I made what I consider to be 3 big mistakes recently when I was introducing someone. I outlined the information to cover, jotted some statistics to share, and carried them with me onstage. Unfortunately, because we were running short for time, the introduction didn't powerfully lead back to the audience benefit and my total admiration and respect for the upcoming speaker.

For some strange reason, I didn't make the time to practice what I was going to say out loud. Not practicing aloud caused me to relearn 3 very important things.

The learning point here is that even if you are a professional speaker, you must always practice any speech that you will give aloud beforehand, if possible. Hearing yourself speak aloud usually makes it instantly clear where your focus should be and what words are "listener & speaker friendly" meaning easy for the audience to understand and easy for you to articulate and express comfortably.

It is imperative that you time yourself especially when introducing someone else. Your message needs to be short & sweet with a clear takeaway.

What's a "takeaway"? It's the one action you want your audience to take or the one piece of information you want them to remember. For example, when you introduce someone, one possible action your audience could take is to listen attentively to the upcoming speaker.

Another tip when you introduce someone is to make sure that you do a fantastic build up and always end with the person’s name. For example, “Put your hands together and make some noise for a man who traveled all the way from Ann Arbor, Michigan --- a man who's in the top 1% of marketers & entrepreneurs in the world -- THE man who is about to teach you how to create outrageous wealth ----Mr. --- Stephen --- Pierce!”

Let's talk for a moment about mistakes. Frankly, we learn far more from our mistakes than our successes. As a matter of fact most mistakes aren't even noticed by your audience. So don't "beat yourself up" when you don't perform as well as you think you could.

Even though at least 5 people came up to me after my introduction and thanked me for my sincerity saying they were personally touched by my sharing, I still beat myself up literally for days for what I thought were mistakes. I actually lost a lot of sleep over it.

Finally, don't do what I did and learn from my example. Don't expect to be perfect, continue to practice, and just be grateful for your mistakes when they happen.

Welcome the opportunity to learn and give yourself credit for being courageous. As a result of reading this article you are already closer to being a more extraordinary communicator. Congratulate & celebrate you, and most importantly, enjoy the journey!