By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to deliver the text of a speech more personally . Reading time: 1:48.

You have a major speech to deliver. Your script is ready. But you’re not.

You hardly have time to read over your speech let alone rehearse it. And the last time you had to resort to reading your speech the old-fashioned way your monotone put half of the audience to sleep.

To make matters worse, you know only too well that staring at TelePrompTer makes you look as robotic as you sound.

But wait. There’s a better way to make sure your script isn’t showing.

Hike up your script. Shorten it. Tighten it. Gather it. Beware of letting your script slip out beyond your control.

Think of your speech not as words on paper but as so many thoughts bottled up within you over a long time, so many thoughts fermenting in the juices of your life’s experiences.

Then share your bottle of thoughts from the podium with your audience. Pour your thoughts out so poignantly and personally to your audience. Embrace your script as you would a bottle of fine wine. And read the text of your speech the way you would read a wine label:

AT A GLANCE.

Your speech would then become like a bottle of fine wine —personally selected. For this particular audience. At this particular time. Your script-turned-wine label then would be specifically designed to be scanned, savored and sensed. Purposefully and personally. Not simply read, recited and regurgitated. Perfunctorily and publicly.

Fermented Thinking In a Bottle

Maybe that’s why the most memorable parts of Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech were not confined to words on paper. Dr. King had bottled his thoughts and fermented his thinking so well over the years that he didn’t need to script his speech word for word. He only needed to label his feelings over time.

Then like all wine lovers he reflected upon it. Sipped it. Savored it. And served it. Like a bottle of fine wine uncorked at just right time and in the right place. Cheers!

Today’s ImproveMINT

Bottle your thoughts with feeling to keep your leadership thinking in mint condition.

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