Essentially, practice. I at some point figured that I was never going to be popular in the school I was in. So I used it as a testing ground. Tried different things, tested my classmates reactions. Because of my family moving I ended up at two different schools after that, which I could then also use to practice - each one worked out better than the previous one. Eventually I got to the point where I wasn’t too awkward anymore. (Except until I was psychologically abused, but that’s another story…)