Public performance is any public presentation in front of an audience, which we are exposed to every day in our professional life. Public speaking contains a number of desirable, organized and connected elements. Therefore, the public presentation should be prepared in advance, and in this preparation the speaker should be aware of the meaning of all elements because they all together influence the building of the image. The audience gets an impression of the speaker at the very beginning of his performance, and the speaker is responsible for creating a positive impression, as well as for maintaining it during the performance. The aim of this work is to present the importance, but also the ways of managing the image created by public speaking, so that the speaker is credible and professional. The paper analyzes the fundamental aspects of public communication, such as the importance of congruence, that is the harmony of verbal, non-verbal and paraverbal communication, the influence of stage fright or fear of public speaking on the speaker, and consequently on his image, and methods of controlling stage fright. As support for certain theoretical interpretations, the work includes examples of public performances by well-known speakers who were remembered with a positive or negative image through their performances and speeches. In the research part of the work, semi-structured interviews were conducted with Assoc. Ph. D. Nikolina Borčić and Veronika Štefanko, mag. educ. phon. Both participants confirmed the statements explained in the theoretical part of this paper.