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The question I ask before every meeting
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Hi Reader, Hope you are off to a great start this week. If you remember (if you had read!) in my last email, I promised I'd share the shift that helped me bridge the gap between understanding something and explaining it clearly. It's a very simple shift and here it is... I stopped preparing for myself. And started preparing for my audience. At first, that sounds like the same thing. It isn't. When most of us prepare, we ask questions like:
Those questions help us become experts. They don't necessarily help us become communicators. Now compare that with a different set of questions.
Notice what happened? The focus shifted. From my understanding... ...to their understanding. That one shift changed the way I prepare every presentation, every meeting, and even every important email. Preparation is no longer about collecting information. It's about removing confusion. That's what intelligibility really means. Not speaking more. Helping people think less. In my next email, I'll show you why this single shift becomes even more important as you move into leadership. As always, thanks for being awesome! Rama
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PublicSpeakKing
Learn something every week about public speaking, book writing or personal development. Join 1500+ creatives and professionals who receive my action packed yet entertaining newsletter.
Hi Reader, Sometimes, life creates coincidences that are almost too perfect to ignore. During the last weekeend, I got some custom gifts made for Sandeep. This was to celebrate the partnership and completion of 3 years in my personal coaching program. While I was all set to ship this to him, he gives me a call and says, “Rama, I’m coming to Chennai.” Wait… what? He was coming to Chennai for a business travel. The city where I was staying. And this wasn't planned at all! In fact, Sandeep used...
Hi Reader, Something happened at home recently that made me smile. My son recently participated in an elocution contest. And naturally... I was tempted to coach him. I mean, public speaking is kind of my thing. I started thinking about everything I could teach him. How to pause. How to use his voice. How to make eye contact. How to remember his words. How to connect with the audience. Then I stopped. Because my wife had already stepped in. She was the one coaching him. And honestly, she did...
Hi Reader, Yesterday, I promised I'd tell you what Jerry meant when he looked at me after that speech contest and said, "Rama... you're not intelligible." At the time, I honestly thought he was talking about my speaking. Maybe my pronunciation. Maybe my delivery. For a moment, I even wondered if he meant I wasn't intelligent! (Thankfully, that's a different story.) I couldn't have been more wrong. It took me almost fourteen years to understand what he was really trying to tell me. And when I...