Practice your voice before the big platform; remember to breathe.

technique — attributed to Sarah Brown

Brown's confession is operational. She waited until she had a big platform to learn public speaking. She made some of the worst speeches of her life in front of audiences that were actually listening. She fainted at the end of one because she had forgotten to breathe. The implication for any advocate-in-training is to use the early years when nobody is paying attention to develop the craft. Small venues, low stakes, repeated reps. The voice that will eventually carry the big platform gets built in the small rooms. Waiting for the platform to start practicing produces the kind of public mistakes that take years to recover from.

For early-career advocates, speakers, and anyone building a public voice. The technique is most useful as encouragement to take low-stakes speaking opportunities now rather than waiting for the right moment.

public-speaking, practice, breathing, early-career