A Professional Motivational Speaker Explains How To Practice A Speech

As a professional inspirational speaker, I’m a big fan of motivational sayings. Here’s one (that is, on occasion, attributed to Warren Buffett): “Practice makes permanent, not perfect.” And Buffet is absolutely correct. Here are a handful of quick and easy (and yet potent) tips that will stop you wasting a stack of your precious time whenever you prepare a speech (or any other category of formal talk).

A Professional Motivational Speaker’s Five Best Quick tips

Tip 1: Make a start on your rehearsing in plenty of time. If you defer practicing your presentation, you’re in the worst of both worlds. You’ll have lost the spontaneity of the extemporaneous presenter without developing the smoothness of the professional motivational speaker. And, as you stretch back into your memory to bring your presentation to mind, you’ll hesitate over your lines. Therefore begin practicing as soon as possible. Remember, rehearsing a speech invariably takes more time than you would guess. So begin without delay, today if you can.

Tip 2: (This next strategy was explained to me by another professional motivational speaker.) {Time how long it takes to read your first page of material. (I use a free online stopwatch for this task.)} {To be clear, I’m not suggesting you present your content as if actually watched by your colleagues}, just speak it and time yourself. This easily understood drill affords you a good sense of approximately how many pages of material you’ll need to fill the time you’ve been allotted. For example, if you find that it takes you four minutes and you’ve been given 40 minutes to speak then, plainly, you’re only going to have time to get through about ten pages of content.

Bear this in mind and you won’t fall into the trap of working on 35 pages of subject matter only to learn (often on the day) that you can only deliver [the first few~a handful of the] pages of content you spent so long polishing. This is both a colossal waste of your valuable time and makes you appear to be a beginner. What’s more, in their frustration, some corporate speakers who’ve made this mistake try to cram all their information into the time slot by speaking really fast. Without a doubt, this compounds the problem.

Tip 3: Don’t learn your information like a script. Working off a script in this manner and making it sound fluent takes a ton of effort. (Even for a professional keynote speaker who knows how to work with a script in the first place.) Here’s the solution? Experience has taught me that a corporate speaker is most likely to get lost as he/she transitions between different chunks of material. Therefore, I advise you to memorize the sequence of your content blocks, but not the line-by-line wording within each one.

Tip 4: Videotape yourself. Have you ever seen yourself on video? Most folks squirm every time they see themselves in this manner. Therefore, if you’re like the majority of individuals, don’t expect to enjoy it. Be that as it may, it’s a vital step. Listen for verbal tics (eh, em and repeated phrases: “like I said,” etc). Also look out for repetitive gestures like fiddling with the projector remote.

Tip 5: Don’t forget to carry out a technical rehearsal. (According to a professional motivational speaker, this step never fails to differentiate the professionals.) For instance, remember to rehearse with with the same type of mic that you’ll be using during your presentation. The same holds true for the other technical aspects of your presentation, such as your laptop and projector remote.

Pay attention to these sure-fire ideas and then, on the day of your program, you’ll be able to focus on the most critical thing, selling your message to the group. Everyone will simply presume that you’re a professional motivational speaker. Good luck.