How to speak without notes.

There’s nothing wrong with using notes and cue cards when you’re giving a speech or preparation.

But let’s be honest, they’re a bit of a comfort blanket.

And if you over-rely on them, your delivery won’t be as good.

Because…

You’ll break eye contact with the audience.
You’ll lose pace and rhythm.
You might look less confident than you actually are.

And most importantly, it looks a little less like you ‘mean it.’


You can live without them

Most of the time, you don’t need notes. You already know your stuff. You’re just making sure you don’t forget anything.

But let me introduce you to a technique to help you memorise a speech without notes.

It’s the ‘memory palace.’


Introducing the memory palace

I know it may sound, erm, rather grand. But it worked for me.

It’s actually a 2,000 year old method, used by ancient Greek and Roman speakers to memorise their long speeches.

But you can still use it on your 5 min talk about generative AI.

Here’s how it works:

Step 1: Choose your ‘palace’

It doesn’t need to be a palace. Your house will do, or any building. Any physical space you know well.

Let’s say you pick your home. What you should is walk through it in your mind … From your front door to your kitchen, then to your hallway, then to your bedroom, and so on. This is your route.

Step 2: Place your points

Take the key ideas of your presentation, and mentally place them in different spots along your route in your chosen building.

Maybe your intro is in the doorway. Your first main point is in the living room. Your killer stat? It’s stuck to the fridge door in the kitchen. Your wrap-up? That’s upstairs in the bathroom.

You’re creating a story that you can walk through in your mind, with each location prompting the next idea.

Step 3: Make it vivid

Your brain remembers weird stuff better than boring stuff. So make each point oddly visual. Want to remember to talk about costs? Imagine a giant stack of gold bars in the kitchen. Want to remember to tell a customer story? Picture that customer sitting on your sofa, watching your favourite box set.

The trick is, the more specific, the better.


I know this technique sounds unusual

I’ll be honest, I thought it was bonkers when I first heard about it. But, it works for me, for precisely that reason.

The weirdness make your script/notes memorable, and puts all the elements of the story in an order for you to follow.


To sum up

The upshot of all this, of course, is that you’ve uploaded your speech into your head and now you can deliver it without notes.

You’ll look more confident.
You’ll sound more natural.
You’ll connect with the audience better.

Build your palace. Walk it through in your mind.

And then when you speak, it’ll seem like you mean it.


Hate public speaking? Let’s fix that.
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