How to Ace an Impromptu Speech?

 

No matter how fluent we are, most of us are terrified by the idea of speaking impromptu on stage or in front of an audience.

Have you ever wondered where does this fear come from? I found out that for most of us, it comes from the fear of being judged.

I don’t want to give you some unrealistic ideas to get over this fear, rather I want to make you question your own beliefs and ponder upon them and figure out if they’re even real or if they're just on your mind.


Until we get to the root cause, it will continue to be a fear for life. If you'd like, you may read my article about how to get over the fear of being judged before we proceed towards understanding how to ace an impromptu speech.

Giving an Impromptu speech can be really intimidating, I totally understand. Before joining toastmasters, it was difficult for me as well to believe that people can actually just walk up to a stage and speak on any topic that’s given to them!

How to deal with a topic you know nothing about?

“What if I’m absolutely clueless about the topic?” I know this is one question that pops up in our head every time. So, without much ado, let me first clear your doubt about how to deal with a topic that’s alien to you before I tell you about how to ace an impromptu speech in general.

All right, if you ever come across a situation where you have a topic that you need to speak upon but you literally have no idea about it, the first step is to take it easy!


Yes, you read that right. Take it easy and make it humorous. Laugh it out. Make a fool of the topic if you don’t want to make a fool of yourself.

Let me narrate my story to help you understand how to deal with such a situation practically. My topic was: “Success has many fathers but failure has none”.

Now, unless you’re a pro speaker it’s tough to make sense of what that could mean. Since it was a public speaking platform, I knew that there will be people in the audience who are also there to speak and who will understand and empathize with me if I’m just very honest with what I’m feeling!

So, I began by repeating the entire phrase slowly. (This gives you some time to accumulate your thoughts and plan out your speech.) Then, I smiled and said “I don’t know what to say because I feel absolutely clueless about the topic” and I laughed to which surprisingly the audience automatically related! Now, this made me feel less paranoid and more at ease.



Then I said, “I’m not sure what exactly it means when we say success has many fathers but failure has none but I will try my best to make sense of it. (I hope you’ve noticed that I repeated the phrase once again). Make sure to repeat it slowly and try to understand it this time.

When you do this, your subconscious mind starts processing it and you will see that you start to recall a story or an incident that you can share or give examples and conclude your speech effectively.

You may like to read: How to be an Effective Communicator?

The beginning and ending of a speech should always be impactful. This small trick has helped me deal with tough topics with ease when it comes to speaking impromptu and I always use this whenever I need to speak on an unknown topic and it has always worked.

Please use the comment section below if you'd like to share any other good ideas or tricks on how to deal with unknown questions on stage. It’ll help the readers to gain more insights into this.

Okay, now that we’ve talked about your greatest fear in impromptu, let us move on to the general approach that you should follow while giving an impromptu speech:

 

Three things that you need to keep in mind before you start your speech:

    1. Visualize the best 



    This is one secret that everyone knows but forgets to apply. I never realized the importance of visualization until I started practicing it myself and from then on I’ve always used it and it has always worked!

    Before we go up on stage, we get all sorts of negative, fearful thoughts. What if I mess up? What if I don’t know about the topic? What is people laugh at me? 

   Instead of letting these thoughts control you, STOP and reverse them. Visualize yourself speaking confidently and fluently, visualize your audience acknowledging and enjoying your speech, visualize yourself concluding in style and visualize the loud applause at the end of the speech!

   Start visualizing from the previous night and continue visualizing a positive outcome until you go up on stage. This will eliminate unwanted thoughts and fears, boost you up and prepare you for your role perfectly.

2.    Control your breath

    We tend to breathe very fast when we’re nervous so controlling your breath will help you manage and ease out your nervousness. Don't forget to take 3 long breaths before you begin :)

3.    Remember to Smile


    Smiling will trick your brain to think that you’re happy and at ease. It will help you process your thoughts clearly as thought clarity and presence of mind is very important in public speaking, especially when it’s impromptu and you have not prepared your speech in advance.

 

Now comes the main part – 'Delivering the speech.' 

We use the OREO approach at toastmasters (a international Non-Profit international Organization that teaches public speaking and leadership) which is a very effective approach to ace an impromptu speech and I’m happy to share it with you today:

 

OREO stands for Opinion, Reasoning, Examples & Opinion (conclusion). 

You can use the OREO approach the next time you have to give an impromptu speech. This will give you a wonderful outline to frame your speech and conclude it properly and within the given time limit. Let us briefly understand each one of them:

 

Opinion: Start your speech by giving your opinion about the topic or the statement. You can talk about what you feel about it.


Reasoning: In the next part, talk about why you feel so. You may give one or two reasons to support your opinion.


Examples: You can use this part to give 2-3 real life examples or situations you faced. Sharing real life examples will help the audience to relate to what you're trying to convey. You can also ask questions to your audience if time permits.


Opinion (Conclusion): Try to sum up and Summarize your speech in the last 2-3 minutes. Conclude your speech by referring to your opinion once again and end it preferably with a quote if you can think of one.

 This will have a lasting impression. It’s okay if you can’t think of a quote. But summarizing and concluding it is always better than ending it abruptly.

The OREO approach is very helpful because it’s easier to speak if you know the outline in advance. If you have the outline in mind, it will be easier for you to start your speech, connect your thoughts and conclude it in a crisp manner.

 

Conclusion

Public Speaking is a journey and not a destination. You will learn something new everyday if you practice regularly. Even the most experienced speakers get butterflies when they have to speak impromptu on stage.

 From my personal experience I’d say Toastmasters is a wonderful platform to start your public speaking journey. There are clubs all over the world and you can join any of the community clubs around your locality. You may visit www.toastmasters.org for more information. 

Face your fears and take action to bring out the best in you. And who knows, in the process you might discover something unusually amazing about you! Wishing you all the very best and I hope this article helps you in some way

If you found it useful, do share it with friends and family. Sharing is caring 😊

If you want to reach out to me or if there are any other tips or stories that you’d like to share with our readers, you are most welcome to drop in your thoughts in the comments below. 

Thank you & have a wonderful day!

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