking to uplevel their skills or master the crafts of writing, rehearsing, performing, and more, in-person group training with personalized components can be much more effective. And it actually makes future one-on-one coaching more effective. 

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The Best of Both Worlds: Group Training with Personal Attention When It’s Needed Most

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While one-on-one coaching can challenge you to try new things, it doesn’t push you out of your comfort zone nearly as much as improving and delivering your speech in front of a group of people. 

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After all, it’s called public speaking for a reason. If you want to master it, well, do it in public. You’ll see substantial results, grow your confidence quicker, and make changes faster when you rehearse in front of a live audience.  

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Here’s why we like group training—combined with personalized feedback—at HEROIC: 

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#1 Collective Intelligence and a Common World-Class Methodology 

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During GRAD | Stage Performance Mastery, speakers don’t just work with one coach—they work with and learn from the HEROIC Performance Faculty. Our team is made up of the best creative directors, voice coaches, and performance coaches in the industry. They’re world-class performers and educators who all hold masters-level degrees in the performing arts. 

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Most importantly, they all are trained in the same methodology. All feedback you receive—whether it’s for your script, your vocal performance, how you move onstage, or different ways to provoke emotion—will fit into the bigger-picture view of the craft of public speaking. 

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A professional actor has just one director—and does not take performance notes from sources outside that production. In the same way, training with just one methodology allows you to learn more effectively, improve faster, and avoid confusion and contradicting advice. 

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The result? A complete look at your actual skills and abilities and detailed feedback to improve not just one aspect of your performance, but every aspect of it. You don’t just learn techniques or power poses for the stage. Instead, you master the craft of stage performance.  

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That’s on the coaching side of things. You’ll also be surrounded by people just like you—entrepreneurs, aspiring speakers, mission-driven leaders, and business professionals—who are also working to uplevel their speech. This exposes you to different speaking styles, approaches, and creative choices. 

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As your peers receive feedback on their speeches, you’ll have moments where everything “clicks” and you get breakthroughs for your own performance. And your fellow speakers might even become some of your closest friends, valuable resources, and trusted partners in your speaking business. 

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#2 A Supportive, Encouraging, and Enduring Speaker Community  

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Trying something new and messing up in front of a group of people isn’t just intimidating, it can be absolutely terrifying. That’s one of the reasons why many people shy away from group training programs. 

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But fear not: we know how absolutely essential it is to create a safe learning environment, especially since professional speaking is such a highly creative endeavor. If you feel intimidated, pressured, or stressed while trying to learn something, it will be much more difficult to achieve your goals, no matter how talented or experienced your mentor is. 

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To ensure a safe, productive, and welcoming learning environment, we curate unique groups for each GRAD training program—everyone who participates in our programs belongs. We know we can do more together than we can alone. We grow together, and we succeed together. Watching our alumni cheer each other on as they take chances and try new things is one of the most rewarding moments of our training programs. 

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Keynote speaker and author Heather Hansen said: “The thing that makes HEROIC so special is the love and that everybody belongs. There are no cliques, it's a safe environment to explore your ideas and to develop your craft and to grow personally, to have a transformational experience.”

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Our alumni don’t just develop performance skills faster, they build a lasting network of speakers and authors who support them not just throughout the training, but throughout their speaking careers. 

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#3 The Immersive and Adaptive Learning Experience 

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A coach can teach you how to improve your performance. But if you want to learn how to deliver a transformational speech in front of a live audience, having a live audience is essential. 

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With group training programs, you’ll rehearse in front of a full room of people, as well as smaller groups of people. Why? For two reasons: 

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First, this type of experiential learning pushes you out of your comfort zone and prepares you for actually stepping onstage and delivering your speech for your audience. You’ll be less nervous and more prepared when the big day comes. 

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And second, this gives you real-time audience feedback. If you get positive feedback from your performance coach in private training, it feels good, and you’ll be happy to receive that feedback. 

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But if you’re onstage, in front of a room of 60 people, working with a coach to make specific changes to your speech—and then you see your audience’s eyes light up, and hear the resounding “oooh” and “aaaah”—that’s powerful. You’ll believe the positive feedback from your audience much more than you’d believe it from a coach. 

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This means you’ll implement those changes faster because you know they work. Your development accelerates, and you’re less likely to regress to what was previously comfortable. After all, you lived it onstage, you saw it with your own eyes. That’s the power of live audience feedback in an immersive and adaptive learning environment.