Here are five techniques that facilitate script preparation and mastery: Decide how you will craft your script. I often become emotional in my keynotes, but it’s at a different part of the speech each time depending on my interpretation that day and what I sense from the audience. Knowing it exceptionally well paradoxically frees you to be more natural and responsive in the moment. Many people worry they’ll appear scripted and stilted if they over prepare, but this is only true if you know your material well but not well enough. I’ll pause if people laugh so they can enjoy the moment, or alter the volume or pitch of my voice if I sense the audience losing interest. When you’re not worrying about what comes next, you’re able to be fully present with your audience and adjust to their reactions. Learning your script cold allows you to move from one point to the next without thinking about it. “Knowing it cold” is a pressure valve you’re less nervous, which helps reduce the stimulation of your sweat glands and commensurately boosts your confidence. You think about what would be most effective for your audience and plan not just the words but the actions and transitions between points, so it becomes one fluid motion for you, all the while allowing time for adjusting or improvising during the speech itself. It’s memorization on steroids, but modified according to your needs and speaking venue - whether you require mastery of key bullet points to land with your audience or need to learn a speech word for word until it’s as familiar as your own name. Knowing a script or presentation cold means taking the time to craft the words and sequence of what you plan to say, and then rehearsing them over and over until you could recite them backwards if asked. Based on my experience, I’ve found one approach to public speaking works best: knowing your “script” cold. I’ve harnessed lessons from both these failures in my current career where I’ve delivered a TEDx talk and speak publicly - almost once a week - at keynotes and leadership workshops, and I also coach others on how to present. In Paris, I relied on my well-developed impromptu speaking muscle but couldn’t deliver on the details. I’d memorized the poem but hadn’t rehearsed it repeatedly enough under performance stress I faltered. The elocution competition and the meeting in Paris were very different, but there was a commonality: my preparation when speaking to an audience. Unable to reference research on the fly or otherwise respond knowledgeably, my content fell far short of expectations. Instead, the audience’s probing questions flummoxed me. I’d decided to mostly wing it through my segment because I felt being in the moment was better than being over prepared and freezing if I forgot my point. I started to rely on impromptu speaking skills for larger presentations. Whether it was the dreaded table topics at Toastmasters’ meetings or tough questions from my CEO, it became hard to stump me. Over the years I honed the art of speaking on the fly. It was hard to concentrate or interact with the audience. In my early work life, whenever I spoke, a part of my brain was on anxious alert lest I forget something. Finally, the timer buzzed, ending my turn on stage and initiating a two-decade fear of memorization. Now the judges’ encouraging smiles only roiled my rising panic. I nailed the first verse of my chosen poem, but might as well have been under general anesthesia when trying to remember a single word of the second verse. Buoyed by their support, I anticipated winning this college elocution competition.
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