86. Three tricks to memorise a speech

Does the thought of speaking without notes freak you out? Do you feel like memorising a speech is impossible for you? Then this is the episode for you! Speaking without notes helps you make a much more natural, genuine connection with your audience. I share tricks you can use to memorise your content in the planning, practising and performance phases - and there's not a palm card in sight!

Transcript

Hello, and welcome to Episode 86 of That Voice Podcast, “Three tricks to memorise a speech”. Now, I'm guessing the title of this episode might have piqued your interest. This is a very common question I get. I find people fit into three camps. Now, Camp number one is never had any voice or public speaking training: Have to do a speech, write it out word for word, printed out in size 12 Times New Roman and stand up at the wedding or the functional, whatever it is and read it out. And it's pretty awful, but no one says anything because they haven't got the heart to, or, you know, it's okay.

Then camp two is people who I work with, who have to speak at a conference or any speech really at an event, maybe. And I throw it out there. How would you feel about memorizing it? And I mean, I say memorise, but I think they hear "terrorise" because the horror that fills their face when I suggest that they memorise it off by heart. It's like, "Oh my gosh, I couldn't possibly, I couldn't possibly do that!" It's like, I've just asked them to kill somebody. "Oh God, no! Absolutely not."

And then there is the third camp where the speaker has to memorise it. So for a TED talk, for example, you can't use notes. People freak out because, "Oh my gosh, I want my notes of course, but I can't. How the hell am I going to do this?" And that's why the most important thing to really get right first is opening your minds to not just the possibility of memorizing, but the fact that it's very doable. It's not just possible for you to memorise a speech. It is very doable.

I'm going to share with you today, three little tricks that will change the game. So first of all, why do we want to memorise a speech? Why can't we just read it? Well, reading or even reciting can sound really unnatural. It sounds really unnatural. And we miss that connection. And isn't that what it's all about? Yes. Okay. We might get all the words, "right." And not make any "mistakes." I'm doing lots of air quotes here, but we sacrifice that genuine connection. We sacrifice that natural flow. And really, isn't that the point of saying a speech? It's to have that voice-to-voice human, to human connection— even if it's through a screen, we want to sound natural. We don't want it to sound read. And this is why I really believe that if you can memorise something, then you can go out there and make a better connection.

Also, I believe scripts can be like the Trojan horse. It looks like it's there to help you, but really it's there to screw you over. You know how the horse went into Troy and they thought it was a gift from the war, but then all the army was in there and then they broke out in the night and took over the city? Hopefully, there’s no Greek historian listening to this who are like, "Is that right?" I'm pretty sure I got the story right. And a speech is the same kind of thing. You know, you might be thinking, "Oh yes, I'm fine. I've got my speech." But then it screws your eye contact. You end up sounding less natural. And then if you're reading along or you get into a bit of a flow and then you lose your place, you can actually stumble more by trying to find your place on the script or by dropping a card or something like that. So I believe you're much better off to avoid these scripts.

So, are we ready? Shortly? I'll be sharing my three tricks to memorise a speech.

But first, quick question. Are your speaking skills holding you back in your business or career? Or are they sailing you forward? Are you thrown into speaking situations with no idea what the hell to do? Are you struggling to have influence to get your message heard across the meeting table or through the camera lens? If this is you, I would really love to invite you to join my membership community, Members Only. It is packed with practical tips about all aspects of voice and presentation. I hold monthly events, including master classes, hot seat coaching and open mic, which is your chance to practice your upcoming speech or run something by me. We're on our own Mighty Networks app, so you're off the noise of social media and you get an instant fan club, led of course by me. And if you join yearly or lifetime, I also ship out a welcome gift to you. So, stop flying blind and hoping for the best when it comes to your voice and speaking, join us in Members Only. The link is in the show notes or head to sallyprosser.com.au to join us!

Okay. Let's dive into today's episode.

And our Members Only master class for this quarter is all about this. It's called "Memorise like a pro", and I'll be diving deep into the tricks that I shared today and also sharing a lot more information. So this is happening on the 1st of August. If you're listening after that date, then it'll be in the library. So as soon as you join Members Only, you'll be able to watch the replay.

Okay. So the three tricks I'm going to share. One can be used in planning. One can be used in practicing and the other can be used in performance. It's just a very beautiful thing that those words all happen to start with a P. The alliteration is gorgeous. All right. So in the planning stage, when you're putting content together, I really believe in using Post-its and color-coding. So trying to avoid sitting at your computer as the first thing that you do. Get a beautiful coffee table or a nice window, and Post-its in different colors.

Now, in one color, you are going to write key stories that you want to include. Key stories go in one color. Now they don't need to be memorised word for word. The human brain thinks in stories. If I said right now, "Okay, can you tell me a story about something crazy that happened to you on holidays or something when you were younger or at some birthday party?" We remember stories. We don't have to go hang on. We have to go consult our diary. We have that story there. We can tell it. All right. So that's one color. The next color is the point of the story. And the point of the story is like, why are you sharing it with the audience? If it's just a whole bunch of stories and the audience isn't getting anything from it. And we are speaking in service of the audience, right?

So, what is the point of that story? What is the lesson? What is the takeaway? Why are we sharing that particular story? It can also help you cut stories. So if you have a couple that have the same point or the same lesson, then you just choose which one is the best. That's a different color. You have one color for stories, one color for the point of them or why you're sharing them. And then you take another color for what I call the "Mic drop moments" and the "Mic drop moments", the key parts of the speech that you want to be staring straight at the audience and getting exactly right. Not just memorizing the words, but also knowing exactly how they're going to be delivered. Are you changing the pitch on a particular word? Are you taking a pause? Are you lowering the volume? I've done lots of episodes on those expressive devices. You don't want to be doing it on the fly or catch yourself looking down. It's those lines that really want to be delivered with impact. Usually, or which are usually all the time. This is going to be your first line and your last line.

First line, last line, key statistics, punchlines of jokes. As you're putting it together, you'll know what they are. They're the times that you really want to drop the mic. Then you can take a fourth color for segues and segues are what is, the interconnectors that are going to connect to each part of your speech. And so by color-coding it all, it really helps you memorise it while you're even planning it.

So that's in the planning. Now, when it comes to the practice, I'm a big believer. This is something that I do— it’s recording your speech to your phone. Oh, speaking of which, it's not on Silent, my goodness. Recording the speech to the phone and then playing it back before you go to bed. And when you wake up. Now, it's not the whole speech in one recording. I break up the speech into little mini speeches. And so again, it will make sense with how many sections there will be. So I'll often end up with five little speeches and I listened to them in different orders at different times.

And this is a really good technique because if you're always listening from start to end, then if you forget in one particular spot, it can be hard to pick it up. But if you see it as all these different mini speeches, then as soon as you get the start of the mini speech, then your energy is fresh again. And the words are more easily recalled. So that's practicing. Now in performance, we want to use visual cues to help us remember. Without being creative, we feel like our only visual cue is the actual typed out speech. Oh no, it's just not going to sound good. It'll sound like you're at a high school awards night and all the phrases come out broken, and it's just, you know, it might sound put together and polished, but it doesn't connect. It's not genuine. It's not real. So no, no printed out paper. Banned. Also no cards, unless you're in a high school debating team. No, no palm cards. Get rid of it. So let's think outside the square a little bit. If you've got a slide deck, oh, and if you've got a slide deck, don't have all your information on the slides. No, no, no. Use visual triggers. So your slide deck with pictures or particular quotes or whatever it is, can trigger your memory for that part of the speech. So we've got our slide deck, but what about costumes? What about props? I worked with the MC of TEDxUQ this year and she was just doing the housekeeping stuff at the start, you know, turn off your phone. Don't eat here are the exits. And she was like, "Oh, Sal, how do I remember all this?" So we got a little bag. And in that bag, we had a whole bunch of little things. One was an apple. When she pulled out the apple, she said, "No, you can't have this in here. There's no eating or drinking." The next thing she pulled out was her phone. "Oh, better put this on silent. You better put yours on, too." The next thing was a little scarf and she tied it around her neck, like a flight attendant. And of course, she's there to talk about exits, right? And so it was really creative and fun for the audience and totally easy for the MC, because she knew exactly what you had to talk about when she picked out the item.

Again, like when I do Voice and Vinho, I associate my topic with the particular wine. So I start off talking about the bottle. That's all about vocal branding with red wine. I talk about being full-bodied and breathing. White wine is the clarity of sparkling is the expression in the voice. And then the dessert wine is the gratitude for your voice. And so when I'm speaking at an event doing a Voice and Vinho style thing, I know exactly where I'm going just by the wines that I use as a prop. So it's really thinking creatively and thinking outside the square, because all of these things don't just help you remember the speech better, they're really interesting for the audience. Because the audience is over people standing at lecterns, they're over people reading off PowerPoint slides. Like, they are.

And look, I'm not saying I've never done it, but it's just a really lazy, boring option. So there you have it in your Planning, use the colored Post-it notes. In the Practicing, record to your phone and play back in many speeches. And in the Performance, use creative, visual triggers— visual cues to help you remember your words. So if these tricks have been helpful for you, then I'd really encourage you to come along to our Members Only masterclass on Sunday, the 1st of August and memorise like a pro. If it's after the first come and join us for the replay, you'll be getting a whole entire e-book with all of these strategies, more detail on all the techniques I went through. Also techniques on what to do. If you totally forget, if it just totally goes balls up and everything's out the window, what do you do? You need to have a plan and also exercises that you can do to strengthen your memory. So each time you have to memorise a speech, it becomes easier and easier. So that is Members Only. You can join us quarterly, yearly, all lifetime. There's bigger perks as you go up. The link to join is in the show notes, or just head to sallyprosser.com.au.