PRE REOLL Question to help you... In your branding. What do you think about this image? Please leave a comment. Now on we go.

My hope is that Day 1 and 2 of the 5 Day Public Speaking Challenge has been helpful. Day 3 is the fun one...At least for me. I love going OFF script. I call it "Going SNL". Saturday Night Live. Why? Because the SNL crew of actors practice and rehearse all week, then they go live. YES LIVE. Think about that. They know the points they want to hit, but they are also ok with improv, feeling the moment, showing emotion when it feels right with the audience and other actors. Its ok to go off script, but there are things you must do to be ready for those moments.

Welcome to day #3 of the public speaking challenge. Did you practice varying your tone and speed yesterday? Be honest. It's only you that you are hurting by not investing in you.

Today we’re going to be talking about how to go off script from your speech. This is important.

Success Factor:

Have you ever seen a public speaker who never took their eyes off their notes?

They seem stiff and wooden, right? As if they’re a robot or something. It’s REALLY painful to watch and you almost feel sorry for them.

This is why it’s so critical to learn to go off script.

How do you do that?

It comes down to memorizing key concepts.

In other words, it’s not enough to have a script in front of you. You need to have the overarching ideas and concepts memorized.

This allows you to speak freely, not reading directly and constantly from your notes. It also allows you to make eye contact with the audience, which is critical.

Those who can go off-script are the most natural and POWERFUL public speakers.

ACTION:

Take the script of the Gettysburg Address and determine what the MAIN points are. Summarize each section. Boil each part down to its very essence.

Write those main concepts down on a blank sheet of paper. ONLY the overarching ideas should be on this paper, not the script itself.

Now practice delivering the Gettysburg Address ONLY from the big ideas in front of you. No cheating by looking at the script!

You need to be comfortable speaking off the cuff, without a word-for-word manuscript to guide you.

This will probably feel uncomfortable at first. You’ll probably stumble around for a while. That’s totally okay. Everyone feels that way.

Go through the speech several times until you feel relatively comfortable. You should be able to speak without unnatural breaks or stumbles.

Tomorrow we’re going to be talking about the power of eliminating garbage and filler words.

Until then, please share how this went for you. How’d you do? Write it in the comments below!