TJ Walker explains how to practice public speaking without a polished script. Skip memorizing TED talks. Instead, use a one-page outline with five bullet points, draw from your own stories, and record yourself to see what lands. Authenticity and thinking out loud work better than perfection.
What's the best way to practice a speech in your speaking skills? If you don't have a polished speech ready, One of my online students writes in and says, tj, is it okay if I use somebody else's TED speech just for practice? I don't have a great polished speech and it's hard for me to take myself seriously when practicing in front of a video camera with a weak speech. First of all, I congratulate you for your willingness to practice and I commend you for that. And I especially commend you for practicing on video. Too few people are really willing to make that jump. However, I want to caution you about trying to find the perfect, well written speech. It really doesn't exist. I would highly recommend that you forget about a speech and a perfect speech and a polished speech. Instead, just focus on an idea you have something you know, an area of expertise you have, some insight you have that can help somebody else. It could be a family member, a friend, a colleague, a fellow, it doesn't really matter. And then just talk about it in an interesting way way. Because when it comes to public speaking, it's not just how you say it, it is what you say. So you kind of ruin half your ability to learn if you're just mouthing someone else's words. Now, if you are in middle school and you're doing a Martin Luther King I have a Dream speech contest, by all means, practice that speech. But I do believe for any adult, if you're trying to learn this skill, you need to get into the habit of thinking and talking at the same time, of telling personalized stories, personal examples. They don't have to be funny, they don't have to be amusing or wildly emotional. But the more it's real to you, frankly, the easier it's going to be for you. If you're using another speech, you've either got to memorize it or read it. That's handcuffing you from the beginning. So it's actually much harder to do that. So my recommendation, just think of some set of ideas you have that could help somebody come up with an outline on a single sheet of paper, five bullet points, a word or two to remind you of an example, case study or story. And then talk, practice on video and figure out what you like and what you don't like. And that will be a far better speech than anything you can memorize from ted. And hey, there are a lot of good TED speeches, but the reason they're good is that the people giving those speeches lived those experiences.
You're Not Being Judged on Your Work Yet: What New Hires Are Really Evaluated On
