Speaking
Welcome! I'm really looking forward to working with you on your public speaking journey. Before we dive into the core concepts, I'd love to learn a little bit about what you're working toward so we can make this session as practical and relevant as possible.
What specific upcoming speaking engagement or goal brought you here, and how would you rate your current comfort level with public speaking?
I want to improve my general everyday communication skills; I'm moderately comfortable.
It's great to hear that you're already moderately comfortable speaking. Since we are focusing on elevating your everyday communication—whether that's pitching an idea to a colleague, speaking up in a team meeting, or just navigating casual conversations—we want to make sure you have a highly practical toolkit to rely on.
To tailor this perfectly to your daily routine, what specific everyday communication scenarios (e.g., workplace meetings, 1-on-1 conversations, networking, or casual presentations) do you want to focus on first?
Workplace meetings and speaking up in front of colleagues
That makes total sense. Workplace meetings have a unique dynamic—they are fast-moving, collaborative, and require you to adapt your message on the fly compared to a formal presentation.
Before we jump into our structured roadmap to master these meeting situations, let's address that primary challenge you face when speaking up with colleagues.
Organizing my thoughts quickly on the spot
That is the ultimate sweet spot. When you're in a fast-moving meeting and need to speak up, trying to draft a mental script sentence-by-sentence is a recipe for brain freeze. Instead, we need to rely on structured that organize your thoughts automatically.
Let's start with a classic, highly reliable tool that you can use in almost any meeting: the PREP framework. It's incredibly straightforward and keeps your contribution highly focused.
| Step | What It Stands For | What You Actually Say |
|---|---|---|
| P | Point | State your main idea or bottom line clearly. |
| R | Reason | Explain why your point is true or important. |
| E | Example | Back it up with a quick data point, story, or detail. |
| P | Point | Reiterate your main point to drive it home. |
The magic of PREP is that it forces you to state your conclusion first, rather than winding your way toward it.
Imagine a colleague asks: "Do you think we should launch the newsletter this week?"
Without a framework, you might start listing pros and cons, talk about formatting, mention your busy schedule, and eventually muddle through to a vague "maybe."
With PREP, it sounds like this:
- Point: Yes, we should launch the newsletter this Thursday.
- Reason: Our subscriber engagement is always 20% higher on Thursdays compared to Fridays.
- Example: When we tested a Thursday release last month, our open rates hit an all-time high.
- Point: So, getting it out this Thursday will maximize our reach.
It is clean, powerful, and takes less than thirty seconds to deliver.
Would you like to try applying PREP to a simple workplace scenario right now to see how it feels in action?