Anne-Laure Le Cunff in today’s Ness Labs newsletter reveals a secret I’ve been living by for most of my life:

What you want is to understand the ideas so well that you can trust yourself to find the words when you need them.

The critical exception is the very first words you’re going to say, whether it’s a hard 1:1 conversation or a packed auditorium. Memorize them. Practice them. Then when your brain inevitably goes to lunch just as you open your mouth, you can start speaking while it gets back in gear.