Recently I have received many questions from my speaking students regarding rehearsal. They say, “Craig, how do you rehearse? It seems like you really feed off the audience but you must rehearse, right?”
The answer is yes. I rehearse. In fact, the main reason why I rehearse is so I can feed off my audience while still staying on track with my message.
So instead of just explaining what I do to rehearse, I came up with another idea. I figured, “Why don’t I simply invite you to a behind-the-scenes peak at my rehearsal?”
Welcome to My Rehearsal
So here’s what I did. Five years ago I had a speech scheduled for Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and I decided to record my rehearsal. Instead of sharing the entire rehearsal with you, I’m only going to share two quick 90-second segments. So here’s the layout of this post:
- First you’ll hear a quick 90-second rehearsal of a piece of one of my stories
- Then you’ll hear that same 90-second clip of me live in South Dakota doing that same part of the story
- Then you’ll hear another 90-second rehearsal clip of another piece of that same story
- Finally you’ll hear another 90-second clip of me live in South Dakota doing that same part of the story
When you listen to the clips, you’ll undoubtedly hear some differences. However, the message will be the same and the differences you hear will be me reacting and responding and feeding off of my audience. Click the play buttons below to hear the clips. Afterwards you’ll see 5 Guidelines you should consider following when it comes to rehearsing your speech.
Rehearsal piece #1
Live piece #1
Rehearsal piece #2
Live piece #2
Ritual #1: Do not look into a mirror. Why? Because your speech is not about you. You wouldn’t look into a mirror when you’re actually speaking to your audience, would you? Then you shouldn’t do it during rehearsal. Rehearsal should mimic the actual performance, so make it as similar as possible. If you want to see what you look like, then record yourself on video and watch it once you finish.
Ritual #2: Imagine your audience is in front of you. It’s not enough to just practice knowing your words. It’s important to really see your future audience members. What are they doing? How are they reacting? How will you respond to their reactions? Who are you looking at and when? Where are you moving and when? This is what I call speaking your way into speaking. Believe it or not, some speakers think rehearsal is sitting down and memorizing your speech. My belief is that you should not sit down and memorize; you should stand up and internalize. You do that by rehearsing as if your audience is really there.
Ritual #3: Do at least one mental rehearsal. This, more than any other ritual, has been the most effective and meaningful to me. Here’s what I do. I close my eyes and go through the entire presentation in my mind. I see my audience and feel them around me. I mouth the words and make it as realistic as possible. This process is so powerful for one major reason: Once you arrive on stage, you’ll feel like you’re at home. Why? Because you’ve been there before.
Ritual #4: Don’t look for perfection; look for connection. If you stumble over words or do something that’s not 100% correct, don’t worry about it. It’s not about perfection, it’s about connection. Just keep moving on. Chances are you’re the only one who will notice anyway. Plus, perfection is boring. This guideline goes for the rehearsal and for the real speech.
Ritual #5: Exaggerate whatever needs work. For example, if you don’t pause long enough after making important statements, then really exaggerate the extended pause in rehearsal. Or if you constantly speak at the same energy level (or pace or volume, etc.), exaggerate your contrasts. If you exaggerate it in rehearsal, even though the adrenaline of the live performance has the tendency to make you revert to your old ways, you’ll be sufficiently stretched enough to fix the flaw.
Your Turn
What is one of your rehearsal rituals? I’m very interested to see the different ways people rehearse…IF they rehearse.
Final thoughts on Rehearsing for Remarkable Results
I have no doubt that you heard some differences between my rehearsal sessions and my live speech. They probably included a different energy, pace, and even slightly different content. This is because nothing can replace the live speech. However, you should try as hard as you can to make your rehearsal sessions as similar as possible to your live speech. That means pretend you really are with your audience. That way, once they do finally show up, they won’t have to pretend they’re really are with you.
Hey Craig,
Great tips! One thing that I do is turn up the television or stereo while I practice my speech. If I can deliver my speech with all that noise in the background, it prepares me to deal with distractions when I give my speech live.
Travis, that’s a great idea! I hadn’t thought about that. Now, if you can turn the to a cooking channel or something with forks, spoons, and knives constantly banging against plates, then that can prepare you for a lunchtime keynote! Seriously, thanks for the fantastic advice.
my tip for rehearsing: i call the venue in advance and find out the orientation (north, south, east, west) of the podium. if i’m going to be facing west during the talk, i rehearse it facing west. this might sound new-age-y, but it really makes a difference. if i rehearse facing the opposite way, then when i get to the venue i feel all turned around inside. if i rehearse with the same orientation i’m going to use at the venue, there’s a visceral sense that “i’ve been here before!”which makes the talk flow more easily and feel more familiar.
I follow all your suggestions and the audiences are always surprised, and then thrilled and excited. i love that feeling when the whole audience takes a breath in at the same time or the laugh lines build – and they come back for more and they request me at the conferences.
i recommend your program to anyone who asks. i learned about you from my good friend who’s been in toastmasters for years.
thank you, you have helped me so much. God bless you. J.J
Thank you Janice for your rehearsal process. I love the point about calling the venue in advance. It’s very important to understand the environment in which you will speak. Thanks!
Thank you so much for those tips, Craig. I was particularly interested in Ritual #1. Here’s what I do:
* Stage 1: Rehearse paragraph by paragraph (or idea by idea) as if I was in front of the audience. Continue until I roughly know the entire presentation.
* Stage 2: Rehearse the entire presentation as if I was in front of the audience.
* Stage 3: Present in front of the mirror to identify and correct any annoying or incongruous movements.
* Stage 4: Present the presentation with the imaginary audience in front of me, looking and doing as if I was on stage.
It is interesting that you say avoid looking in the mirror. I agree that if this is the only rehearsal, it would be counter-productive, but I find that as a step in the entire process, it is useful to me because I have used the method to correct some annoying habits. I also review videos if they are available but I find that the mirror method gives me immediate feedback.
I really did like Ritual #4. I have always strived for perfection in rehearsal but I can see exactly where you are coming from. If I do make a mistake on stage, however, I keep on going as if nothing untoward happened – unless the mistake was leaving out vital information.
I really appreciate your weekly tips.
Thank you Steve for your process. What I like is that it’s the opposite of “winging it.” Too many speakers wing it and that’s not going to be effective. I also like that you start with paper but then you leave that as you continue to rehearse. Thanks for this helpful process.
Thanks for sharing the pairs of recordings for comparison, Craig, and your process.
To me, it was surprising how little variation there was between your recorded rehearsal and the live event. Nice!
I really value the explanation about why not to practise in front of a mirror, too. That makes total sense, yet I’ve never heard it explained like that before.
Thanks Craig. I find that, when I visualize my audience during my rehearsal, I tend to deliver it in rehearsal pretty much the same way I do in front of my audience.
P.S. I evaluated a TEDx talk on body language, and would immensely value your thoughts, if you’d like to share them, and have a moment some time:
https://bitly.com/1Cf9g4E
Thanks Craig! This is great content, as always.
One ritual I would add is to actually practice in front of someone. Other people have a way of picking up on the little idiosyncrasies that we tend to overlook as speakers. Thankfully my wife and I are in Toastmasters together so we can give each other very detailed feedback on our speech rehearsals, but any external feedback (from someone you trust) will be better than none. And of course, if you have a speech to give to the public, Toastmasters is the perfect place to rehearse!
Paul, that’s great advice. Thank you! The only way to find if something works is to test it out. Then you can test it and tweak it. Thanks again.
Thank you Craig!
You are not only a gold mine of ideas but you have a way of explaining things that remains with your audience/readers. And, we appreciate that…
We are grateful for the tips!
I practice old fashion way!!…For me, writing my speech first roughly and then taking time to write it nicely before I begin my actual practice, helps me remember the points easily. I mentally visualize the three parts (Beginning, Body and Conclusion) and where it fell on that paper! The process of writing it out helps me not to internalize it but, also to think-through each sentence thoroughly. Then, I do a mental internalization of the entire speech with eyes closed, like your tip # 3 and finally I do verbal practice. I have never tried the video, but seem like a good idea and highly recommended. Perhaps next time!
Regards,
Thank you Sue. That looks like a very effective sequence of rehearsal that you go through. Thanks for sharing!
Craig, I fairly new to public speaking on the level your at. However, I was involved in sales in the real estate and mortgage business. I have joined toastmasters to enhance my speaking skill set. My question to you is? Should one use note cards when giving a speech at the toastmasters level?
Thank you Craig for your weekly inspirations!
Recently I recorded a practice session. We are our worst critic! I found myself rocking back and forth, hands flying aimlessly and leaning against a wall with my hands in my pocket. However, in the “real” presentation which I also recorded all those “faux pas” gestures were eliminated!
Craig you are amazing!
Hi Craig,
thank you for your great tips and insights. I really liked the recordings. You only mentioned briefly that it is better to record yourself on video than to speak into a mirror. Could you elaborate on how you use video? Do you fine tune all gestures and facial expressions based on video?
Take care,
Jarno