Piecing the Speech Together - Literally

I believe that a professional speaker should never stop trying to enhance their speech. We are always looking for new stories, better ways to deliver, and powerful point. Recently I revisited my keynote. I decided to go through all of my notes from the years and get rid of the weak parts and piece together the strong points. I sort of fell into a process that I found to be very helpful, and it might be helpful for your future speeches!

Over the years I have typed my speeches, handwritten my speeches, jotted down notes and flashes of inspiration, collected research tidbits, and had all of these things filed away in different folders. Last weekend I pulled everything out and went through it all. I cut up my speeches and notes into stories, points, and ideas. If it was good, I found a place for it on the floor. If it was bad, it went to the trash. It helped me get rid of the "fat". I trimmed off stories that didn't connect with audiences, and it helped me clear up my notes. Sometimes I had the same story typed over and over again in each speech!

Once I sorted through it all, it was time to piece it together. I took the cut sections and started playing with the order. I implemented ideas I hadn't used before because they were hiding away in a file jotted down on a piece of scrap paper.

It was great! I think this process would be helpful for anyone who is more visual and/or tactile when it comes to organizing their thoughts.