There is a story in my family about 20-25 years ago when my dad was in Toastmasters and was going to give a speech at the next meeting. He had two weeks to prepare but struggled very bad and couldn’t come up with anything at all.

He had collected data and done some research, but he was still having problems constructing the actual speech. With one week left he went to visit his parents for some advice on the speech. They gave him some pointers and helped to put his mind to ease, but ultimately he was still hitting a roadblock.

When the day came for the speech after a restless night (it probably didn’t help that baby Katie was crying the whole night through!), my dad woke up and thought well the speeches are voluntarily done so I’ll just skip this meeting and give the speech in two more weeks.

With the pressure off of my dad he quickly fell asleep. It didn’t last long though, because the phone began ringing. When answered, this is all that was said.

“Hi Tom. Are you coming to give your speech? Your parents are here to listen to it.”

With that my dad jumped out of bed and was off to give his speech that he had worked so hard on, but had nothing prepared for.

My dad planned out his entire speech in the 10 minute car ride to the meeting. When he got there the first speech was just finishing and he was next up.

He went up to the podium and began; there was no turning back now! So my dad went into overdrive, pouring more than 100% into his presentation.

Then it was finished. And the audience loved it. His parents loved it. His fellow members loved it. And even the Toastmaster heads loved it.

So I ask you now, If you had 10 minutes to piece together your speech, could you do it?