The Trouble with Keynotes
In the early days of On Point, I was invited to give the keynote address that kicked off a 3-day entrepreneurship event. I had a month to prepare and was given a time limit of 30-45 minutes. I may have mentioned in previous posts that I have four children… I don’t exactly have large blocks of time to rehearse a 45-minute talk three times in one day. And I know you don’t either.
Keynotes and TED talks are unique. Slides are often frowned upon. That means no cheat sheet, no prompts. Some venues provide a floor monitor, but not so for me. I had to know this talk from start to finish. And I refuse – as I tell my clients regularly – I absolutely refuse to memorize a talk. It’s way too risky, for reasons explained later.
So I got to thinking…how can I rehearse, without really rehearsing?
There’s got to be a way…And that’s when it hit me.
What I did next has improved both my coaching and my personal approach to rehearsing talks. It involves a few clicks of a button and the tap of a finger. Try it out, and let me know how it goes:
Color-code your keynote & hit record
OPTION A:
If you have only a script and no slides
(STEP 1) Color code the sections of your talk, as seen above. Mine had 4 major sections. It timed at about 40 minutes.
(STEP 2) Open the camera on your phone. Roll your video while the phone camera is pointed at your computer screen so that you are recording the section of color you’re reading. (Then, when you want to listen to the green/orange/yellow segment, it’s easy to find the clip on your phone as you scroll.) Now, with your color-coded script open on your screen, stand up and get ready to deliver.
(STEP 3)
Read the script into your phone as it records. Record one color as one file. Read the talk the way you want to deliver it – with the right emphasis, inflection, strategic pauses, humor, etc. Repeat this step until all color-coded sections are recorded.
(STEP 4)
Plug and Play. Plug in your ear buds, and hit play. Listen to yourself give the talk sections. Start with the intro only, listen to that section over and over (3-5x). While you’re running. While driving. As you do any mindless activity or chore like pulling weeds, folding laundry, painting, washing the car, whatever.
(STEP 5)
Deliver the section for real now. Don’t worry about perfection – get the main ideas across. Don’t stop and start over, keep pushing through. Add colored sections to your “live” rehearsals as you learn them. Nail that intro and conclusion. A few days before your talk, record yourself live with the camera or better still, perform it in front of others.
OPTION B:
If you have A slide DECK AND NEED TO MASTER ITS FLOW
(STEP 1) Open your Zoom.us account (or other platform like Go To Meeting, etc). Start a meeting with yourself.
(STEP 2) Share your screen with yourself. Put the slide deck on the first slide. If you want to be able to see your “notes section” that’s fine, just use the viewing format you prefer.
(STEP 3) Find the “Record” prompt in the menu at the bottom of your screen. Click “Record to the Cloud” (vs. “Record to the Desktop Computer)
(STEP 4) Go! Deliver your talk. Click through the slides. If you have notes in the notes section (even if it’s a full script), lean on that. This is NOT about you trying to do it without help. This is 100% about you recording the “I Nailed It” version of the talk. Scripts are welcome. Read the talk the way you want to deliver it – with the right emphasis, inflection, strategic pauses, humor, etc. If you mess up a little just keep going. It’s ok. Get to the end.
(STEP 5) Stop the recording. End the meeting with yourself. You may get a prompt that says something like, “would you like an e-mail notification when the recording is complete?” Say yes and END the meeting.
(STEP 6) When the e-mail gets into your inbox, it’s like gold. Now you have your “I Nailed It” talk in your pocket, literally. Now it’s time to get listening. Start listening to the talk wherever you can give it your full attention. While on a walk or mowing the lawn. While painting a room or while folding laundry. Visualize yourself giving it.
Why this Works
- When you listen back, you’re both rehearsing and visualizing simultaneously. You’re rehearsing by listening to your own voice and your delivery techniques. You’re learning the order of the content by listening to each section repeatedly. If you watch the video back (if you have a slide deck to learn), you’ll cement the slide order in your head, AND, it will match the words you’re saying while the slide is up. As you listen, visualize the hand motions you’ll do, the part of the stage you’ll move to, etc.
- By the time you start to practice “live”, your brain has committed to memory the content of each color-coded section (if no slides), or of each slide. In my example, I found myself saying, “OK start with green, after I say X point, I transition to yellow with this line…”
- You’re not memorizing verbatim, but it’s pretty close once you’ve listened 5-7x. You are learning message flow. As you hear the recorded segments, you’re recalling the basic order of sentences, but maybe not the exact words. This is great! Why? Because memorizing something verbatim can put a lot of pressure on speakers. With this technique, you’ll have to skills to paraphrase or ad-lib until you get to the next color. Is it okay to memorize a few sentences that are critical to your speech? Absolutely. I do it too. Just don’t rely on memorizing all of it. I suppose there are exceptions to this rule; if you’re giving a TED talk for example, you might want to get very close to knowing it verbatim. If that’s the case, all you have to do is keep doing this process over and over, with rehearsals of it every 5 times you listen so you as a speaker, don’t go stale on stage in terms of delivery. As the story below illustrates, that’s a recipe for disaster…
[You can stop reading if you just came for the tips,
but the story below may motivate you to do the above steps.]
The Dangers of Memorizing: A Short Story
When I was 15, I had one particularly harrowing experience that demonstrates why memorization can completely sink you. I was in high school, trying out for the Pom Squad. We learned a routine to the 90’s hit song, Rave On (I know, awesome). In the middle, we’d have eight 8-counts to make up our own moves. (This was a ploy to evaluate both our creativity and our ability to recover.) I practiced all week, non-stop, and with friends who’d critiqued me. Tryouts were solo – me in front of a panel of three judges. I felt really strong.
When I got to the 8-counts I’d made up for myself? I blanked out. Then I panicked. I stopped not knowing what to do. I just stood there, watching my goal of finally making the squad disintegrate before my eyes.
I will never forget the feeling of forgetting.
I will never forget what it was like to freeze up completely – my mind going completely…blank.
The music kept going, but I did nothing. To make matters worse, I couldn’t recover. I’d lost my place. All I could think was, “I’m forgetting, I’m forgetting! Now what? I don’t know. I can’t remember.” I was horrified that I was failing right then and there, losing any chance I’d make the squad (which I didn’t).
The same dangers exist for public speakers who try to memorize. Do not fall prey to this trap. Instead, use the technology at your fingertips. Get creative. Learn – Rehearse – Visualize. Master your color-coded message.
Photo courtesy of Ruth Bruhn
Cindy provides public speaking coaching and brand consulting to entrepreneurs and small businesses who seek to master their message on stage, online and in publications. Her passion for crafting, analyzing and presenting messages developed through over 25 years in the corporate, academic and entrepreneurial worlds. Cindy coaches clients on pitch decks, TED talks, storytelling, presentation presence, brand messaging, PR strategy and more.
