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.