During my first year of starting Toastmasters, I was presenting multiple speeches per month. I came in setting high expectations for myself, so I thought it would be a great idea to memorize every word of a particular speech I was going to give. Instead of building my confidence in knowing the content I needed to present, I found myself writing a dull speech and relying on my memory. It turned out to be one of the worst decisions I would make in my quest to becoming a public speaker. I didn’t prepare correctly and clearly showed. When the day came to give my presentation, everything started great. I got through the introduction word-for-word, which lasted about a minute and a half. However, as soon as I proceeded to get into the main points of my speech, my mind went blank. There I was standing in front of my audience trying to figure out what to say next. I couldn’t remember the order of my main points, nor could I remember my main points at all. There was confusion amongst the audience as I awkwardly tried to disguise what was happening. Yet, nothing seemed to work. I simply froze. Ten seconds passed, then twenty seconds passed. I can remember the feeling like it was yesterday. It was the longest twenty seconds of my life, and I felt defeated.

In one of my most embarrassing moments, I was doing something that I claimed to love, yet failed to prepare for. I repeatedly and nervously apologized to my audience, walked over to my iPad (which took what seemed like forever to turn on) and did my best to gather my points and continue my speech. All-in-all it took a minute of the audience waiting in total silence as I scrambled trying to recover. The damage was done. I felt like the impression that I made was beyond repair, and I bombed. Luckily for me, I was in an environment in which I was practicing. There wasn’t a real consequence for me messing up. The most I would get is a list of things I could do to improve and a bunch of encouragement. But if the scene were different and this was a live event in which an event planner booked me (a paid live event at that), it’s safe to say that based on that performance I wouldn’t get booked again. To date, it is the worst speech I have given. And to think, it all stemmed from my lack of preparation because I was dependent on memorizing words instead of knowing my content.

When it comes to memorizing information that you’re going to present you need to be strategic. If you’re on stage for 30 minutes, there is no reason that you should attempt to memorize your entire speech or even the majority of your speech. There are too many other factors to consider. Besides, memorizing, in this case, would promote bad speech preparation. Think of it on a grand scale. You need to know the order in which you present information or which points you want to make first or second. You need to know ahead of time where you want to be on the stage when you are telling a specific story or which area of the audience you want to look at when you make a certain point. But don't use the fact that you can memorize words as your crutch when you are on the stage. Why? Because memorizing while practicing at home is a different ball game compared to speaking in front of a live audience. The temperature may not be as comfortable. The lights will shine brighter. The stage can be grand and unfamiliar. All eyes are on you, and there will be moments filled with so much silence that you could hear a pin drop. A multitude of distractions can occur. To simply put it, the energy in front of a live audience is different.

No matter what you’re talking about, you want to know the content you are delivering like the back of your hand. Writing words on a piece of paper and expecting to regurgitate them flawlessly is the easiest way to end up embarrassed and the perfect reason for you to never get a callback. The average person can speak anywhere from 4,500 to 7,500 words in a 30-minute speech. Attempting to memorize every word of your speech is the wrong way to go about tackling those 30 minutes and it will make those 30 minutes seem like a couple of hours. You’re the artist and the speech is a picture you’re painting for your audience. You need to know the direction in which you want to go, so think: What type of story is it that you’re trying to tell? What is the overall point of your speech? What jewels do you expect the audience to walk away with and keep with them long after they hear you speak? Once you figure out those answers, then you can build an outline around your content. Yes, you should write down some of the words you want to say, but practice enough so that you can be as natural as possible when you speak. If you’re trying to speak about something you are passionate about and focus on delivering great content, you won’t have to worry about forgetting what words to say. It will come to you naturally like the childhood stories that we all carry with us for a lifetime. Don't memorize your content. Own your content in spirit and delivery!     

If you found this tip useful, please like and share it. Comment on it as well and let me know what you think. Until next Monday, my name is Julian Leonard and this tip was brought to you by The JLeonard Group.

Sincerely,

Julian A. Leonard
(Founder of The JLeonard Group LLC)