Most talks are not timed so tightly, and my style is often conversational and tangential. Practicing makes you realize just how much waffle there is in most talks. Practice, time yourself, and start cutting out all the asides and unnecessary stuff. I also found that in saying it aloud, I came up with phrases that worked well. I memorized those, then used them as anchors, or landing pads to touch down on. I didn’t memorize the whole talk—that can sound pretty fake unless you’re an actor—but I did memorize the structure and those few landing pad phrases, and that made the talk tighter and
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