#44 | 4.12.24 - Delivering a Talk Without Notes // 21 Ted Talks for Professional Growth / How Far Can She Go? / Musical Instruments at Miami Marlins
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Delivering a Talk Without Notes
I did something this past week I’ve thought about doing for the last 10 years. I delivered a talk without notes! A little bit of context:
I enjoy public speaking. It’s one of those things that has always fascinated me, and I marvel at the people who can do it well. It’s no exaggeration to say that of all the times I’ve done public speaking, I often wondered, “How could that have been better if I didn’t have my notes to rely on?” - (probably my Maximizer strength whispering to me 😂). Well, I decided I had enough with wondering about that, so I decided to give it a go. Fortunately, I had time to do this ‘right’ (according to the experts). Here is how I did it. Your mileage may vary, but this worked for me:
7 weeks out - I knew the date and time I would be speaking, so I had time to prepare. I also knew my topic, so I began building the talk. I normally write my talks out long-form, word for word. I continued that methodology for this talk, knowing that I wouldn’t have my notes.
3 weeks out - I had my talk and the accompanying PowerPoint slides built (again, in long form). In the process of 4 weeks, I wrote and read through it quite a few times, trying to internalize the content. With that in mind, I practiced it for the first time, keeping my notes handy. I discovered that I had to reference my notes only about half the time. That gave me a good baseline, but still, plenty of work to do.
1 week out - In the two weeks since, I practiced another 4 times, each time looking at my notes less and less. I began getting more confident and could add/remove things on the fly.
Day of - By the time the day arrived, I had gone through the talk 5 different times over the process of 6-7 weeks. The day of, I thought I would be more nervous than I was (don’t get me wrong, I was still nervous!), but I actually had fun doing it. I felt freedom and flexibility I don’t normally feel. In addition to that, after I was done, and this feels weird to say, but I was really proud of myself. It felt so good to actually do this thing that I had built up so big in my mind. I don’t know if I’ll do that for every talk in the future, but it felt great to know that if I wanted to, I could do it.
With that experience in the rearview mirror, here is what I learned:
Prepare - I know that I couldn’t have done this if I started the effort a couple of days beforehand. I’m sure some people can do that, but I’m not one of them. I need time to think, write, and build the talk. Also, I need time to let the content get in me. I discovered that, ironically, throughout all the preparations, I was able to be more spontaneous on stage. A couple of things happened I didn’t plan for, and that actually made the talk better! I’m not sure how those would have gone without the preparations.
Practice - After the 5th time I did this talk alone in my basement, I knew the rhythm of the talk (more about that below). I knew the points I wanted to hit and how the talk felt. That helped me tremendously when I was on stage as I knew how different parts felt to me, and again, I could be more flexible and spontaneous.
Fun - I’m not going to lie; this was a ton of work, but it was SOOO worth it. There’s nothing like the experience of standing on a stage giving a 40-minute talk and having no podium to stand behind. I wasn’t sure what I would think of that, but I really enjoyed it.
In terms of the actual mechanics of the talk, I’ve been watching countless YouTube videos about the best way to go about this, and I boiled down those videos to one key concept:
Don’t memorize your talk. Understand it.
With that in mind, here’s the actual structure I used to help me not have to memorize the talk but understand it:
These served as jumping-off points for me during the entire talk. I would do the opening, talk a bit, then I know my transition, then go into Point 1, and so on. The slides I made corresponded with these jumping-off points as well.
If you are considering giving this a go, I hope this is helpful to you and inspires you to give it a try!
21 TED Talks for Professional Growth
This is a great list from some of the best sharpest minds around. Topics include:
Inspiring Leadership
Boost Motivation
Building Resilience
How Far Can She Go?
I was really glad I took the 6 minutes to watch this video of Donna Jean Wilde attempting to break a world record. Fascinating!
Musical Instruments at Miami Marlins
The Miami Marlins released a list of the musical instruments allowed in the team’s ballpark this season, including tambourines, congas, trumpets, and some (but not all) types of cowbells. Yes, this is real 😂
Words to wrap up
If you feel like you hate everyone, eat.
If you feel like everyone hates you, sleep.
If you feel like you hate yourself, shower.
If you feel like everyone hates everyone, go outside.
- Anonymous