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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

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Speaker 1: Today's tip is to build time to practice skills into

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Speaker 1: your life so you can achieve a breakthrough in the

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Speaker 1: next year. When we say the word practice, we tend

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Speaker 1: to think of athletics or music. We shuttle kids to

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Speaker 1: their lessons and harangue them to practice their instruments. Unless

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Speaker 1: someone's got a musical or athletic hobby, we tend not

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Speaker 1: to think about practicing in our own adult lives, but

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Speaker 1: this is really a missed opportunity. All skills benefit from

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Speaker 1: focused practice and consciously thinking through what can be practiced

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Speaker 1: and how allows you to move your career forward in

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Speaker 1: incredible ways. Practice doesn't necessarily make perfect, but it does

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Speaker 1: allow you to make more of your work automatic, so

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Speaker 1: you can focus your attention on the most valuable aspects

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Speaker 1: of what you do. So the first question, what skills

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Speaker 1: do you use repeatedly that can benefit from practice? Most

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Speaker 1: people have at least a few of these. There are

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Speaker 1: obvious ones, such as a medical procedure you do over

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Speaker 1: and over again, or if you're always fixing air conditioners,

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Speaker 1: but there are less obvious ones as well. Do you

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Speaker 1: ever speak in public or lead meetings? Do you ever

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Speaker 1: introduce yourself or tell people about your organization? Do you

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Speaker 1: write for anyone other than yourself? And what exactly are

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Speaker 1: you writing proposals, calming letters to angry customers, marketing materials,

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Speaker 1: social media posts? Do you ever need to coach employees

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Speaker 1: or give feedback? Do you need to interview people, either

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Speaker 1: for hiring or for informational purposes? Do you conduct any

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Speaker 1: part of your business in a foreign language? Do you

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Speaker 1: need to explain a concept to customers? Frequently? Identify the

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Speaker 1: skills you use repeatedly, and then think through what practice

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Speaker 1: would look like. What are the trickiest parts? How could

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Speaker 1: you increase the number of times you try these tricky

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Speaker 1: parts in lower stakes circumstances? How can you get feedback

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Speaker 1: from people who can help you improve. I do a

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Speaker 1: lot of public speaking as part of my job, but

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Speaker 1: I still practice before every speech. Often I'll practice multiple times.

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Speaker 1: I'll time myself giving the speech in my house so

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Speaker 1: I make sure I match the time target my hosts

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Speaker 1: have given me. I have the material I might use

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Speaker 1: in different forms for various groups completely memorized. This allows

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Speaker 1: me to deal with complications that might arise in the moment.

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Speaker 1: Maybe the CEO of the company where I'm speaking has

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Speaker 1: decided to sit in the front row and lob questions

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Speaker 1: at me throughout the talk. Or maybe I'm informed while

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Speaker 1: going up on stage that the conference is running behind

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Speaker 1: and I need to turn my forty minute talk into

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Speaker 1: a thirty minute one. Because I've practice to the point

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Speaker 1: where I know my material and exactly how long each

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Speaker 1: segment takes, I can quickly reconstruct the speech into something

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Speaker 1: coherent at any length. Similarly, if you're pitching work to

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Speaker 1: a potential client, practicing ahead of time means you won't

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Speaker 1: get tripped up on the basic material. You can describe

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Speaker 1: exactly what you do and how you do it in

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Speaker 1: language that you know is appealing you, thus free up

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Speaker 1: brain space to address your clients specific worries. Practice is

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Speaker 1: particularly important in situations that might become emotional. Maybe you,

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Speaker 1: as a manager need to give employees tough feedback. Practicing

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Speaker 1: exactly what you intend to say and how to convey

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Speaker 1: it clearly allows you to stay calm even if someone

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Speaker 1: becomes belligerent. The only way to achieve that level of

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Speaker 1: calm is to practice a lot and that takes time.

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Speaker 1: They're The good news is that it doesn't take a

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Speaker 1: ton of time. Focused practice can do a lot quickly.

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Speaker 1: When I got the opportunity to give a TED talk

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Speaker 1: a few years ago, I knew that the whole thing

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Speaker 1: would only run about twelve minutes. That meant that practicing

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Speaker 1: my speech five times weekly in the month prior to

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Speaker 1: the event still only took one of my hundred sixty

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Speaker 1: eight hours each week. Practicing a forty five minute presentation twice,

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Speaker 1: it's just ninety minutes. Giving someone a concise explanation of

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Speaker 1: what went wrong and what you'd like to see change

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Speaker 1: probably shouldn't take more than five minutes or so if that,

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Speaker 1: which means that you could run through it four times

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Speaker 1: on your commute into the office if you wanted so.

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Speaker 1: Think about how long focused practice might take you, and

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Speaker 1: then think about where you can build this into your schedule.

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Speaker 1: Block these times in protect them. This is important. And finally,

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Speaker 1: if you really want to improve, get feedback from people

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Speaker 1: who are similar to those who will be experiencing your

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Speaker 1: work in the moment. At a certain point, you can

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Speaker 1: start to see problems yourself. About twenty years into my

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Speaker 1: writing career, I'm probably tougher on my first drafts than

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Speaker 1: most editors would be, but for anything new or high stakes,

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Speaker 1: get feedback from others. One of the upsides of giving

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Speaker 1: a TED talk is that the organization set me up

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Speaker 1: with a coach who looked through my speech drafts and

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Speaker 1: had me give the talk multiple times through video chat

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Speaker 1: to make sure it would work. You can hire a

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Speaker 1: coach for this sort of thing, or seek help from

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Speaker 1: a colleague, your manager, or a friend who you trust

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Speaker 1: to give it to you straight. If the feedback makes sense,

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Speaker 1: then incorporate it. Keep practicing until whatever you're doing feels

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Speaker 1: incredibly natural. Because when things feel natural, then you can relax.

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Speaker 1: You stay effective regardless of what gets thrown at you,

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Speaker 1: and that makes you seem like the kind of person

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Speaker 1: that people will want to work with, and that can

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Speaker 1: lead to all sorts of career breakthroughs. What skills do

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Speaker 1: you practice is You can let me know at Before

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Speaker 1: Breakfast podcast at i heeart media dot com. In the meantime,

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Speaker 1: this is Laura. Thanks for listening and here's to making

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Speaker 1: the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to

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Speaker 1: hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,

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Speaker 1: or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook

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Speaker 1: and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod. That's b E the

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Speaker 1: number four, then Breakfast p o D. You can also

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Speaker 1: shoot me an email at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeart

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Speaker 1: media dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled out with

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Speaker 1: all the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward to

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Speaker 1: staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of I

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Speaker 1: heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit

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Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.