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Freestyling is objectively harder than public speaking, however, public speaking is a much more useful life skill to have. Thankfully for us, there's a lot of overlap between the two. "Nope, no way. I don't believe that" Just wait. Let's say you have to give a PowerPoint presentation for work or a class. Your “topics” are your PowerPoint slide titles, your “sentence construction” become the bullet points or ideas on your slides, and your “rhyme & flow” are this new thing called eloquence. The goal is given a specific topic, say your sentences with maximum eloquence. Sound familiar?

SPEECHES AREN'T THE ONLY THING YOU CAN APPLY FREESTYLE TO. YOU CAN ALSO 'FREESTYLE' INTERVIEWS, AUDITIONS, DATES, MEETINGS, ETC....

So how do you come up your topics? Whatever it is that you're giving the presentation for start by explaining it to someone. Write down what things you talk about and in what order. If they are confused at any point, write down what they were confused about. Reorder those things, add a new point if needed, and explain it to someone new. Repeat this process until the someone completely understands without questions. For each list item, make a slide for the topic in the presentation. During the presentation rather than memorize exact sentences, you should let the bullets will do all the work for you, and "freestyle" talk about that idea.

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For a PowerPoint-less presentation, the same process applies for gathering your topics. This time, instead of writing them down on a slide, memorize the transitions and topics. The topics act as sentence construction - keep a mental checklist so you make sure you hit everything. Transitions should help you remember your next topic. When you have said all your information about the current topic, say your memorized transition, and move on to "freestyle" about the next topic.

BULLSHITTING IS TO PRESENTATIONS WHAT FILLERS ARE TO RAP...

Eloquence is how good your sentences sound, independent of context. Some things that increase eloquence:

  • Above-average vocabulary (careful not to take this too far)

  • Smooth flow between words

  • “Dialog”-esque constructions that make listeners feel engaged

  • Reiterate & summarize key points in new ways

  • Delivery and emphasis

When speaking, you need to be able to “muscle memory” your eloquence.

 

Learning how to present this way helps a ton with nervousness. Some other benefits are that you don’t need to worry about forgetting your speech because you never had a speech written to begin with, you can adapt to unexpected circumstances  (distractions, technical difficulties, questions, etc) easily, and it's easier to engage with your audience since you only need to occasionally glance at your slides once in awhile. There’s some overhead cost to this method but for each new speech, it’s WAY less effort.

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Lastly, we're going address the very real art of bullshitting. Bullshitting is when you have no content, but high eloquence. Practicing bullshitting is like practicing rhyme sets, it’s essential. To practice, just get a list of random topics and bullshit about them. Your goal is to convince your (imaginary) audience that you know what you are talking about. Start off with topics that you legitimately know pretty well, then move to harder topics. Once you get good, practice in front of people and have them interrupt/ask questions.

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