"Next to height, the most unfair advantage someone can have is the ability to walk into a room without preparation and persuade the audience on just about any subject."
A lot of the people I know who can do this are people that prey on people who either can't think well or are afraid to be assertive. Essentially, think car salesmen.
I don't know any people who can do it for "any subject" without preparation.
With that said:
1. Understand exactly what it is that you are saying, including all the words/phrases you use. As an example, I was going to use "Sword of Damocales" today in writing and then I realized that I don't know ALL the context, so I googled (and also corrected my spelling - Damocles!)
2. Practice speaking - watch your parasite words and phrases. Recording yourself speaking is painful, but useful. If you are average, you also likely have annoying deep speech patterns (tone of voice, pace, etc). Anyone who tells you that you can fix these without a ton of time or a ton of time and a speech pathologist is lying.
In short, practice, do little things, but if you want to be a world-class speaker, you better make it a routine like working out.
I can compensate by memorizing whole speeches when I need to speak in front of hundreds of people, but it's a painful process.
The worst is memorizing half-way - you try to use clever phrasing, then forget something, and it all falls apart.
For context, memorizing a six minute speech (about page and a half) takes me multiple days of 2-4 hour walks and just grinding paragraphs.
I only use this a few times a year if I need to present to the whole company or something. Otherwise I just get a brief outline and wing the wording.
A lot of the people I know who can do this are people that prey on people who either can't think well or are afraid to be assertive. Essentially, think car salesmen.
I don't know any people who can do it for "any subject" without preparation.
With that said:
1. Understand exactly what it is that you are saying, including all the words/phrases you use. As an example, I was going to use "Sword of Damocales" today in writing and then I realized that I don't know ALL the context, so I googled (and also corrected my spelling - Damocles!)
2. Practice speaking - watch your parasite words and phrases. Recording yourself speaking is painful, but useful. If you are average, you also likely have annoying deep speech patterns (tone of voice, pace, etc). Anyone who tells you that you can fix these without a ton of time or a ton of time and a speech pathologist is lying.
In short, practice, do little things, but if you want to be a world-class speaker, you better make it a routine like working out.
I can compensate by memorizing whole speeches when I need to speak in front of hundreds of people, but it's a painful process.
The worst is memorizing half-way - you try to use clever phrasing, then forget something, and it all falls apart.
For context, memorizing a six minute speech (about page and a half) takes me multiple days of 2-4 hour walks and just grinding paragraphs.
I only use this a few times a year if I need to present to the whole company or something. Otherwise I just get a brief outline and wing the wording.