One of the things that Nick Morgan and his fabulous book (Working The Room) taught me was to rehearse for every speech that I ever give. In my case, this is really important because I have a unique audience almost every day that calls for customization on my part.
If you give your speech either the day before or day of your scheduled time, when you give it to your audience, you have more of your brain free to work the room and connect with your audience. Think about how a band prepares: they write songs, rehearse them daily and give great concerts. Too many times, speakers think that they have it all in their head. Then they go out and fumble, stumble and ignore their audience because they need all their bandwidth to recall their remarks. Or, God forbid, they use power point slides and bullet points as a crutch to remember their speech.
Recommended: Next time you have a presentation, give it into a mirror three hours before your actual speak time. Do it all the way through. If you have a recorder, listen to it on playback. By doing this, you’ll free your brain to read people’s reaction and you just may move them to action!
