Delivery Style Quiz

Free Public Speaking Courses

How do I get better at answering questions?

Course Overview

This course takes 5 minutes .

You will learn 3 things.

You will gain 2 abilities.

  • A “Repeat” is when you confidently say back the words used in the questions. This is a guaranteed way to start your presentation with confidence and structure.

    A “Count” is when you break your answer up into a number of countable points. “In 2 minutes, I’m going to tell you 2 things - what I wouldn’t recommend and what I would recommend“.

    Scroll below to see an explanation, demonstration, and series of activities to help you learn this public speaking technique.

  • In order of difficulty to learn: “One Word“, “Sentence“ and “Clarify in 2”.

    Scroll below to see explanations, demonstrations, and activities to get better at these Repeat Skills.

  • There are an infinite many ways to “Count”, but some particularly useful structures are:

    Summary, Detail.

    Past, Present, Future

    Problem Strategy Solution

    Scroll down for explanations, demonstrations and activities to help you practice.

  • When you master Repeat & Count, you will be able to speak in a confident, structured and professional way without any prior preparation.

  • Item description

Lesson 1

What is Repeat & Count?

And why is it a good structure for Q&A?

  • Question: “How would you describe yourself?“

    Answer: “Describe. I would describe myself…“.

    Explanation: Here, the person answered the question by Repeating a key word in the sentence (“describe“) and then starting their answer using the sentence structure used in the question.

    Benefits:

    • Speaker doesn’t have to think about what to say

    • Whatever question is asked, Speaker can Repeat confidently despite pressure

    • Speaker and Audience get the benefit of not answering the wrong question

    • By saying the question out loud, the Speaker is causing something called “word association” to happen in their brain. Namely, their brain is gathering information and examples related to the words in the question.

    • It takes about 5 to 20 seconds for a structured answer to formulate, and this process allows that time to elapse before committing to an answer.

    • Someone at the back of the room gets to hear the question if they missed it the first time.

    • And many, many more…

  • Question: “How would you describe yourself?“

    Answer: I can describe myself in two ways: personally and professionally…

    Explanation: The speaker has made the question easier by breaking it up into two Countable, more manageable sub-questions (their personal and professional side).

    Benefits:

    • Speaker continues to allow themselves time to come up with a response without committing fully yet

    • Speaker can answer almost any question like this, and can ensure confidence.

    • The structure of their answer makes a complex question seem simple, before a detailed answer is given.

    • The speaker can increase the chance they don’t ramble off topic by setting down their two countable topics.

    • The audience is empowered to pay attention to the speaker because the have received a signal from the speaker that the answer has only 2 parts and should be brief.

    • And many many more.

    • Job Interviews

    • Podcast appearances

    • Conference Panel Q&A

    • TV interviews

    • Live streaming

    • Classrooms and Workshops

    • Answering an investors questions about a pitch

    • Being asked to speak at a birthday, wedding or significant event

    • Any opportunity to answer a question when you don’t have time to prepare or rehearse a presentation.

Demonstration of Repeat Count

Watch the video

Watch all the ways

  • Question: “How would you describe yourself?“

    Answer: “Describe. I would describe myself…“.

    Explanation: Here, the person answered the question by Repeating a key word in the sentence (“describe“) and then starting their answer using the sentence structure used in the question.

    Benefits:

    • Speaker doesn’t have to think about what to say

    • Whatever question is asked, Speaker can Repeat confidently despite pressure

    • Speaker and Audience get the benefit of not answering the wrong question

    • By saying the question out loud, the Speaker is causing something called “word association” to happen in their brain. Namely, their brain is gathering information and examples related to the words in the question.

    • It takes about 5 to 20 seconds for a structured answer to formulate, and this process allows that time to elapse before committing to an answer.

    • Someone at the back of the room gets to hear the question if they missed it the first time.

    • And many, many more…

  • Question: “How would you describe yourself?“

    Answer: I can describe myself in two ways: personally and professionally…

    Explanation: The speaker has made the question easier by breaking it up into two Countable, more manageable sub-questions (their personal and professional side).

    Benefits:

    • Speaker continues to allow themselves time to come up with a response without committing fully yet

    • Speaker can answer almost any question like this, and can ensure confidence.

    • The structure of their answer makes a complex question seem simple, before a detailed answer is given.

    • The speaker can increase the chance they don’t ramble off topic by setting down their two countable topics.

    • The audience is empowered to pay attention to the speaker because the have received a signal from the speaker that the answer has only 2 parts and should be brief.

    • And many many more.

    • Job Interviews

    • Podcast appearances

    • Conference Panel Q&A

    • TV interviews

    • Live streaming

    • Classrooms and Workshops

    • Answering an investors questions about a pitch

    • Being asked to speak at a birthday, wedding or significant event

    • Any opportunity to answer a question when you don’t have time to prepare or rehearse a presentation.

How coaching helps you get better at the skill of public speaking

Slide titled "Lesson 1" with the question "What does mastery look like?" on the left side and a photo of a professional basketball player dribbling on the right side. Text below the photo states, "The pro basketballer looks at the opponent, not the ball. They can make advanced decisions because dribbling is effortless."

Let’s use a basketball demonstration.

In basketball, a beginner will at first struggle to master dribbling the ball while moving around the court. Their eyes will be on the ball, but spending so much attention on the ball (and not the opponent about to take the ball from them) will limit their success in the game.

But in both basketball and public speaking there are similar signs that someone has attained a level of mastery over those skills.

Mastery looks like:

  • performing skills effortlessly (with low effort or attention)

  • having high perception (picking up subtle cues, staying present)

Public Speaking Mastery looks like:

  • thinking and talking effortlessly (no script, control of body and voice)

  • having high perception of the audience (did they understand? agree? enjoy?)