You have a key performance skill that every celebrity presenter and TED Talk speaker has. That’s because, when used properly, one of the best assets for a successful presentation is strategic memorization.

DISCLAIMER: feel free to read or refer to your notes.

If you’re trying to memorize your entire sales pitch, keynote, product roll-out, Town Hall opening statement, performance review, team-building initiative, community outreach announcement, etc.… you may be committing too much time to memorization.

If you can memorize the whole enchilada, great. But, overdoing it might take away from the time you can spend on preparing the content and from other important aspects of your delivery, such as being “in the moment” with your audience. In fact, strategic memorization is designed to enhance your “in the moment” moments.

With my strategy, you only need to memorize:

Your opening paragraph

Your key bullet points (10-15 max.)

Your closing paragraph

NOTE: I’m talking about normal size paragraphs, not paragraphs that are half pages. And if you’ve got more than 10-15 key points, edit your content before you start memorizing anything.

Why is it important to memorize how you’re starting, where you’re going, and how you’re going to finish your presentation? And how do you do it?

Because balancing between how much time to spend scripting your content and how much time to spend memorizing it affects your performance and success in creating the positive outcome you’re intending for yourself and your audience.

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My strategic memorization technique will make your presentations more successful in four ways:

1. Connect with your audience

If you’re not reading or looking at your notes in the first few moments of your presentation, it will enable you to make eye contact with your audience and ensure you are conveying the appropriate emotion and tone.This sets a precedent, making it a non-issue when you need to read or refer to notes later.

2. Boost and convey your confidence

Knowing where you’re going with your narrative and messaging will help reduce any unconscious “deer in the headlights” or panicked look on your face. You’ll be more likely to have a look of positive energy and enthusiasm. 

3. Keep on message and on time

Part of being “in the moment” is allowing yourself to respond to your audience and improvise when opportunities arise. If you’ve memorized your key bullet points, you can afford to go off script, re-order your points, eliminate content for time, or address any challenges before returning to the agenda and closing paragraph you’ve designed. If you have not committed your overarching narrative to memory, you may come across as unprepared or disorganized when trying to get back on track after a disruption. 

4. Clear and inspiring finish

Knowing how you’re going to wrap things up means that you’ve put thought into the “what’s next?” or call-to-action part of your presentation, and that, therefore, your key bullet points make sense. This is very gratifying for your audience because they’re not left wondering what to do, or why you’ve been speaking to them. It’s fulfilling for you because you’re more likely to get the response you were looking for.

As a bonus, if you’ve memorized your closing paragraph, it may trigger a key bullet point that you momentarily forget, or vice versa.  

How do you memorize this content?

Use a combination of these techniques:

Rote

There’s no way around it. You’ll have to do some mundane repetition to get things going. Start with your first sentence, add a sentence, start again from the top, and continue until you’ve got your opening paragraph locked n.

Story

Make your whole presentation into a story or, at minimum, make the pieces that I recommend you memorize into a story. Narratives are much more memorable than info dumps or lists of random facts. This is true for how you prepare and for when your audience listens to your presentation.

Segue

Get creative in how you’ll move from one thought to the next. You can do this with some forethought into which order your key points may be scripted. This can also be a key word or image that ends an idea that is connected to a key word or image that starts the next.

Physical cues

Assign each key idea or bullet point to a finger, thumb, hand gesture, or even expression. Physically making the gesture, expression an emotion, or tapping a finger with your thumb can help with recall.

Finding the best balance for you in terms of how much time to spend scripting your content and how much time to spend memorizing it takes time. Too much or too little of either one can affect your performance and reduce the positive outcome you’re intending for yourself and your audience. That’s why my strategic memorization approach establishes a practical leap-off point from which you can build and make your own. For your next presentation, you’ll experience success even if all you do is start by memorizing your opening paragraph.

Here’s how I would prepare to present this post using my method:

MEMORIZED:

(Opening Paragraph)

You have a key performance skill that every celebrity presenter and TED Talk speaker has. That’s because, when used properly, one of the best assets for a successful presentation is strategic memorization.

(Key Bullet Points)

Memorize just these three things:

Opening paragraph

10-15 key bullet points

Closing paragraph 

Why?

Connect with Audience

Boost and convey Confidence

Keep On Message and On Time

Clear and Inspiring Finish

How?

Rote

Story

Segue

Physical Cues

(Closing Paragraph)

Finding the best balance for you in terms of how much time to spend scripting your content and how much time to spend memorizing it takes time. Too much or too little of either one can affect your performance and reduce the positive outcome you’re intending for yourself and your audience. That’s why my strategic memorization approach establishes a practical leap-off point from which you can build and make your own. For your next presentation, you can even start by memorizing just your opening paragraph.

MEMORY TECHNIQUES:

STORY

This story makes sense because, like any story, there’s a beginning (opening), middle (bullet points), and end (closing). As a storyteller, I’m going to be more enjoyable to listen to if I connect with my audience, they sense my confidence, I don’t get lost or mixed upon my message, and there’s a great finish.

SEGUES

Rote memorization requires repetition; what’s worth repeating? A good story. Stories flow seamlessly with segues. Not the kind of segue I physically ride.

PHYSICAL CUES

These cues can be visible to your audience as part of your effective delivery, or they can be only for you.

In my right hand I imagine I’m holding my Opening Paragraph.

In both hands I imaging I can hold my Closing Paragraph and toss it back and forth.

On my right hand, my thumb touches my:

-Index finger to cue recall of Connect with Audience

-Middle finger for Boost and convey Confidence

-Ring finger for Keep On Message and On Time

-Pinkie for Clear and Inspiring Finish

On my left hand, I'm making a visible list as:

-My thumb goes up to cue recall for Rote.

-I add my index finger for Story

-I add my middle finger for Segue

-I open my whole hand to complete the list for Physical Cues

Start with one piece of the strategy at a time, then layer on as you get more comfortable. Best of success to you!

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