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The structure of a story is introduction of the conflict, escalation of the conflict, and the resolution.
Your goal is to try to adhere to 3 fundamentals of the perfect story. Keep them in mind before you go on stage and you will notice how engaging your stories become for the listeners. Your audience members will think, “Wow! It is pure magic how this speaker can craft such outstanding stories after only 30 seconds of preparation.” You, however, will know that this magic consists of 3 words: details, dialogue and conflict.
“Story-story,” “nouns from the bag” and “complete a story” are excellent games that will polish your skill of telling stories
A good speech always has a message and a definitive point of view.
Once your listeners feel that you are not genuine, they will stop trusting you and your speech will be over for them.
People will forgive anything on stage except insincerity.
You can’t be genuine without perceiving your audience members as your best friends, without having fun speaking impromptu, and without intending to give value.
“I will have fun from speaking impromptu and will enjoy every second of being on stage. People in the audience are the best people in my life. They are as important to me as my family or best friend. The only reason I am on stage is to give value and change the lives of my audience members for the better.”
If you are passionate about your topic, your energy is contagious and very soon everyone in the audience will be excited.
be excited about it and speak with energy and passion. When the energy of excitement spreads throughout the room it’s magic and you are the wizard.
the audience also judges your speech based on what you do on stage while you are thinking or speaking.
Just like in a prepared speech, all your gestures should be broad and open. You should always look directly into the eyes of one of the audience members and of course avoid all kinds of nervous gestures.
Every time you get out of your comfort zone you feel fear, but it is also the time you grow the most.
To reduce fear of impromptu speaking, just make it familiar to you and it will become a part of your comfort zone.
The structure of the joke Any joke consists of two parts: a setup and a punch line. A setup is the background information that the audience needs to know for a humorous line to be funny. The punch line is a humorous line that makes the audience laugh. The setup is where the pattern is established and everything goes in the same direction. The punch line is where a train of thought is derailed from a pattern and people laugh.
There is a magical source of humor that can give your speeches an endless amount of funny moments if you know about it. Dialogue and exaggerations are this magical source.”
When you speak impromptu, in the majority of cases, people laugh either when you say a dialogue line of the character in your story, or when you show an exaggerated reaction of another character to this line.
To apologize in our everyday life is a sign of politeness, but you need to forget about the word “sorry” when you speak impromptu.
When you speak impromptu, your vocabulary should be at a level that a 12-year-old kid could understand.
The first level is basic but the most fundamental one. At this level, your only goal is to speak about anything for 2 minutes. Don’t worry about whether what you say makes sense. Don’t worry about structure or delivery. The only goal is to fill 2 minutes with speaking.
Those Infernal Morning Pages
From a high-level perspective, your speech should have an introduction, body and conclusion. At this level you need to be able to use the frameworks easily for structuring your response. In addition, your speech should support a particular point of view and what you speak about should be clear to the audience.
On level 3 you should work on gestures, pauses, eye contact, vocal variety and other delivery techniques.
If you participate in an impromptu speaking competition, all of the contestants are good speakers, but level 4 is what differentiates a winner from the rest.
You need to avoid giving predictable answers and give your speech a slant (unexpected twist).
It’s true that very few speakers are at level 4, but it is not difficult at all to get to this level.
Be creative, avoid predictable directions and your speeches will be remembered for years.
Don’t answer a question you don’t understand.
If you speak impromptu in front of a large audience, once you hear a question rephrase and repeat it. By doing so you let everybody hear the question and acknowledge that you understood it.
At the end of your answer you also can ask, “Does that answer your question?”
Make your speech as personal as possible to connect with the audience and to make it world class.
Personal answers are remembered for years and sometimes have the power of changing lives.
Visualization techniques also work amazingly well in impromptu speaking. Before coming on stage, visualize yourself giving an outstanding impromptu speech. Clearly imagine the smiles and applause of the audience. Imagine how great it will feel when you succeed. Your thoughts will send the signal to your subconscious and it will make your imagined scene a reality.
You need to live an interesting life to be an interesting impromptu speaker and an interesting person to talk to.
The level of conscious competence is very dangerous. If you leave your skill at this level, with time you will forget all the knowledge you acquired and may stay at the same level
To grow very fast in impromptu speaking you need more practice.
1. Use the rule of the first thought. 2. Add an unusual slant to the answer. 3. Be genuine. 4. Be energetic. 5. Tell details. 6. My audience members are the best people in my life and my goal is to change their lives for the better. 7. Impromptu speaking is a game. I will have fun on stage.
“Warren was right. I don’t want a trip around the world on a yacht. Everything I wanted badly enough in my life I already have.”
Sometimes I woke up to write down the solution to a problem that came to me in a dream.
success can be replicated and the process of achieving it in any area is the same.
When I want something really badly I rely on the process that I came to at the age of 12: “I start working on achieving my dream and don’t stop until it comes true and it doesn’t matter how long it takes.”
