If you haven't heard, President Obama had to re-take his oath of office the day after the inauguration. The Christian Science Monitor stated simply that
Not to worry, said White House Counsel Greg Craig. This was just a precautionary move. “We believe that the oath of office was administered effectively and that the President was sworn in appropriately yesterday,” Craig said in a statement. “But the oath appears in the Constitution itself. And out of an abundance of caution, because there was one word out of sequence, Chief Justice Roberts administered the oath a second time.”
In reality, he didn't need to re-take it, but in order to prevent any discussions as to his legitimacy they decided to re-take it.
What does this tell us about presentations and public speaking? PRACTICE! Am I saying that Chief Justice John Roberts, clearly an extremely intelligent man, needs to work on his inaugural oath? Well, not every day since he only has to give it every 4 years. However, before 2013 he may want to ensure that he has it right.
Are you going to mess up your speech? Are there going to be millions of people watching you? No and No (or at least, not yet). However, I would caution you to practice you speech. This is almost as important as developing the message itself.
The first time you give a speech it will be pretty bad. The second time will go better, but will still have some major flaws in it. The third time you are still going to stumble from time to time. By the time you get to the fourth practice you will start to feel more comfortable, but there will still be problems. The fifth time: its getting there. I would suggest that you at a minimum practice your speech 6 times. This may seem like a lot, but it really is not -- it is the minimum you should do. Sometimes you can only go through your pitch once and you don't want to screw it up if you are trying to get investors, sell a product, gain customers or improve your business.
So please, practice -- it takes time, but it is well worth it.
Travis
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