The Secret to Speaking Off the Cuff

This is the moment you've been waiting for.

You've spent weeks preparing for this pitch presentation for a prospective client. This is the first time you have been given this opportunity by your boss and you can finally show him what you've got.

30 minutes before the pitch presentation and you do a final check. Pitch deck - check. Clicker - check. You look through your script one last time and you are good to go!

You deliver the pitch smoothly with power and conviction. That's it! Final touchdown!

Then the client asks an unexpected question.

"What? Oh no, I didn't plan for this to happen!" Exactly. You didn't plan.

We spend most of our time perfecting our planned speeches and presentations. But 90% of our required communication is unplanned and impromptu.

It could be introducing or edifying someone at a networking event, giving constructive feedback to a colleague, or do an elevator pitch because you actually bumped into a client in an elevator.

If thats's the case, why aren't we spending more time preparing ourselves to excel at impromptu conversations?

Here's the thing - we are actually experts at improvisation. When you wake up, you automatically go and brush your teeth. You open the fridge and decide you want strawberry jam on your bread. You open your wardrobe and decide you will pair your striped tie with a sky blue button-up. You don't have to plan this 24 hours in advance, you do it spontaneously!

But all those things are trivial in nature. Choosing the wrong jam to go on your bread will not produce serious consequences. When it comes to work and business, that's when the pressure is on. And because we don't want to 'screw up', we end up planning and over-planning ourselves to failure.

The best way to go blank when asked to speak off the cuff, is to over-plan and overthink.

So what can we do to be experts of speaking off the cuff?

1. Master Your Material

When you know your material inside out, you cut out a huge chunk of the worry. The best presenters are the ones who prepare way in advance, and practice as often as they need to. This does not mean you memorise. You have to actually understand the information you are going to present, and know how to explain it in your own words.

2. Be Comfortable Being Uncomfortable

You can't have all the answers, and that's perfectly okay! Have the trust in yourself that you know enough to deliver a good presentation - otherwise, you wouldn't be given this opportunity in the first place! You were given this opportunity because your boss or client see the value you can provide, so believe you've got it in you to do a good job.

3. See Questions as Opportunities

Impromptu questions are usually asked by the most engaged audience, so see it as a good thing. When those questions come in, ask yourself "What answer do I really want to answer?" instead of "What is the correct answer?"

And last but most importantly...

Put yourself in challenging situations in which you have to speak off the cuff!

Practice makes perfect, so the more often you are 'forced' to speak off the cuff, the better you get at it. Start by asking your friends out for coffee! Have genuine conversations with them and speak from your heart, not from your head.

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I've gained a lot of insights from this podcast: Do check them out! https://open.spotify.com/episode/0r5eLIrMso6vbsvXtaRpa2?si=EwLcnvweTi-BIf_I-9G9ZQ