Nick Morgan, Public Words

How did the speech go?

I gave the speech this morning in a conference room holding about 60 people in that banquet-round-table style beloved of conference organizers.  The round tables make it hard to work the audience properly, but everyone loves a challenge, right?  So I stood in the middle of the long side and that way was able to see and be seen reasonably well by most people.  The arrangement made for a lot of weaving in and out of tables, but there you are. 

Lesson:  always ask up front about the room layout and negotiate a good one if you can. 

The event ran late, and my own start time was delayed 25 minutes.  I had to give a little time back on the fly, which is always annoying and challenging.  In the end, we compromised and they let me run a little long.  The overall event ended on time, something I believe to be essential.  No one ever wanted a meeting to run longer than scheduled, and no one ever complained when one ended early. 

Lesson:  be clear about your time requirements and their time constraints. 

How did it go?  I had fun, especially because I went to the audience from the very start, interacting with them, giving out prizes for participation, running a contest, and generally carrying on.  I like to make audiences 'work' and they like it too.  It beats passivity and boredom. 

Lesson:  the more audience interaction the better. 

In the end, I had the audience divided up, telling stories (the speech was about authentic storytelling) and competing for the best story.  It was a nice group, and they wanted to declare everyone a winner, so we did, with one participant a little more of a winner than everyone else. 

Lesson:  everyone's a winner if everyone participates. 

Overall, it went fine.  I could have done with more rehearsal.  I've been spoiled by giving the same speech, or similar speeches, many times.  I've forgotten how hard it is to give a speech for the first time. 

Lesson:  rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. 

I'm Giving a Speech Tomorrow

I'm in the unusual position of having to take my own advice -- I'm giving a new speech tomorrow.  I usually talk on individual communications, but this time the topic is communicating brands.  That's a subject I've worked on with companies over the years, but I don't usually lecture on the subject.

I rehearsed on Friday, and it did not go very well.  I realized that I need to take my own advice, and quickly.  So here are my three most essential rules for fixing a speech and getting it ready to go, when you're facing a deadline.

First, focus on one message and one message only.  I realized during rehearsal that I was trying to do too many things.  I need to whittle the speech down to one clear message:  Why each employee must become a passionate storyteller on behalf of the company brand in today's marketplace.  I'm going back to the draft to eliminate everything that doesn't support that one point.  Focus is essential for successful public speaking. 

Second, find a good hook that frames the message of the speech so that your audience is intrigued and brought into the discussion.  I've been trying out several openings, one a story, one a question, and a few others.  I've got to pick the one that best answers the question, why are we here?, for the audience. 

Third, deliver the speech in the problem-solution format.  The rehearsal made clear that I was trying to be too clever with my structure.  The only one that makes sense, when you're trying to persuade the audience of something, is problem-solution.  That's because our minds are structured to solve problems, and when we hear one presented to us, we automatically begin to think about how to solve it.  The structure follows our natural thinking processes, so we're happy. 

So I've got some work to do, to repair the speech, simplify it, and focus it on the audience.  Then, I'll be ready for another rehearsal.  The deadline approaches!

Rehearsal 8 -- Conclusion

OK, I've given you lots of ways to rehearse.  You won't do all of them, unless you really want to be good and you have the time, but you should at least rehearse several times before a big presentation.  The alternative, winging it, is never as good as you think it is.  And your audience won't tell you the truth. 

Unfortunately, what happens is that the speaker who wings it gets pumped full of adrenaline, comes charging off the stage and asks the first person he sees, 'how was it,' with a big smile on his face.  Only a churl would reply with, 'well, it was disorganized, there were lots of minor screw-ups, and you kept making the same points over and over again'.  Most people say, 'it was great!' and the speaker think to himself, 'That's all right then; next time I'll do it the same way.  Obviously I'm too cool to rehearse'. 

In that way bad public speaking is perpetuated. 

Now, don't get me wrong.  There are times when off the cuff remarks are fine -- indeed, preferred.  It depends on the formality of the occasion.  The less formal, the more off-the-cuff is OK. 

I've often heard it said that, for most men, the first time they have to give a speech is when they're called upon to give the toast as the best man at a friend's wedding.  I don't know if that's factually true or not, but it certainly calls up a host of memories of bad best man speeches.  That's a formal occasion, last time I checked, and deserves a little preparation.

Informal occasions where you might wing it are regular meetings where you don't have a prominent spot on the agenda.  That sort of thing.  Where the stakes are low.  Where it would look odd to have prepared remarks.   

Ultimately, the problem with winging it is that it shows that you don't think the occasion is very important.  That sends out a message which can easily be taken the wrong way by people who do think it's important.  You have to decide whether it's worth it to anger those folks for the sake of avoiding a few rehearsals. 

Rehearsal 7 -- The Dress Rehearsal

The last full rehearsal you do should take place the day before, or 2 days before, the actual event.  It should take place in the hall itself, it should involve the full technical panoply of video, music, slides, and so on that you're using, and you should go the whole distance.  By that I mean, don't skip chunks; do the whole speech so that you get a good feel for how long it will take.

Dress rehearsals should follow the script just as if they were the real thing.  The only difference is that there is no audience, or only a small one of hangers-on, nosy people who won't go away, and nervous bosses. 

You should throw yourself into the dress rehearsal with all you've got.  Don't hold back just because it's only practice.  If you don't practice the real thing, how will you know what it's like?

It will be sufficiently different with an audience so that it will feel fresh on the day itself.  And that's all that matters. 

The less-well-understood point of rehearsing, by the way, is to get a feel for the physicality of the speech -- the non-verbal aspects -- which are so important to the way the audience actually decodes your messages.  Every speech is two conversations, the verbal and the non-verbal, and you need to be in control of both.  Because when they are aligned, you can be persuasive.  When they're not aligned, the audience believes the non-verbal every time. 

Preparing a speech means preparing both conversations.  And the only way to find out what that second conversation looks like is to rehearse.   

Rehearsal 6 -- The Opening Rehearsal

The openings of speeches are incredibly important for setting the mood, the audience expectations, and the energy level in the house.  That's tough, of course, because that's when most speakers are nervous and tentative. 

Don't be.  There's nothing natural about this.  It's not about being yourself.  It's about forcing yourself to walk -- or bound -- out on stage with focus, with energy, already thinking that the audience is comprised of some very close friends you're really glad to see. 

So a little self-hypnosis or self-talk is in order.  Go watch actors backstage during a show.  You'll see them all getting into what they call the 'offstage beat'.  That means they don't walk on stage and then think about delivering a line.  They come from somewhere, already in a mood, already heading somewhere with something on their minds, already busy doing something.

You need an offstage beat, too.  Get into a frame of mind, such as I'm-about-to-see-a-close-friend-that-I-haven't-seen-in-years-that-I'm-going-to-hug.  Or something like that.  Whatever floats your psychic boat.  But make it positive, friendly, and all about connecting with someone. 

OK, so that's what you need to rehearse.  Go offstage, get psyched, and then come charging on mentally hugging everyone in the audience and deliver your first line.  Or better yet, your first story.

By the way, spending the first few minutes saying "hi" and "how's everyone in Topeka?" is amateur stuff.  Don't waste that opening opportunity to grab your audience and never let go.  Start with some vivid, interesting, dramatic, or exciting.  Jump right in and tell us the best story you know.  Or ask the audience something compelling they haven't thought about.  Or interact with them in a more compelling way.  Get some of them up on stage, or go into the audience and start conversing with them.  You get the idea. 

Rehearse the opening.  Get an offstage beat.  Don't waste the moment of maximum interest.  Start with a bang.  You can repair the damage done by a wasted opening, but it's hard work and takes the rest of the speech.

Rehearsal 5 -- The Walk-Through Rehearsal

I've written about the deer-in-the-headlights phenomenon before, when a speaker faces one too many unexpected obstacles and finds himself losing concentration and staring blankly at the source of the latest disaster wondering, 'what do I do now'? 

It doesn't have to be that way.  When you've got a big speech, insist upon a walk-through, or technical rehearsal.  Get together the day before the event, or at the very latest the morning of the event, with the technical people upon whom your life will depend.  Walk through the speech paying attention to all the technical aspects of the delivery. 

What does it feel like to be miked?  Does it restrict movement?  Can you be heard?  How are the sound levels? 

What about the lighting?  Does it shine in your eyes?  Get used to it.  Practice not squinting, looking just below the spotlights out to the audience.  Can it follow you if you move?  If you're going out to the audience, work that with the tech folks.  They'll need to have a follow spot, or to turn the house lights up.

What about the camera coverage?  Where do you need to be?  Again, if you're going into the audience (and you probably should be at some point), then you're going to have to work that out with the techies.  They're going to be inclined to say they can't manage it, but they can if they really put their minds to it.  So negotiate that nicely, since their help and cooperation is essential for a successful show.

What about slides, notes, visual aids, music, sounds, video, and so on?  Practice all that with the technical folks and have a plan B in case something goes horribly wrong and nothing works.  Probably won't happen, but you want to be ready if it does.  (And if you cover well, and respond heroically, you'll get a hero's reception from the audience.) 

Walk the entire hall, to get a sense of how big it is.  Check out the sight lines, because you want to know how tiny you look from the back, or if you're blocked by something from the side.  Get to know the space, so you can fill it with your presence.  The bigger the hall, the more energy is required.  Check out Mick Jagger tapes to see how much energy is required to fill a stadium.  It's a lot.

A tech rehearsal, or walk-through, is essential when the stakes, and the hall, are big.  Don't leave it to chance or to the last moment.  Remember Murphy's Law.   

Rehearsal 4 -- The Logical Structure Rehearsal

Some 50 years ago, roughly speaking, giving a speech was a formal occasion.  The speaker stood behind the podium, read his speech, and received polite applause at the end.  Alternatively, candidates barnstormed around the country, speaking on stumps, or barrels, or whatever would give them a little height advantage so that the crowd could see them.  Hence the term 'stump speech' for the one a politician gives over and over on the hustings.  The speaker had to shout to be heard, and the high, nasal voice (such as presidents Lincoln and Coolidge possessed, among others) carried well and often carried the election. 

Television changed all that.  It made the formal familiar, close, and casual.  Now, we expect a conversation.  So, rather than reading the speech, or speaking from extensive notes, speakers are expected to talk from bullet points (good) or a Power Point outline (bad). 

As a result, it pays for the speaker to know the basic logical flow of the speech -- not the exact words, but the main points, in order.  Ideally, that's what a speaker has in his or her head when he/she bounds up on stage and begins to chat with the audience.

So rehearse that.  Get the logic of the speech down in a bulleted outline, and practice that.  Rehearse just running through that outline, as if it were a very brief explanation.  Then, embellish it by adding your supporting facts, your stories, and so on.  Work your way up to the whole speech. 

The result will be a clearer sense of how the speech needs to flow for the comprehension of the audience.  And, rather than reading the speech or slavishly following a dense series of Power Point slides, you can flexibly and confidently work through the outline, knowing where you're going and where you're taking the audience. 

Rehearsal 3 -- The Emotions Rehearsal

Emotion is captivating.  We like to watch it on TV, which is why so many people watch reality TV shows even though they know they shouldn't.  We put actors on pedestals, because they are practiced emoters.  We even elect former actors President, because they're able to look authentic doing what they do best:  playing a part. 

So if you're the type who has a hard time expressing emotions, or if your business or professional training has put a premium on control rather than expressiveness, you've got a problem.  You're going to be a boring speaker.

The solution is to open up a little.  And the way to find your chops is to rehearse, so that you don't go to uncomfortable extremes when you're actually live and in person in front of an audience.  Charisma, after all, is the tactful expression of a range of emotions.  Laughing in the face of someone else's tragedy, for example, is not charismatic, just wrong.

So try the 'happy-sad' rehearsal.  Here's how it works.  You start giving your speech, emoting as much happiness as you can.  Not in the words -- it's cheating to say, 'I'm really really happy' -- but in your non-verbal cues -- tone of voice, facial expression, gesture.  You do this in front of a small audience of close friends or colleagues who won't surreptitiously tape you and put it on You Tube.  As soon as they see and feel real happiness, they shout 'SAD!' and it's your job, without changing the speech content, to start emoting as much sadness as you can.  Again, it's all about the tone of voice, the facial expressions, and the gestures. 

Once you've convinced the audience of your sadness, they shout 'HAPPY!' and you're back to happy again.

The idea is to be over-the-top happy and sad in turn.  It loosens you up and helps you prepare for the real thing.  If you do this a few days before the actual speech, you'll retain some of that animation during the performance, and you'll be more charismatic as a result. 

It works; try it. 

Rehearsal 2 -- The Body Language Rehearsal

As I said in my previous blog on the importance of rehearsal, you need to rehearse both the content, and the non-verbal aspects of a presentation.  Many people don't think they need to walk through a speech physically -- I'll just run through the points in my head -- but they do.  I can always tell someone who hasn't rehearsed, because sooner or later you'll catch that deer-in-the-headlights look as the speaker thinks to himself, whoah, I didn't see that coming.

One really useful rehearsal for improving your non-verbal performance is the babble rehearsal.  How does this work?  You stand up in front of one or two very close colleagues or friends, and give the speech without using recognizable words.  Instead, babble, while trying to convey as much of the speech as you can with your facial expressions and gestures. 

What you see people doing, as they struggle to get the meaning across, is upping the ante enormously on their gestures.  And, because most people don't gesture enough, or animate their face enough, the result is a more charistmatic, interesting speaker and speech. 

(Strangely, some people have a hard time babbling.  If you can't make up babble words on the spot, then just say "blah blah blah.")

Now, obviously you have to use the rehearsal to find the 'top' of your game, and then throttle back in the actual delivery of the presentation.  But, if your friends or colleagues will give you candid feedback, they will tell you that you're not as over the top as you think. 

Many speakers play it safe when they're speaking, and they rein in their facial expressions and gestures in order not to appear less than wholly dignified.  But the result is more often boredom than dignity. 

Give the babble rehearsal a try.  Then retain something of the increased energy when you actually speak, and you will be a more charismatic speaker. 

Rehearsal 1 -- How should you rehearse a speech?

I'm going to write a series of blogs on rehearsal, because it's a practice more honored in the breach than the occurrence, and it should be the other way around. 

People wiggle out of rehearsal in a variety of ways.  They say, "I'll just wing it."  That's usually fatal, and ends up turning a modern virtue -- the casual approach -- into a sin -- verbal chaos of one kind or another.  Or they say, "I don't want it to get stale," as if that were a serious problem.  It's far more likely that it will never come to life to begin with, let alone get old.  Or they say, "I've run it through in my head," as if that were enough.  The problem is that every communication is two conversations, a verbal one and a non-verbal one.  That second conversation is just as important as the first one -- in some ways more important -- and you can't, by definition, run that through in your head.  You can't. 

So you need to rehearse.  How do you do it?  As often as possible, but at least three times.  Here are the basics.

The first rehearsal is for the content.  The first time, just try to get the words out.  Don't worry about what actors call 'blocking' -- how you might move around.  Just get the words out.  Find out if anything needs to be changed or fixed.  See how long it takes, and how well the transitions work.  Test it.

The second rehearsal is for the non-verbal 'conversation'.  The second time, with the text stable, work on finding out how you're going to stand, to move, and where during the speech you need to do what.  Don't worry so much about getting the words perfect, but do feel the speech, as a dynamic production of your body.  Ideally, you'll have someone tape you, so you can see how you're doing.

The third rehearsal is for the emotional journey.  A good speech takes its audience on an emotional as well as an intellectual journey.  So on this rehearsal, go over the top finding places to express all the emotions of the speech.  You should map them out in your mind just as you map out the movement.  Where do you start?  Where do you finish?  How do you get from one to the other?  Go crazy, because when you give the actual speech, you'll retain some of the life of this rehearsal.  Most people are too bland, emotionally speaking, because they're afraid of showing their emotions when they speak.  Unfortunately, that just makes them boring. 

That's the bare minimum.  And you should always try to rehearse at least once in the actual space you'll be talking in -- either rehearsal 2 or 3.  In subsequent blogs, I'll talk about other kinds of rehearsals for people who really want to be ready.   

Passion in Public Speaking

Do you need anything besides passion to succeed as a speaker?  Is passion enough?

Unfortunately, no.  If passion were enough, monkeys would write great fiction (the ones who are allowed typewriters).  Public speaking involves both artifice and emotion.  It does take passion -- and without passion, a speaker is dull indeed -- but it also takes knowledge, practice, and skill. 

There are no natural public speakers.  There are good and bad ones, and practiced and unpracticed ones.  But don't waste your time envying the 'naturals' because there are none.  There's an old story of Ted Williams, the famous Red Sox hitter -- he was asked about his 'natural' swing and how he acquired it.  He responded that he swung the bat in his basement 1,000 times every night.  That's how he developed his 'natural' swing.

And that's exactly how you can take your passion and become a natural speaker.  Practice.  Study the greats.  Rehearse.  Get yourself videotaped and study the tapes.  I once worked with a speaker who sent me a speech on DVD.  It was 45 minutes, and we went over it frame by frame, discussing every move she made, both the content and the delivery.  We analyzed the audience reaction.  We checked out lighting, costume, props, slides -- every aspect of the presentation.  Five hours later we were still hard at work.

She is well on her way to becoming a natural speaker.   

Let's just put it off....

I've worked with many CEOs and C-suite executives and far too many of them find ways to wiggle out of rehearsing important speeches.  In one memorable instance, the CEO in question had actually rented out a conference hall that seated several thousand people in order to practice in a big hall.  He kept us waiting several hours, and when he finally showed up, he announced that he was too tired to rehearse.  We had a light and sound crew with us, and of course the requisite corporate hangers-on.  All told, a dozen people, a giant hall rented for the day, and no CEO. 

It's baffling.  As a former actor, I (along with every single one of my Thespian colleagues) count on rehearsal.  Many of the reasons are obvious: it's nice to know what you're doing, you learn in a safe space, better to screw up in front of your colleagues than an audience, and so on.

Less obviously, perhaps, you get to inhabit the role, or the speech, physically.  You get to walk where you're going to walk, stand where you're going to stand, and so on.  What does that accomplish?  It allows you to look competent.  If you're 'winging it' you'll always have a certain hesitancy, no matter how confident you think you are.  You wouldn't play an important tennis match without practice.  Why speak without practice?  It's the same thing. 

I always wince inwardly when a CEO tells me he's better off winging it because he'll be fresher, more spontaneous, not over-rehearsed.  My standard reply is that stage actors get six weeks, 9 - 5 every day, in order to look assured and competent.  So give me three rehearsals! 

That sometimes works.  But what's really going on is that rehearsing is anxiety-provoking, so CEOs, being human, want to put it off.  I tell them that the performance will be even more anxiety-producing, and especially so without rehearsal. 

These days, we want our speakers to look human, casual, to sound conversational, to be authentic.  But don't fool yourself into thinking that you can achieve that by winging it.  When you do that, you actually look less authentic, because people expect leaders to be confident, and when they look hesitant, the audience assumes they're lying.

Don't be fooled.  Rehearse.  It's better than the alternative. 

How many times should I rehearse?

People often ask me about rehearsal in the hopes that I'll say, "Sure, don't worry.  Don't rehearse too much or you'll get stale.  Better to keep it fresh.  Wing it."

I never do say that or anything like it.  More rehearsal is better, with the following caveats. 

Don't rehearse more than once on the day of the presentation.  I can imagine exceptions to this rule, but not many and not often.  By the day of, most people are in adrenaline mode, and rehearsal is not very helpful.  Rehearse once, especially in the actual venue, just to get familiar with things and have the performance fresh in your mind.  But obsessive rehearsal at this point simply won't do much good.  You have to have done the work already.  It's too late.   

Don't rehearse the wrong speech or presentation.  This may sound odd, but you'd be surprised how many times people don't have a speech set until the last minute, so if they do rehearse, it's the 'wrong' speech -- because it's not the one they're ultimately going to give.  Get the speech set, weeks before the date, and rehearse that one.  Many people get nervous as the awful date approaches, and they start to doubt themselves and the message.  So they tinker with the speech, almost always making it worse.  Don't fall into that trap. 

Don't rehearse too often in your mind.  Half the reason for rehearsal is that speaking, like, say, acting, is a physical art.  You rehearse so that your body can learn the speech, not just your mind.  Too many people say, "I don't need to rehearse, I ran over it in my mind."  Therein lies potential disaster.  You need to discover physically what it feels like to give the whole speech, to say a particular line out loud, to make the transitions from one section to another.  None of those things can be imagined as effectively as they can be rehearsed. 

How much should you rehearse?  A lot.  Stage actors often get 6 weeks, 5 or 6 days per week, 8 - 10 hours per day, to rehearse.  That's how you end up looking natural, assured, and authoritative.  Not by winging it. 

How to handle Q n A

Many executives believe, incorrectly, that even though they may not give the most brilliant of speeches, they come to life in the Q 'n' A.  They prefer the off-the-cuff because, well, it requires less preparation and they're busy people.  But they'll tell you something along the lines of "spontaneity is good for me" in justification.   

That's the wrong way to think about it.  The problems with Q n A are several.  First, when an executive is unscripted, he may say things he shouldn't.  If the press is present, he can make news unnecessarily and unfortunately.  Second, you can't fully control the questions that are asked.  The whole presentation may end on a down note despite the best efforts of everyone involved if the last question is something like, "So, tell us about that corruption scandal!"  Third, even when the questions are positive and the executive is on message, spontaneous answers tend to be sloppy.  It's rare the executive who doesn't ramble a bit when asked a question she likes on a subject with which she's familiar.  Executives, like just about everyone else, enjoy displaying expertise. 

So how to control this unfortunate fondness for Q n A -- and control the damage? 

Prepare your executive.  Give her a mock interview, asking the most difficult questions you can work up.  Grill her relentlessly, and the actual event will seem easy by comparison.

Train him in spontaneous speaking.  The way to give a coherent answer off the cuff is to think for a moment, get a headline response, state it, then give a few details or supporting arguments, then repeat the headline.  If you train executives to speak in this way, they are less likely to go off message, lost in the thickets of their own rhetorical mysteries and excesses.  Remember:  headline -- supporting points -- headline.  That's all. 

Videotape her to help with body language.  The biggest giveaway is often not a word, but a defensive gesture.  When an executive is talking on difficult subjects, she needs to be schooled in open, clear, frank non-verbal behavior.  I've seen many an executive ruin a good answer with suddenly crossed arms or a scowl at the wrong moment. 

Save a brief statement as a closer after the Q n A.  This way, you can at least control the last thing everyone hears.  It helps keep things up beat. 

Q n A, in spite of widespread executive fondness for it, is dangerous territory.  Proceed with caution.  Prepare well.  And be prepared to turn off the lights if it all goes pear-shaped despite your preparations.   

Don't rehearse in front of a mirror

There are 3 bits of advice on public speaking that persist despite many experts' efforts to kill them.  Let me try to drive a stake through their evil hearts now. 

First, rehearsing in front of a mirror.  Let me say at once, rehearsal is good.  More rehearsal is better.  But rehearsing in front of a mirror makes most people self conscious.  They get more awkward rather than less.  Some seasoned professionals can do it, because they've already had a lot of experience studying themselves, and they can handle the self-knowledge.  But not the average speaker. 

So, instead, rehearse in front of an audience.  I know, they can be hard to gather.  But you'd be surprised what a good test rehearsing in front of a child is.  If you can keep an 8-year-old's attention, you can usually hold an audience of grown-ups.   So round up a child or children and go to work.  Failing children, a dog or cat can be a second-best option.  Really.  The point is to have something animate besides yourself to talk to. 

Watching someone talk to a child is interesting.  Some people dumb it down, talking like the child is an idiot.   But most people just loosen up, get more lively and expressive, and show a lot more energy, all in an effort to make it interesting for the short of stature and attention span.  These are good things for speakers to do. 

Second, beginning with a joke to set the audience at ease.  This bit of advice is a recipe for disaster.  Most people are at their most nervous at the beginning of a speech.  To start with a joke, which requires delivering a punch line with aplomb, simply ups the ante and makes it even harder to succeed.  Don't do it.  Start with a relevant story that frames your talk intriguingly. 

Third, "tell 'em what you're going to say, say it, and tell 'em what you said."  That advice came from the Army in World War II.  Don't take it now.  We've moved beyond the day when we could tolerate so much repetition.  Today, we're on our Blackberries if we sense that the speaker is just running over an agenda or telling us what he's going to say.  We only want and need to hear it once. 

So there it is:  don't rehearse in front of a mirror.  Don't begin with a joke.  And don't say everything three times. Please.  Please.  Please. 

Is rehearsal important?

Is rehearsal important?  Odd that I should even have to pose the question, but a surprising number of the people we've worked with over the years have tried to wiggle out of rehearsing even important speeches. 

Speakers want to deliver charismatic, assured, memorable performances.  Some of them say they want to 'wing it', because thinking too hard about it or preparing too much will make them stale or boring. 

Don't believe it, and don't credit that urge in yourself if it comes up.  It's just avoidance.  It's the fear talking.  And more importantly, it's wrong.

In order to achieve the apparently effortless, natural-looking performance a great stage actor delivers, he or she rehearses for six weeks, give or take, doing the same thing over and over and over again until it has become part of not only the intellectual memory, but also the sense memory.  Professional actors rehearse all day for six weeks.  You should rehearse, at an absolute minimum, three times. 

Every speech -- every communication -- is two conversations, I like to say.  One is verbal, the content, and the other is non-verbal, the body language.  You need to practice both.  They must be aligned for the speech to be successful.  It takes time (and rehearsal) for the non-verbal, especially, to become easy and natural-looking.  You can't just 'think' the non-verbal side of things precisely because it's not primarily an intellectual act -- it's a pre-intellectual one.  Different parts of the brain are involved than the frontal lobe, where the intellect is busy. 

I can always tell an under-rehearsed speech not only because the speaker may fumble the words, or the transitions, but because the non-verbal side of the speech looks awkward. 

Audiences will forgive the occasional verbal slip, but if you look like you don't know what you're doing, they'll write you off as a loser every time.

Rehearse.  Please.  For all of us.