Want to Improve Your Public Speaking? Watch Beauty Pageants

One of my coworkers delivered an excellent keynote presentation at our user conference today. Her suggestion? Watch beauty pageants.

The final portion of a beauty pageant consists of an interview where contestants are given a single question to answer in a specified time.

When someone’s nervous, they tend to speak quickly. But the best beauty pageant contestants talk slowly.

Additionally, they are trained to answer a wide range of questions. To prepare for this, they have a handful of answers that they customize depending on the question.