A Motivational Speaker Explains How To Rehearse Like A Pro

As a motivational health-care speaker, I’m a big fan of motivational quotes. Here’s one (that is sometimes attributed to Warren Buffett): “Practice makes permanent, not perfect.”

Fact is only proper practice makes perfect. Here are a few simple techniques that will save you a huge amount of your valuable time when you rehearse a speech (or any other kind of formal presentation).

A Motivational Speaker’s Five Top Tips

Tip 1: Begin rehearsing early. If you leave it too late to start, you’re in the worst situation of all. You’ll have lost the freshness of the extemporaneous speaker without developing the fluid delivery of the polished presenter. And, as you reach back into the depths of your memory to recall your material, you’ll falter over your lines.

Tip 2: (I learned this next tip from a Motivational Speaker in Texas.) Time how long it takes to read your first page of material. To be clear, I’m not suggesting you present it as if you’re actually in front of an audience, simply read it and time yourself.

This easy exercise will give you a clear sense of how many pages of material you’ll need to fill the time you’ve been given to speak. For example, if you find it takes you four minutes and you’re speaking for 40 minutes then, clearly, 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 rehearsing 25 pages of material only to find (often on the day) that you can only get through the first few pages of the content you’ve prepared. This is both a huge waste of effort and makes you look like an amateur.

What’s more, in their frustration, some corporate speakers who’ve made this mistake try to squeeze all their content into the time allotted by speaking really fast. This obviously compounds the problem.

Tip 3: Don’t memorize your content word-for-word like a script. Working off a script in this way and making it sound fluent takes weeks of effort. (And that’s for someone who knows how to write a script in the first place.)

Neither should you simply read your content directly off the page because this approach prevents you from making eye contact with the audience (and, that too is critical).

Here’s the solution? The commonest time for a keynote speaker, salesperson or industry educator to mentally lose their place in a speech occurs as he or she transitions between one subtopic and the next. Therefore, I would advise you to memorize the order of your content blocks, but not the actual content within each one.

Then, for each subtopic, memorize a few key words to keep you on track.

Tip 4: Videotape yourself. Have you ever watched yourself on video? Most people cringe when they watch themselves in this way. So, if you’re like most people, don’t expect to enjoy it. That said, it’s a vital step. Listen for verbal tics (eh, em and repeated phrases: “like I said,” etc). Also pay attention to repetitive, unproductive gestures such as hand-washing and fiddling with the projector remote.

Tip 5: Remember to do a technical rehearsal. (According to a Texas motivational speaker expert, this tip always distinguishes the professionals.) For example, don’t forget to practice with the same type of microphone that you’ll be using on the day…You do know what kind of microphone you’ll be using, right? The same holds true for the other technical aspects of your presentation, such as your computer and projector remote.

Finally, if you practice your material adequately, on the day you’ll be free to focus on the most important thing, selling your message to the audience. People will simply assume you’re a professional speaker. Good luck.