Speech Day Checklist ♦ Arrive early if you can; walk the stage to visualize and own the stage. ♦ Go into a quiet room nearby, and use internal tools such as visualization to get into a state of confidence and warmth. ♦ Pause before you start. Count three beats, facing the audience, before you begin to speak. ♦ During the presentation, expect things to go wrong—whether an external disruption or your flubbing something. ♦ Use the midcourse corrections tools you’ve just learned. Take it with humanity and invite the audience into this mistake as a shared joke. ♦ Throughout your speech, remember to pause, breathe, and slow down. ♦ Don’t run off stage; pause after your last words