Become Skilled at Winging It, and Outshine Every Over-Scripted Try-Hard in Your Niche

“Reciting lines is hard; making stuff up is much, much easier.” – Zach Galifianakis, Born Oct. 1, 1969.

The most valuable skill you can start developing now is performing. As in, being comfortable on stage or on camera. And that can be intimidating.

I hated it. It was scary when I was first starting out. But I'll tell you a secret that made it a lot easier.

Try to “write” as little as possible. You're probably a writer of some kind if you're following me for any reason. And I know that will make you want to script things.

Try not to.

Because listen, if you need to script everything in order for you to get on camera or on stage, you then ALSO need to learn to ACT and EMOTE – and be able to do it WHILE trying to recall and recite lines.

Most people end up reading it off a prompter, and then you just sound like you're reading aloud instead of actually speaking.

Instead, just PRACTICE PERFORMING as often as possible, WITHOUT preparation.

It will suck at first. But that is just discomfort and fear.

The practice will erode that discomfort and fear away and eventually, the camera or the crowd will become familiar to you as a friend. You will be able to be as casual and extemporaneous as you are among your real friends.

And once you're there, it is SO MUCH easier to just make stuff up – turn on the camera and riff, or spend 10 minutes to do enough sparse notes for a whole hour-long talk.

If you can have a decent conversation with a colleague, you can port that directly to creating HIGH PERCEIVED VALUE content like talks and video.

The secret is to not write it. Become comfortable winging it. Or you're going to have trouble competing with people who CAN perform like this.

And basically every teenager today is coming up in a culture where this is their every day mode of interaction.

Get good. Now.