From the October 2006 American Speaker issue:

Many nervous speakers tend to rush through their introductory greetings and dive into their speech texts. All too often the result is a rhetorical belly flop. Don’t ride roughshod over your opening words. Your audience needs a little time to adjust to your arrival, to quiet down and to focus its attention on you. Calm, cool and confident are the opening qualities you want to project — and here are four relaxation techniques you can use to control your nervousness and bring those qualities to the forefront.

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