There's nothing like a good follow up to a bad story. My previous post concerned a friend who was unable to deliver a paper to his class. He said he literally had "feet of clay" and could not walk into the room.
Two weeks ago he let me know that he had another one coming up, and this time wanted to prepare properly. He asked if I would coach him, and I said I would.
The total amount of time spent on it was minimal...about 4-5 hours. We took a lot of time at the very beginning, to explore the possible choices of what to say and what to exclude on his topic. This was a fertile and useful step, because it allowed him to strongly connect with his beliefs on the subject. The hook was in, so what followed (time, effort, anticipation) were all channeled into his enthusiasm for making his points.
He had the time to sift through his ideas, pick the most salient, and then to write them for the spoken word. He also took the time to rehearse his piece, and this allowed him to have a sense of ownership that he had not been able to have the first time... when he wrote the whole piece the morning of the delivery. That might work for him once he's got much more experience under his belt, but not yet.
I got a call from him right after he got out of the class, and I could tell from his tone that it had gone well. He said that he felt so different this time, and noticed that he wasn't nervous as he was speaking. This, from the guy who had walked away from presenting his paper just one month before.
Put your energy into your preparation and you will never regret it. Learn how to prepare well. Make the world a better place, one speech at a time.