Pausing is the act of producing silence. Silence is not a waste of time. Silence is for a speech what whitespace is for graphics. It is a necessary tool to bring value to spoken words. You mark words with short pauses. You mark sentences with slightly longer pauses. In the same way, you should mark larger points with even longer pauses.

Pause.

Pausing takes a bit of courage. When pausing nothing remains between you and the audience, and you might feel naked and vulnerable. But, a well placed pause will let the audience breath, and in case they lost some of the details they also have the possibility to catch up with you as you move on to the next point.

Just pause.

A pause is not only useful for making a transition. Sometimes you will sense that the flow of the talk is not right. Sometimes you will get a question that requires you to ponder a bit. And sometimes, while talking you will come up with a new path that you might want to include in your presentation. In such moments, do not be afraid to just make a pause and think.

Just pause. And think.

The audience expects you to be human, and you should feel free to act accordingly.