Last week we went to watch our grandson play little league baseball.

If you know baseball you know there is a structure to the game. A batting order. Positions. Innings. Coaches giving directions, kids waiting their turn. Even in second grade everybody, more or less follows the rules of the game.

The field next to ours was empty, no game scheduled, and six much younger boys had claimed it. They weren't playing an organized anything. They were throwing the ball around, chasing each other, and mostly rolling around in the dirt. No batting order. No positions. No coach telling them what came next.

What struck me was that both groups were playing ball in their own way. One had structure, direction, and more visible success. The other had freedom, movement, and improvisation. That’s a lot like presentation prep: some people do best with a plan, others with flexibility, and either can work if it fits the person using it.

Two kinds of preparers

Some of my clients feel better when they have a clear game plan. They want to know how they’ll begin, where they’re headed, and how they’ll bring it home. Sometimes they want it almost word for word, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Having a structure helps them settle in and trust themselves.

Others feel more like themselves with things more free form. Too much scripting makes them sound tight or unlike who they really are. Give them a few key points and a sense of direction, and they come alive. They find their words in the moment, and that’s often when they’re at their best.

People often ask me, which way is better?

Here’s my answer; it is your choice. I’ve seen speakers with a carefully built structure move people deeply, and I’ve seen speakers with just a few notes do the very same thing. The best approach is the one that helps you feel steady, natural, and fully yourself.

What actually makes the difference

Practice does. Specifically, saying the words out loud.

Not reading them silently. Not running through them in your head on the drive over. Out loud, in your real voice, at full volume, the way you'll actually say them when people are watching.

This is the part almost everyone skips, and it's the part that matters most for both kinds of preparers.

If you're the structured type, saying your material out loud is what keeps your script from sounding like a script. The first time you hear yourself, you'll catch the sentence that looked fine on paper but ties your tongue in knots. You'll find the spot where you sound like you're reading a manual instead of talking to a human. Practice is where written words become spoken ones.

If you're the free-form type, saying it out loud is what keeps "let it breathe" from turning into "I rambled for nine minutes and never made my point." Your bullets are anchors, but you still need to have traveled the route between them a few times so you don't get lost. Practice is where you learn how long your ideas actually take and where they tend to wander off.

This is why, in my 5 S.T.E.P.S. to Speaking Success framework, so much of the work happens before you ever stand up.

You Summon Your Inner Champion, the steady, capable version of you, and that voice gets louder every time you rehearse. Confidence comes from familiarity, not from a last-minute pep talk.

You Tackle Obstacles Early, and there's no better way to surface the obstacles than to hear them. The clunky transition, the joke that doesn't land, the statistic you can't quite pronounce. They all show up the moment you speak the words, while you still have time to fix them.

You learn to Energize and Engage Your Audience, which is nearly impossible when every ounce of your attention is going toward remembering what comes next. Practice frees you up to actually look at people.

You Prime Your Presence, walking in grounded instead of scrambling, because you've already been here, out loud, several times.

And you Share Stories That Stick, which only happens once you've told the story enough times to know exactly where the pause goes and which detail makes people lean in.

None of that depends on whether you scripted every word or scribbled three bullets on an index card. It depends on whether you practiced saying the words out loud first.

Pick your field

Here's what I tell my clients, do what works best for you. If you're the organized-game type, build your structure. If you're the free form type grab your bullets and let the words flow. Stop apologizing for whichever one you are.

Then do the one thing both fields require. Say it out loud. Then say it again.

Come practice with me

If you want a low-pressure way to put this into practice, here is the next step.

Join me on for my complimentary Open Office Hours on Zoom, Tuesday, June 2, from 4:00 to 5:00 PM Eastern.

No formal program. No slides. No agenda.

Simply register in advance, then show up with something you want to practice. Say it out loud, and get honest, useful feedback from me and the other people in the room.

Register here to get the Zoom link: https://lesliefiorenzo.com/live-registration-page

Bring the opening you can't quite nail, the tough question you're dreading, the toast, the pitch, the introduction, whatever you've got.

Say it out loud. I'll see you there.