- You're going to learn a method
of public speaking that gives professional speakers
that comfortable conversational sound.
It's called extemporaneous speaking
which is a misunderstood word.
The key reason to use extemporaneous speaking is
that it gives you the most versatility
and it's a flexible approach
and it's the one that most listeners prefer.
There are other speaking styles that audiences
do not tend to enjoy that many speakers often use
when they should not, so let's look
at some options to put extemporaneous speaking in context.
For example, most audiences don't wanna listen
to speakers who are reading word
for word directly from a manuscript.
This is called manuscript speaking
and it usually sounds dry and robotic.
The speaker barely makes eye contact
and stands motionless at a podium as they read.
It can be done well
but some speakers can read a teleprompter, for example
and you can't even tell they're reading.
They sound natural, but that takes talent, practice.
Those are typically professional politicians
or TV personalities who do this for a living
and they have speech writers who write like they talk
but when the average speaker reads right from their notes
and looks down, most of the time listeners don't like that.
You might remember what it sounds like
when a student is reading their paper assignment
in front of the class.
That's what most speakers sound like
when they use the manuscript style of speaking.
If you wanna lose your audience, as I say,
this is a great approach, but it is a useful point
of comparison for a video like this.
Another style that listeners tend not
to enjoy is memorization.
A memorized speech means
that the speaker memorizes literally every word,
that can sound just as mechanical as reading.
You can even hear that the speaker uses a deliberate
or calculated intonation
and even uses maybe the same exact gestures
that they practiced
but total memorization does have some uses,
for example, actors memorize dialogue.
Performance artists might memorize a poem
or a portion of a poem, but memorization is really difficult
and it has almost no payoff
for your average professional presentation.
The method I'm recommending is extemporaneous speaking.
This works best
for almost all public speaking in professional settings.
Big picture, this usually involves a detailed outline
at least at first, not a word for word manuscript,
and you would practice your presentation
numerous times beforehand.
You would eventually reduce those detailed outlines
to what we call speaking notes, just keywords or phrases
only about three to five words per line.
Your speaking notes would end up looking
like a bulleted list of items you planned to talk about.
You put those on a note card
or a small pad of paper and you just refer
to them when you need to during the speech.
That's big picture.
Now, there are some advantages to this approach, lots.
Through that preparation process,
the speaker gets to know his
or her stuff well enough to speak conversationally
without relying on their notes.
Extemporaneous speaking allows you to adapt your message
to your listeners as you go.
You can expand some illustrations if you need to.
You can compress
or cut other parts depending upon the situation.
If you prepared a 30 minute presentation
and you end up being told you only have 25 minutes to do it,
an extemporaneous approach allows you
to cut that five minutes or even more
and nobody's gonna know the difference.
At it's best, extemporaneous speaking sounds
like a structured conversation.
You have maximum flexibility like this
'cause you're totally prepared.
You can't do those things with a manuscript
or a fully memorized speech.
For extemporaneous speaking,
your notes are there mostly to keep you on track.
They're like a safety net
in case you lose your place or draw a blank.
Ideally, you might just glance down
at your notes every 30 or 60 seconds as a reminder
but you have notes and that still allows for some specifics.
Of course, like I always write
out my most important direct quotations word for word
so I don't misquote somebody important.
I write out important names or exact statistics
but overall I don't need to frame those isolated specifics
in a larger word for word style outline.
I'll show you an example
of how to prepare your notes and practice this
in a moment, but first I wanted
to clarify a very common misunderstanding
that I referred to earlier.
Sometimes people refer to this extemporaneous style
as speaking impromptu.
In everyday conversation,
I've heard people interchange these words often
but that's not accurate
when it comes to specific styles of public speaking.
Impromptu speaking and extemporaneous speaking
are two different styles, and this is not my opinion.
In speaking competitions in college, for example,
these are two different categories.
I used to judge and coach speaking competitions
when I was in graduate school.
Impromptu means speaking in the spur of the moment,
what some people call "Off the cuff," or "On the fly."
Impromptu speaking involves little or no time
to prepare beforehand and it's usually done with no notes
or maybe just a couple of scribbles on a scrap of paper.
You might have just seconds to gather your thoughts.
In speaking competitions for example,
impromptu speakers might be given a topic or quotation
to react to and they have two minutes
to prepare a five to seven minute speech, for example.
In a professional setting, your boss might say
to you unexpectedly in a meeting, "Julie, tell us
how your high priority projects are going,"
and Julie has just a few seconds to think about what to say.
In essence, she'll be thinking as she's speaking,
that's impromptu or maybe she'll have the benefit
of a couple of minutes to prepare because her boss says,
"In a couple of minutes, I'd like to hear
from you all about your high priority projects."
That gives Julie a minute or so right there in the room
to jot down a few bullet points
but she still has no time to practice
or gather materials or anything that compares
to an extemporaneous speech approach.
Now they do have a couple of things in common.
Ideally, both impromptu
and extemporaneous speaking sounds conversational,
that's why they're sometimes confused and neither
of them in the end involve extensive speaking notes.
The key difference is
that extemporaneous presentations have the benefit
of lots of time
for behind the scenes research, preparation, and practice.
Let's get even more hands-on
and I'll show you how to adjust your notes
as you prepare and practice
in the days leading up to an extemporaneous presentation.
There are essentially two ways to end up
with very basic speaking notes
with just keywords or phrases.
I don't recommend the first approach
but some speakers I know insist
that they have to do it this way
as part of their creative process.
The first approach is to start
with a full word for word draft of your entire message.
Essentially, this is
like a really rough draft of a manuscript speech.
Some speakers like to go through this
because they want to get all
of their ideas on paper just
to figure out what it is they really wanna say.
They know they're not gonna read these notes
when they present, the draft is just part of the process.
From there, they revise their notes
by shaping them into a detailed outline that's structured
around an introduction, body, conclusion,
the body of the presentation then usually has just three
or four main points.
This draft outline will be almost as long
as their original rough draft manuscript
but the structure will be more clarified
but I don't recommend starting with a full word
for word manuscript because it's too easy to lead
to a speaker wanting to just read a cleaned up version
of these notes, like they're reading a paper.
I recommend the second method
which is essentially skipping that word for word rough draft
and begin with that extremely detailed outline
of the entire message.
This outline usually has lots of full sentences at first.
This type of outline is superior
to what you would've come up with in a word for word draft
of a message because it's usually stuffed with all
of the quotations, research, citations.
The first outline is usually much more detailed
and longer than your final presentation will be
because you're not cutting anything just yet at this stage.
I always view my first detailed outline
as an organized curated database
of material I can use as a jumping off place.
I give myself permission to put anything
and everything I want in my first outline.
Now, let's say you're at the point
where you have that first big outline researched
and prepared and you're ready
to practice and read through it.
Let's call this day one.
We'll pretend we are three days away
from your actual presentation.
On day one,
I'm not really concerned about how it sounds
as a speech or a presentation yet.
It won't sound smooth.
I just talk through the outline to myself.
I just mutter through it a few times to make sure all
of the big pieces are in the right place
and everything I'd potentially like to include is there.
I read through it a few times like this.
I cut and revise as I go
and then I put it aside and sleep on it.
On day two, the next day, I would make the first big cut,
so start cutting the pieces that you can already tell
don't work or don't need to be there.
This will make the message clearer and easier to follow.
You keep the best off
and toss anything that's not working well.
You cut extra words that you don't need.
That means you'd be rewriting your notes
and cleaning them up by cutting about 50%
from your original outline.
Each full page of notes now becomes about a half page
of notes with more space
and your sentences are getting shorter and then you talk
through it a few more times and you edit
as you go on day two.
You're not trying to say anything perfectly
or memorize exactly how you'd say it as you practice,
don't try to repeat sentences the same way each time
as you talk through it,
keep it conversational as you practice.
You're just learning how to talk
about the ideas and becoming more fluent
with the specifics of the information.
This is the process
of internalizing the material so you know your stuff.
I usually make small changes deliberately
each time I tell a story or share an example
so I'm not tempted to memorize exact sentences.
As long as I hit the key ideas along the way,
I consider that a victory.
I usually time myself on day two to make sure
that I'm at least in the general ballpark
of what the time limit is.
If I'm over time, I look for ways to simplify,
find ways to compress what I'm saying.
As much as you can,
you look up from your notes as you practice,
stretch yourself to recall what comes next
instead of looking down every chance you get.
I practice a few times like this on day two
and then I put it aside and sleep on it again.
On day three, this is the day before the presentation,
you repeat the process.
This is your second big cut where you cut another 50%
of the words from your outline.
This second cut might involve cutting examples
and illustrations from the notes if you're still over time
but will more likely mean you're cutting down
from full sentences in your notes so they are getting closer
and closer to phrases or even single key words.
Your original full page of notes is now just about a quarter
of a page of line spaces and in terms of words,
is really just a skeleton outline.
It should look like a bulleted list
of items you'll talk about
but the actual content hasn't disappeared.
You've just absorbed it to the point where one bullet
of notes will keep you talking for 30 seconds or more
because you know the rest of the story.
A goal at this point is to have one nicely spaced note card
for about every minute you'd like to speak.
So a 10 minute presentation would have just 10 note cards
with keywords only.
You'd again talk through your outline a few more times
on day three, you'd end up making small edits
and revisions each time to your notes.
This is the day before the actual presentation.
It's like a dress rehearsal, so I stand up as I practice,
I gesture as I talk, take it comfortably.
I pretend I'm talking to an audience essentially.
I recommend timing yourself
each time you practice the day before, so you sound concise.
Make every effort not to look at your notes.
You have to fight that urge
and this should be getting easier.
Many speakers look at their notes out of a nervous habit
by this point, not because they really need to look down.
So practice with your eyes up
and if you truly forget what you're gonna say next,
just glance at your notes
and look right back up and pretend to make eye contact.
I practice it about three times like this on the day before
and then I put it aside and sleep on it.
The next day is speech day.
Here we are and I always make one last cut
to my notes.
The morning of a presentation,
I wake up early, I rewrite my notes
on cards one last time to make sure they're clean
and clear and easy to see when I glance down.
I make even more cuts to words and phrases.
A story that used to be a long paragraph
on a full page now can show up on the notes just
as a key phrase or even a single word.
On the morning of,
I always practice my introduction and conclusion
a few extra times to make sure I go through that.
Also any tricky parts I go through one more time.
In total, these three days of practice usually means
that you'll mutter through
or actually practice your presentation about 10 times,
let's say three times each day, and then one extra rep
through the tricky parts the morning of the speech.
This is usually what it takes to get that confident,
conversational sound that professional speakers have.
This may sound like a lot of work
but the good news is this, if you prepare like this,
you'll be automatically in
about the top 5% of speakers in your context.
Most speakers practice just one or maybe two times.
All of your behind the scenes efforts
will make your presentation sound effortless on the day.
As mentioned, you can use the extemporaneous style
in almost any and all professional situations.
That's not true
for manuscript, memorized, or impromptu speaking.
Feel free to take a look at the free resources
on my website, including these seven tips
to instantly make you a more confident speaker.
Thanks, God bless, see you soon.