Final Round and Where You Go From Here
Alright. Last one.
We've covered a lot of ground. Talks, meetings, interviews, church stuff. Tonight's just you, giving your final talk to the room, and then me telling you what to do with all this once the class is over.
The final round
Same setup as our full run a few weeks back. You stand up, you give your talk, the room listens. No script in your hand, bullet points only. Know your first line cold.
Here's what's different this time. I want you to pick something that actually matters to you. Not a practice topic. Something you're going to give for real in the next month or two. A talk at church, a toast, a work update, whatever's actually on your calendar. Practice on the real thing tonight so when you give it for real, it's not the first time out of your mouth.
Couple things I'll be listening for when you go up:
- Are you slowing down, or did the nerves creep back in and speed you up
- Are you using the pause instead of apologizing for it
- If you lose your place, do you stop and breathe or do you spiral
- Did you cut the stuff that doesn't earn its spot, or is there still backstory nobody needed
I'll give you feedback same as always. Specific. What to cut, what to slow down on. Not going to just tell you "great job" and send you home, that doesn't help anybody.
A word on gimmicks, one more time
I tried the whole picture-the-audience-in-their-underwear thing years ago. Somebody told me it works wonders, calms you right down. I gave it a shot before a talk and it was the opposite of calming. I'm standing up there trying to focus on my first line and instead I'm thinking about how weird this trick is and losing my place worse than if I'd just left it alone. Never did it again.
I say that because as you go out into real talks after this class, you're going to run into people with advice. Power poses in the bathroom mirror, tricks, breathing patterns with names I can't pronounce. Some of it might work for you. Most of it's noise. What actually works is what we've done for eight weeks: know your material, cut it down, practice it out loud a few times, get your first line cold. That's it, that's the whole trick. Skip the gimmicks and just do the boring reps.
Where you go from here
You're not going to give a talk every week. That's fine. Here's what to actually keep doing:
Keep a running note of your next talk. Whenever you know something's coming up, jot a bullet outline as soon as you know the topic. Don't wait till the night before. Let it sit a few days, come back and cut it.
Practice out loud, not just in your head. Even if it's just once, in your kitchen or your car. Reading it silently doesn't count. Your mouth needs to know the words, not just your brain.
Time yourself once. I've said this before because it bit me hard. I thought a talk was five minutes and it was eleven, because I'd padded it with backstory. If you're not sure how long something runs, run a stopwatch. It's humbling and it's worth it.
Ask somebody to say it back to you. If it's an important talk, tell a spouse or a coworker what you're covering and have them repeat the main point back. If they can't, you buried it.
Go slower than feels natural, every single time. I'll keep saying this one till I die. Nervous people rush. Slowing down is the single biggest fix available to you and it costs nothing.
And when something goes sideways, and it will, own the small stuff instead of pretending. Voice cracks, you say "sorry, rough voice today" and keep going. You lose your place, you stop, breathe, find your next sentence. Nobody in that room is grading you as hard as you're grading yourself. They mostly don't even notice the stuff that feels huge to you.
I've been doing this now for years, coaching my own kids through interviews and presentations, standing up in front of rooms at church, walking new guys through machine setups at the shop. I still get nervous sometimes. I still catch myself wanting to rush. The tools don't make the nerves disappear. They just make the nerves smaller than the job in front of you, and that's enough.
Before next time
There isn't a next time, this is the last one. So instead: put your actual next talk on the calendar this week, even a small one, and use the outline-then-cut method before you write anything else. That's the whole class in one sentence. Go put it to work.