220. Prep Like a Pro: Communication Confidence, Clarity, and Comedy

Summary

Podcast Summary: Think Fast Talk Smart Episode 220 – “Prep Like a Pro: Communication Confidence, Clarity, and Comedy”

Release Date: August 5, 2025
Host: Matt Abrahams
Guest: Peter Sagal and Cheney Obumike

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Introduction

In Episode 220 of Think Fast, Talk Smart: Communication Techniques, host Matt Abrahams delves deep into the intricacies of effective communication with guest Peter Sagal, the esteemed humorist writer and longtime host of NPR’s iconic quiz show, Wait, Wait... Don’t Tell Me!, and Cheney Obumike, a seasoned communicator and panelist with over 26 years of experience. This episode, titled “Prep Like a Pro: Communication Confidence, Clarity, and Comedy,” is part of a four-part miniseries focused on spontaneous speaking.

Cheney Obumike’s Role and Reflection

Matt opens the conversation by exploring Cheney’s unique journey from a playwright and screenwriter to the host of a dynamic ensemble radio show. Cheney reflects on his transition from being a panelist to the host, emphasizing the shift from delivering humor to facilitating it.

Cheney Obumike [03:11]: “My job was to make funny possible. I had to understand and internalize that if somebody else in the show did something, said something funny, even if I didn't say it, that was still to my credit.”

Peter Sagal commends Cheney’s introspection, highlighting the broader applicability of his insights beyond radio and podcasting.

Peter Sagal [04:11]: “The notion that your job to be effective is to enable others to be effective is really important.”

Adaptability and Real-Time Communication

The discussion shifts to the unpredictability inherent in spontaneous communication. Cheney shares anecdotes from his experience hosting shows where plans often veered off-script, necessitating on-the-fly adjustments.

Cheney Obumike [04:58]: “What makes my show different is we then take that script and I have to be ready at any minute to throw it out.”

Peter underscores the balance between preparation and flexibility, noting the importance of being ready to diverge from the script to maintain authenticity and engagement.

Peter Sagal [07:27]: “Preparation is key. But being willing to let go of that preparation and follow what's happening and needed in the moment is really important.”

Preparation Rituals for Effective Communication

Cheney elaborates on his preparation strategies, which blend meticulous planning with spontaneous adaptability. He describes a pre-show ritual that includes writing and rewriting scripts, collaborating with his team, and engaging in a personal monologue to center himself.

Cheney Obumike [08:11]: “We always start with what we call the warmup, in which I come out and I just chat with the audience a little bit before actual taping starts.”

Peter highlights the value of such rituals in fostering presence and focus, essential for effective spontaneous speaking.

Peter Sagal [09:41]: “A ritual like you have can be very helpful for all of us. We can think about what are the things I can do to help get myself present, get myself focused...”

Strategies for Effective Introductions

The conversation transitions to the art of introductions, a common challenge in spontaneous speaking scenarios. Cheney shares his philosophy on introductions, emphasizing the importance of focusing on the audience rather than solely on the individual being introduced.

Cheney Obumike [10:46]: “You shouldn't think about making your friend happy. You should think about making the audience happy. You guys are so lucky. Because I've got this person, this person for you.”

Peter appreciates Cheney’s approach, noting its effectiveness in creating a positive experience for both the guest and the audience.

Peter Sagal [12:03]: “You are focusing your attention not on the person, but on those you are introducing them to helped you make that experience possible.”

Using Humor in Communication

Humor is a critical element in Cheney’s communication toolkit. He discusses the nuanced approach to humor, stressing authenticity and the importance of delivering humor that genuinely resonates with the speaker.

Cheney Obumike [13:04]: “The only way to make an audience laugh is to do something that you legitimately think is funny and hope they agree with you.”

Peter connects this to the broader theme of spontaneity and authenticity in communication.

Peter Sagal [14:12]: “So it's about being committed and being authentic to what's true for you.”

Handling Mistakes and Staying Present

Cheney shares his strategies for recovering from on-the-spot mistakes, drawing parallels with the resilience found in elite athletes. He emphasizes the importance of maintaining a present-oriented mindset to navigate unexpected challenges gracefully.

Cheney Obumike [15:53]: “If you're me at that moment, you can say, oh, God, that was terrible. Or you can say, well, we got 30 more minutes a show, and that can still be good.”

Peter reinforces the significance of moving forward swiftly, likening it to coaching techniques in sports.

Peter Sagal [16:21]: “If something goes wrong, it's an anomaly... it's absolutely necessary.”

Being Gracious in Communication

The dialogue turns to the concept of graciousness in communication, particularly in the context of interviewing. Cheney provides actionable advice on making guests feel valued without overshadowing them, focusing the audience’s experience.

Cheney Obumike [17:18]: “The best way to be gracious is to turn the attention as much as you possibly can to them.”

Peter acknowledges the delicate balance required to appear appreciative without seeming effusive.

Peter Sagal [19:20]: “It's being other-focused, but also being appreciative of making the moment special is what I heard you say.”

Final Insights and Advice

Towards the episode’s conclusion, Cheney offers practical homework for listeners aiming to enhance their spontaneous speaking abilities. He advises recording speeches to critically evaluate and emphasize originality and value in communication.

Cheney Obumike [23:28]: “If someone has to give a speech on any given topic, either sit down and write out your speech, or if you really want to be daring, record it and then listen to it with a very or read it with a very critical eye.”

Peter summarizes Cheney’s insights, highlighting the dual focus on confidence and value as key to effective spontaneous speaking.

Peter Sagal [23:10]: “To really help people be better in the moment, you have to have confidence in that moment, and you have to provide value.”

Conclusion

Episode 220 of Think Fast, Talk Smart offers a wealth of insights into the art of spontaneous communication. Through Cheney Obumike’s experiences and Peter Sagal’s reflections, listeners gain valuable strategies for enhancing their communication skills, balancing preparation with adaptability, and fostering genuine connections through graciousness and humor. Whether navigating high-stakes presentations or casual conversations, the episode equips professionals with the tools to communicate with clarity, confidence, and impact.

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Notable Quotes:

• Cheney Obumike [03:11]: “My job was to make funny possible.”
• Peter Sagal [04:11]: “The notion that your job to be effective is to enable others to be effective is really important.”
• Cheney Obumike [08:11]: “We always start with what we call the warmup...”
• Cheney Obumike [10:46]: “You shouldn't think about making your friend happy. You should think about making the audience happy.”
• Cheney Obumike [13:04]: “The only way to make an audience laugh is to do something that you legitimately think is funny and hope they agree with you.”
• Peter Sagal [16:21]: “If something goes wrong, it's an anomaly... it's absolutely necessary.”
• Cheney Obumike [17:18]: “The best way to be gracious is to turn the attention as much as you possibly can to them.”
• Cheney Obumike [23:28]: “If someone has to give a speech on any given topic, either sit down and write out your speech...”

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For more insights and techniques on effective communication, subscribe to Think Fast, Talk Smart and explore their extensive library of resources at fastersmarter.io.

Transcript

[Matt Abrahams]

This episode is brought to you by Grammarly. Here at thinkfast Talk Smart, we create a lot of content from social media posts to newsletters, guest invitations to sponsorship proposals. To help us be more effective and produce high quality content, we rely on Grammarly. Grammarly is the essential AI communication assistant that boosts productivity so you can get more of what you need done faster no matter what or where you're writing. Grammarly helps us be more efficient and strike the right tone for our many messages. I know you'll find it very useful. Let Grammarly take the busy work off your plate so you can focus on high impact work. Download Grammarly for [e-mail] podcast that's Grammarly.com podcast communication can sometimes be chaotic, especially when setting others up for success and managing spontaneous conversations.

[Peter Sagal]

But with a little work we can.

[Matt Abrahams]

All find composure and clarity. My name is Matt Abrahams and I teach strategic Communication at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Welcome to Think Fast Talk Smart, the podcast. As part of our four part miniseries on spontaneous speaking, we introduced you to a number of coaches whose jobs require successful in the moment communication. So many of our listeners found value in our coaches advice that we to provide you with an opportunity to hear our complete interviews. So today I'm excited for you to learn from Peter Sagal. Peter is a humorist writer and the longtime host of the popular NPR News quiz show Wait, Wait, don't tell me. He's also an accomplished author of several books and a marathon runner. Let's jump right in and learn from Peter.

[Peter Sagal]

Peter, welcome. I look forward to our conversation.

[Cheney Obumike]

Well, thank you, I do too.

[Matt Abrahams]

Hi Matt here. As we start the second half of 2025, I wanted to take a moment to share some things I am super excited about for the show and our Think Fast Talk Smart community. First, we have some amazing influential guests coming up like Dan Harris, Peter Sagal and Cheney Obumike. Second, we've curated several topic focused playlists like Managing Speaking Anxiety and Spontaneous Speaking among others. Check them out at fastersmarter IO slash playlists. Also, you will notice an additional ad or two in our episodes. We're in the process of expanding our team and building out our community hub. This requires additional resources. We truly appreciate your support and look forward to further helping you deepen and broaden your communication and career skills. Please do follow us, rate and review the show and share us with your friends, family and colleagues. Thank you for listening and for your support.

[Peter Sagal]

Should we get started?

[Cheney Obumike]

Absolutely. I should say for all listeners that I am here with my one and a Half year old who is a very well behaved little boy, but like all little boys of that age, demands pretty constant attention.

[Peter Sagal]

To start, I am a big fan of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. A show that is part news, part comedy, and part interview. How would you define your role as.

[Cheney Obumike]

Host hosting a show like Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. Not something I ever trained to do. I kind of had to learn it on the fly. My first role on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me was being one of the panelists. So there I was, having been a playwright, a screenwriter, and then a panelist on the show, and now I'm the host of the show. I do not recommend going back and listening to the shows from that era. In 1998, as I was learning it, my job was no longer to be funny as it had been when I was a panelist. My job was to make funny possible. I had to understand and internalize that if somebody else in the show did something, said something funny, even if I didn't say it, that was still to my credit. I had been doing my job. The second thing I had to learn was that on the radio, cleverness and wit people enjoy, but what they really want to hear is you. My job was to be somebody and to be a part of something that people wanted to spend time with. And even once I had figured that out was hard to do.

[Peter Sagal]

I am really impressed with the level of reflection and introspection that you've done about your role. The notion that your job to be effective is to enable others to be effective is really important. I hear you, Peter, saying a lot that applies not just, I think, to radio and podcasting, but I think, to communication in general. You're in service of the audience that you're speaking to, and that's that connection that gives you permission to have that communication with the audience you're speaking to. I really appreciate that. Now, clearly some of what you do is planned and scripted, but a fair amount happens in the moment. Can you share a story of a time where you had to adjust your communication in real time when things didn't go as you had expected or predicted?

[Cheney Obumike]

It's not so much I can share a moment. I can share any given show that we do. Because our show, we're unique in a couple of ways. First of all, we're an ensemble show. I'm not John Oliver speaking directly into a microphone or Seth Meyers doing his closer look, which is very similar and quite brilliant. I'm a guy on stage with other people. Three panelists One judge and scorekeeper, sometimes a special guest, and we're all talking together. And what that means is at any moment, any one of those people could derail what I'm out to do. I could say to myself, I'm going to talk about that. And the panelists could decide, no, no, no, we're going to talk about this happens all the time. Secondly, we do write a script. I have very talented colleagues with whom I research and write and rewrite and rewrite a script over the course of the week. Very much like a standard comedy shows writers room. But what makes my show different is we then take that script and I have to be ready at any minute to throw it out. In fact, one of the things that we see as a failure on our show is if I were to do all the jokes written in front of me and the panelists don't really chime in because we're very fond of the jokes. We wrote them, we worked on them. But if it's just me talking, then it's not our show. Our show is a conversation. So what that means is I could start off talking about whatever. So we happen to be talking in a day. After we taped the show on the week of the vice presidential debate, so we knew we were going to talk about the vice presidential debate, we wrote jokes about the vice presidential debate. I ended up about with five or six of them. Hello, Teddy. I'm talking about the vice presidential debate. Did you watch it? No. So I had all these jokes that we had written together about the vice presidential debate, but I had three panelists and they were going to do their own thing. So I told a joke. I maybe did another joke. I got a laugh. I got it started. I turned to the panelists. Did you watch it well? Yes, I did. Well, this is what I thought. This is what they thought. Now I am. My first mode is guy delivering jokes. My second mode is guy hosting a conversation. And that was where we get back to what we talked about before. I want to get their ideas, I want to have them land jokes. If they start a line of commentary, my job is to make a judgment as to whether that's valuable. Usually out of respect to them, I say, okay, we'll see where it goes and encourage them to follow it. Really? What do you mean by that? Is that what you thought? Really? Part of the reason I'm able to do this is because the show is edited. So yeah, I mean, I do that planning for a and instead X happening is not only a common occurrence, it's essentially My job, the thing that you.

[Peter Sagal]

Said there that I think is so important for others who find themselves in situations where they have to respond is that preparation is key. But being willing to let go of that preparation and follow what's happening and needed in the moment is really important. And in fact, you optimize for that. And that's how you're defining success. I find it interesting that you feel you wouldn't be successful if you actually got through the script. And that's an important mindset and approach that I think many people can adopt. Do you do specific things to help you prepare for that? So, for example, I don't know if you get nervous or anxious anymore. Is there anything you do to help set yourself up for success? Do you get very present oriented? Do you do something to manage your anxiety?

[Cheney Obumike]

The way I prepare to go on stage and be confident and in the moment and not perturbed by the stress is by doing it for 26 years. But there is def. I do have a little ritual. It's not that much of a ritual, but it kind of works for me. We do a lot of prep right up to taping. We write, we rewrite, and then there's. Sometimes there are other things I need to do. I need to talk to the panelists, talk to them about whatever we're going to do that night. We don't give them the answers to the questions that they're going to answer, but we sometimes warn them as to what our top stories are going to be so they get the right mindset. And this is what I do. We always start with what we call the warmup, in which I come out and I just chat with the audience a little bit before actual taping starts. And that has a bunch of purposes. To let them know how the evening's gonna play out, to introduce to them the people who are gonna be there, to tell them who our special guest is gonna be. But it's also a moment for them to just spend with me. So what this is all about was that's what I think about. I take a few minutes, I say, okay, everybody, and I walk backstage, and I just start thinking about what my jokes are gonna be. Okay, I'll do it. I'll mention that. I'll mention this. This is funny, okay? And I focus on that, and I get that little two, three minute monologue in my head, ready to go. I've got the points I want to make. I go out, I do those jokes. They usually work. And then the audience is ready, and I'm Ready? And I'm confident because I've got this good script. I got these great, talented people to my left, the panel. I got Bill Curtis, who's always a rock to my right. What do I got to worry about? Let's do this.

[Peter Sagal]

It sounds to me like preparation is really important. You help prepare the guests to give them topics and focus. You prepare the audience to be participants actively in what it is you're doing, and then you prepare yourself. I think many of us, especially when we think about spontaneous speaking, speaking in the moment, we don't think about the prep work that we could do to help us get ready. And I think a ritual like you have can be very helpful for all of us. We can think about what are the things I can do to help get myself present, get myself focused, perhaps help prepare other people to maximize the experience. So I appreciate that. One of the things that many people struggle with, especially when put on the spot, is introducing not just themselves, but others. You can imagine sitting in a meeting and your boss turns to you and says, hey, you know that person? Why don't you introduce them to the group? You do a lot of introducing.

[Cheney Obumike]

I do.

[Peter Sagal]

You introduce yourself. You introduce guests, you introduce the participants. You even talk about your production staff. To your mind, what makes a good introduction?

[Cheney Obumike]

Here's the secret. People think that the focus of an introduction should be the person you're introducing. I want to make this person feel good. I want to say that this person has all these important qualities. So just like you said, if you asked me to introduce my friend in a meeting, I'd be thinking about my friend. And I think, okay, how can I make my friend happy? But here's the trick. You shouldn't think about making your friend happy. You should think about making the audience happy. You guys are so lucky. Because I've got this person, this person for you. And that affects everything in terms of the words I choose to introduce them, how I choose to describe them, but even more importantly, my attitude. So, for example, if I'm introducing Paula Poundstone, who's been on our show, I never want to say, and here's Paula Poundstone. You know her. You love her. Isn't she great? I want to say, guys, here's Paula Poundstone. She's here in front of you. And that, I think, not only lets the audience know that this is a privilege, this is a present. They get to see this person just based on my attitude, but it also lets, in a roundabout way, ricocheted way, the person I'm introducing know what I think of them, so it serves that purpose as well.

[Peter Sagal]

I really like that you're introducing not just the person, but the experience that you want the others to have of that person. And the way in which you focus your attention not on the person, but on those you are introducing them to helped you make that experience possible. I really appreciate that. And I will look at how you introduce people differently now as a result.

[Cheney Obumike]

That really is my secret. I just want everybody to know, man, you were lucky. Isn't this great? And you have to mean it, too. As I think George Burns is most often credited with saying about acting, the most important thing is sincerity. If you can fake that, you've got it made.

[Peter Sagal]

Speaking of humor, you are certainly funny, and you use humor so well. What advice do you have for people who try or need to be or want to be funny in the moment? Are there things. Are you judging and saying, yeah, that's going to work, that's not going to work. And based on your experience or how do you coach people if you were to be funny in the moment?

[Cheney Obumike]

There's an old saying that writing can't be taught, but it can be learned. And to whatever extent that's true, it's quadruply true for humor. I don't think you can teach somebody to be funny. The only way to succeed in the arts is figure out what you want to see in the world that's not there yet and make it, and then hope that other people agree with you. That's it. There's no other way. And same with humor. The only way to make an audience laugh is to do something that you legitimately think is funny and hope they agree with you. You know, I'll give you an example. So I was interviewing Bob Seeger, and I said, man, you were out there in, like, the rock and roll scene in the 70s in Southern California. Crazy, right? He says, yeah. He says, you know, I went out there and I borrowed this guy's mansion, and he had this, like, amazing TV set up, and he had all these, like, cable channels. I had never seen anything like it. I said, so you're telling me that you went out to the bacchanal, the drug and sexual bacchanal of 70s Hollywood music scene, and the thing that you enjoyed most was cable tv. And it got a big laugh because it was both kind of funny and also true. So that's what I'm always looking for.

[Peter Sagal]

So it's about being committed and being authentic to what's true for you.

[Cheney Obumike]

Yeah, you have to be present I think that is the key, as Ram Dass told us, being here now, being attuned to the possibilities where this could go, steering it toward the choice that you prefer. You're talking to somebody, they say three things. My job is to make sure if I'm going to follow up with one of those three things to follow up with the one that will lead to the best outcome for my audience.

[Peter Sagal]

Are there things you do to help you get present oriented? I know you're a runner, and for many people, running helps being very meditative.

[Cheney Obumike]

For me, one of the things that really helps is just the adrenaline of being in front of an audience is focusing. But I got to tell you, sometimes even that fails. There have been times when something has gone wrong or when something happens to just knock me off my game and I'm standing on stage and I'm a million miles away, and that is bad. We also found out, by the way, that Rod Stewart and his band were also banned from all Holiday Inns. And they got around it by checking in as Fleetwood Mac. Oh, my God. I'm so sorry.

[Peter Sagal]

You just gave up the next one.

[Cheney Obumike]

I just gave up the next one because I know what happened was we had talked about this, and then since we talked about it, it got written up as the next question, and I didn't know that. So can you imagine my shame just now looking down at my script and seeing this question? But what we're going to do is we're just going to go through with it because this is show business, and the show must have Fleetwood Mac. Yeah. All right, here's your next question.

[Peter Sagal]

So when something like that happens, where you do get knocked off your game, what helps you come back is what I'm hearing is to just remind yourself that I have to be present and I just have to handle what's going on.

[Cheney Obumike]

Yes. Let's say, like, you say something that is just the wrong tone, and it brings the room down. And you have two choices. If you're me at that moment, you can say, oh, God, that was terrible. Or you can say, well, we got 30 more minutes a show, and that can still be good.

[Peter Sagal]

I'm sure you're familiar with famous basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski. He had this notion that he would teach his players of next play. If something goes abysmally wrong, or even if it goes amazingly well, move on to the next play.

[Cheney Obumike]

Yeah, I'm more of a baseball guy. And one of the things I've come to learn about baseball players is one of the things that teams look for in players, especially pitchers, is the ability to shake off a mistake. Be that a bad pitch that gets hit out of the park for a home run, be it an error, if you're a fielder, the ability to shake it off, say, okay, that happened, but now I'm going to pitch well. And one of the things I've learned about elite athletes is that their mindset is such that if something goes wrong, it's an anomaly, maybe because the ref got it wrong, but it doesn't reflect on them. And in a weird way, that's kind of delusional, but in other ways, it's absolutely necessary.

[Peter Sagal]

The approach and the mindset really makes a big difference in terms of success in these moments. Peter, you are very gracious in the way you interview people. Demonstrating graciousness can be tricky. You don't want to come off as too effusive, nor do you want to be too matter of fact. Any suggestions for how to be gracious in our communication?

[Cheney Obumike]

Well, let me start off by talking about myself. It entirely depends on what your job is, right? My job is not the job of the people on 60 Minutes or even the people who interview folks for the new shows on npr, All Things Considered, Morning Edition. My job is not Steve Inskeep's. My job isn't even Terry Gross's. My job is to offer a good time to our guest, to make them happy, to make them happy they came. So my job is to make them comfortable, to put them at ease, to joke around with them in a way that they appreciate. How do I do that? First of all, I try to find things that they will enjoy talking about. I try to find things that they don't always have to talk about. One of the things I promise people who are coming onto our show is I say, I hope this will be the most enjoyable stop on your publicity tour. I want to get them off their talking points, but not specifically to make them uncomfortable, to give them something else to talk about. I get interviewed a lot, and being asked a different kind of question, like, for example, these is really a pleasure. If people are asking me different questions than I normally get, I'm like, oh, okay, well, this is fun. This is interesting. This is fun to talk about. Sometimes you think to yourself, well, I'm going to make this person happy by explaining to them how much I appreciate their work. But what you're really trying to do is show the person that you're special, that they should like you just as much as you like them. This is in particularly referring to those situations where you're interviewing somebody you really admire. That's not a gift, showing yourself off to them, even if you think it is, because what you're showing them is how much you appreciate them. What is a gift is to let them express themselves by being genuinely interested in what they have to say about this, that or the other thing. For example, I noticed that when you're playing this role, you have a tendency to do X that struck me as really smart. Where did that come from? Oh well, they might say thank you for noticing that. That's something I actually thought about. Or they might say, really, I never thought about that at all. And that's a fine answer at all too. You know, the best way to be gracious is to turn the attention as much as you possibly can to them.

[Peter Sagal]

It's being other focused, but also being appreciative of making the moment special is what I heard you say. Not just run of the mill, make.

[Cheney Obumike]

It special for them. And if you can do that, you're going to make it special for your audience.

[Matt Abrahams]

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[Peter Sagal]

So before we end, I'd like to ask you three questions that I am asking everyone who's part of this miniseries on spontaneous speaking. Is there somebody that jumps to mind as a really accomplished communicator in that regard?

[Cheney Obumike]

Stephen Colbert. Although weirdly, that's not nearly as much on display now as it was when he was doing the Colbert Report. But what he was doing every night, especially in his interview segment, was so astonishing. He was having a conversation with a real person who had something important to say, and he was doing it improvisationally in character. To do that and still get a good interview was an act of prestidigitation that I don't think we'll ever see again. I actually have spoken to him, and one of the things he told me, which I thought was so fascinating, was the only people he had trouble interviewing with the people he genuinely admired because his character wouldn't.

[Peter Sagal]

Wow.

[Cheney Obumike]

And I thought that was amazing.

[Peter Sagal]

Question number two. What advice would you give our listeners to just become better speakers in the moment?

[Cheney Obumike]

I think there are two things, both difficult, but both important. A confidence. We human beings are so good at reading social cues that if you're sending out social cues of discomfort, of nervousness, that's all people are going to pay attention to. And the second one is kind of connected, is you have to say something of value, and that's really hard. Just like I was talking about with comedy. There's a tendency to just do something that, you know, the audience always thinks is funny. That's what she said. Coming up with something that is both valuable and something that your audience has never heard before is really hard, but absolutely essential. That's the job. I mean, one of the things that's really an advantage if you're speaking to somebody is if you know something that they don't. And if you can do any one of those things or anything related, you'll be a lot better off.

[Peter Sagal]

So to really help people be better in the moment, you have to have confidence in that moment, and you have to provide value. So I'd like you to give me some homework, Peter. If you were to assign me one thing that would help me do something that you do regularly, what would it be?

[Cheney Obumike]

So one of the things that I might suggest is if someone has to give a speech on any given topic, either sit down and write out your speech, or if you really want to be daring, record it and then listen to it with a very or read it with a very critical eye. The critical eye has to be focused on what's new. What do I have to say that nobody else can offer? This audience could be your personal perspective because of the experiences you've had. It could be knowledge that you've researched and discovered that you believe your audience doesn't have access to. Or it can be an insight that you have faith in and also know that is new to your audience and everything that isn't one of those three things personal experience, genuine knowledge that you've discovered, or insight that no one else to your knowledge has had. If not that, strike it out. See what you got left.

[Peter Sagal]

That advice to record yourself and to listen critically for what's new is homework that I will absolutely put into practice. Peter, this has been fantastic. The insights you provided in terms of connection, in terms of making others look good to help you be successful and to really add value by providing something new or something insightful or different perspective can help make us all better. Spontaneous Speakers, thank you for your time.

[Cheney Obumike]

My pleasure. And also open with a joke that always works.

[Peter Sagal]

Thank you.

[Matt Abrahams]

Thank you so much for joining us for another episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart, the Podcast. To learn more from our spontaneous speaking coaches, Listen to our four part miniseries episodes 197, 198, 199 and 203. You can also go to fastersmarter IO spontaneous. This episode was produced by Catherine Reed, Michael Riley and me, Matt Abrahams. Our music is from Floyd Wonder with thanks to Podium podcast company. Please find us on YouTube and wherever.

[Cheney Obumike]

You get your podcasts.

[Matt Abrahams]

Be sure to subscribe and rate us. Also follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram. Check out fastersmarterio for deep dive videos, English language learning content and our newsletter. Please consider our Premium offering for extended deep thanks episodes, Ask Matt Anythings and much more at fastersmarter IO Premium. I wanted to share with you that over the past few months I've had the amazing opportunity of talking to listeners across the globe about the impact the podcast has had on them. I love learning how people are applying the principles and concepts that we cover on the podcast and the impact that it has had on their lives. It is truly inspiring. Speaking on behalf of all of us that bring you the show, we thank you for your support. We look forward to bringing you new episodes, new techniques and deeper knowledge and we ask for your support. It takes time and effort to put this show on the air. Please keep your ideas coming and if you can, we'd love for you to join our premium. Thank you. And here's to another 200 episodes.