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Memorizing your presentations takes the fun and authenticity out of presenting.
If you memorized a presentation before, then you know that it takes lots of time (time you can spend on other things).
Also, you may not be aware of this, but today’s audiences are very savvy; they know when you have all your lines memorized – you can’t hide that anymore. Memorizing affects your spontaneity, tone of voice, and even the words you choose.
If your audience detects that you have memorized a presentation, they will view you as less credible.
So, how can you be real, yet clear, concise, and compelling?
The solution is in the structure. Instead of memorizing your content, memorize your presentation structure.
I was never good at memorizing, and if public speaking required memorizing, then I would not have lasted the past 10 years in my business.
Luckily, I was always good with patterns and structures. To get into the speaking business I studied hundreds of great presentations and reversed engineered their structures. I learned the structures and used them over and over until they became embedded in my brain.
All I do now when I have a presentation coming up is build it using the structures I have collected over the years.
Here is an example of a structure:
Past > Present > Future
Take your topic and fit it into this structure. If your topic is Data Base Systems, then I am sure you can talk about database systems in the past, then database systems now, and then in the future, without memorizing anything.
See how the structure guides you to remember your content without memorizing it? Try it for your specific topic, Just think Past > Present > Future and create some content now.
You can use this specific structure for any topic: Medicine, Biotech, Cloud Computing, Customer Service, etc…
Here is a possible example from Customer Service
Three notes before you read the example:
1- Imagine I am saying this in front of a group.
2- Every time it will sound a little different because I did not memorize the content, instead, I just fill the structure in from my knowledge.
3- I used a different example out of my area of expertise (public speaking). This is to show you how the structure will make you sound like an authority even if you are speaking out of your field.
Past
“In the past, customer service was done face-to-face. People visited a store and were helped by the owner. If they bought products and had questions when they got home, then they went back to the business and talked to the owner. If the owner was not good with customer service, then they would just find a new store to do business with in the future and tell their relatives and friends about their bad experience”
Present
“Nowadays, customers buy things online and you don’t expect a face-to-face service like before. If they have a problem with an Amazon product, they email or call Amazon. If they are still not happy with the service, they go to Twitter, Facebook, Yelp, and post a negative review. Unlike in the past, customer reach is much bigger, especially, if they had a bad experience. That’s why customer service is even more crucial than any time in the past.”
Future
“In the future, customer service is going to be more imperative. With access to “Big Data,” companies can be proactive about their customer service. They can reach customers and consumers before they even have a problem and help them. That’s going to set a new standard for customer service. As a business, you have to adopt these tools to stay ahead of the curve, otherwise, you will miss out on attracting and retaining the future consumer,”
There are more structures that you can use to help you build presentations without memorization (the past-present-future structure is just one example of many).
In fact, you can get a structure to build your whole presentation from A to Z in the Magnetic Messaging Bootcamp (you will learn the structure I use to build all my presentations and all my private client’s presentations.)
Once you have your structure down, practice what you would say in each piece of that structure out loud. You will be amazed by the quality of the results. Also, this will cut weeks off your preparation time.
Remember: Don’t memorize your content, memorize your presentation structure and you will look real, authentic, and knowledgeable every time you present.
