Article Preview: Stress Test Your Speaking Skills
Last year I got the opportunity to write an article for Toastmaster Magazine. I put my heart and soul into writing a funny and helpful article that related my experiences in Army Special Operations training to the pressure of preparing a professional presentation on short notice. I learned one thing: if you’re fortunate enough to have an article featured in a publication with over 270,000 subscribers, someone is bound to read it! Even though the article ran in April, 2011, I recently received an email from a Toastmasters Club member in the UK saying how he’d like to organize a “stress test” speaking event, like I wrote about in the article.
As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve had a blast in my pursuit to become a competent public speaker. However, if I hadn’t practiced, I wouldn’t have been nearly as effective under pressure. That’s why I’ve invested in programs like Toastmasters and Dale Carnegie.
If you’d like to learn how to stress test your speaking skills, you can take a look at the full article here.
As fun as the article was to write, I left out one crucial point. Any guesses what it is?
Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader. Receive his ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website or follow him on Twitter.
5 thoughts on “Article Preview: Stress Test Your Speaking Skills”
Great article Nathan. Timely for me, I need to give a presentation tonight to a group of 20+ church attenders about stewardship. Imagine giving a speech and then asking people to pledge their hard earned money.
Thanks for your article….my outline is ready, now I just need to make it personal…
John
John, you just hit on the one crucial point I left out – to end with a clear call to action. Good luck with your speech!
Hmm…my guess would be to consider your conclusion ahead of time, so that you make sure to end on a high note. Am I right? 🙂
Yep! Make sure to end with a clear call to action
Interesting, heading over to read about the “stress test.”
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