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Stop memorizing your WHOLE talk

Most people think a great presentation means knowing every word by heart.

So they memorize the whole thing. Every sentence. Every pause.

Every "and furthermore."

Then they get on stage and sound like a GPS with anxiety. "In 400 feet, turn left into your next key point."

Here's the thing we all do wrong: we confuse "prepared" with "scripted."

They're not the same thing.

Yes, use a script. If someone is giving up their time to watch you, or paying MONEY to sit in that room… you owe them your “Best stuff”!

Not your "I'll wing it and see what happens" stuff.

But memorizing the whole script word for word? That's where it gets weird. You’ll walk on stage and sound like a robot reading the terms and conditions out loud.

Bullet points handle most of it just fine. And if there's one part where every single word matters, sure, nail that part cold.

But the rest? Let yourself breathe a little.

In fact, leave about 15% totally free. Unscripted. On purpose.

Why? Because something always happens. The projector dies.

Someone in the front row starts crying for no obvious reason.

The fire alarm goes off and then awkwardly doesn't.

You need to be able to SAY the thing everyone in the room is already thinking.

When you're locked into a memorized script, you can't do that.

You're just a robot waiting to get back on track.

Write your script using “voice notes”, not by typing it out.

Type it, and you'll end up speaking the written version of English.

Which sounds nothing like how humans actually talk.

You know, that slightly weird, overly correct thing where nothing sounds wrong but nothing sounds “real” either.

Talk it out instead. Record yourself. Transcribe it.

Now it sounds like a conversation!

Which is all anyone ever wanted from you anyway.

If you want a hand figuring out where your presentation is too stiff, or where you're losing people and don't know it — I do a free 15-minute call where we just talk through it.

I've been behind a mic for over 30 years. I'll listen to what you're working on and give you something useful you can use right away.

No pitch, no package required. (Link below)

Go easy on yourself... scripts are a tool, not a crutch.
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Stellar Marketing Quotes

“There are always three speeches, for every one you actually gave. The one you practiced, the one you gave, and the one you wish you gave.”

Dale Carnegie

“It usually takes me more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.”

Mark Twain

Managing CLOWNS is an actual skill.

Running a Radio station “Disc jockey meeting” is not like running a normal meeting.

Besides being an on-air personality, several times throughout my career, I was also the “Program Director”.

See, when you're a Program Director, you're basically running a daycare for adults who get paid to be “ridiculous”. That's the job.

You hire people for their personality. Their weirdness.

Their ability to make a stranger laugh.

And then you have to “manage them”, Reader!

Good luck!

We ended every jock meeting with the same send-off: "Don't f--- up."

Not because we thought it would work. More like... a prayer. A wish.

A thing you say knowing full well someone's going to do something spectacularly dumb before the week is out.

So when you sit down to explain "new station policy," you're basically trying to herd cats who've had espresso and a microphone.

And sometimes, those cats borrow the station van on a Saturday night.

To "pick up chicks." At a concert.

In a vehicle with the station logo on the side. 😐

The General Manager found that van Sunday morning. Let's just say it did not smell like air freshener. Closer to beer, puke, and “unidentifiable”.

So two very sorry, very hungover guys got my 7 am phone call.

They spent the rest of their weekend vacuuming and scrubbing while the rest of the city slept.

But the van incident wasn't even the most creative screw-up.

That honor goes to the jock who rolled through a Wendy's drive-thru…

in the station van… to redeem the "free lunch" coupons we were giving away ON THE AIR. To listeners. Not to staff!

Here's the thing though. Those same people who drove me absolutely crazy in a meeting? They were ELECTRIC on air.

They knew how to make a connection. How to hold attention.

How to make you feel like they were talking only to you.

That's not an accident. That's a skill. And it carries way beyond Radio.

(You can learn it too!)

Diversions

Your Thoughts

What part of public speaking gets you FIRST? The anticipation beforehand Everyone looking at me Forgetting what I wanted to say Hearing my nervous voice

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