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Showing posts from August, 2013

How to Deliver Impromptu Speeches Without Anxiety

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Even people who are very good at delivering prepared speeches are often nervous about being asked to do an impromptu talk with little or no warning. This is something that comes up regularly both when I coach speakers and in online forums. But dealing with this anxiety is actually very simple. What causes the problem is just the uncertainty and you can eliminate this uncertainty by preparing. The secret is to anticipate what you might get asked to talk about, prepare short talks on these topics and practice them. Being asked to speak should not come as a surprise. If you are a leader, politician, hero, inventor, startup founder or whatever sooner or later someone will ask you to speak about your experience, idea, business or invention. And since there are only a limited number of situations where speaking is possible you also know more or less when the request is likely to come. You also know more or less what people might expect you to talk about. If you founded a startup peopl...