How to rehearse your speech without boring yourself to death…
Rehearsing a speech doesn’t require you to learn everything word for word.
And if you think it does, then you are causing yourself some unnecessary grief.
Unless you have a photographic memory, or you are a world memory champion, trying to memorise every single word is a problem.
Because what do you do when something unexpected happens while you are speaking?
An unplanned for thing that does match the next precise word in your speech.
Someone arrives late.
The fire alarm goes off.
The stage has one place that creaks and you keep finding it.
Being tied to a script provides bugger all flexibility.
You miss the chance to respond to your audience, be present and connect with them in a more meaningful way.
In fact, if you are delivering word for word, you probably don’t need the audience there anyway.
You could just offer them a PDF and they could read it in their own time while sat at home in their onesies.
So instead of learning it word for word, what you gonna do?
Well, that is a great question.
You have to find the balance between knowing your content word for word, and having the ability to adapt when needed.
I work with a lot of people who are neurodivergent who worry about having to know it word for word, and instead I offer them a different approach - embodiment.
And while you might be thinking that I am talking about some weird hippy shit, I’m talking about finding a way to be really connected to your words and content.
Memorisation means the content lives in the head.
Embodiment means it lives in your body.
How you do this is different to everyone.
For me, it looks something like this:
To begin, I get my speech to a final draft.
This is with a combination of doodles, voice notes, writing and typing.
Then I do a voice recording.
The recording means I can get the balance between the written word and the spoken word as close as possible.
Reading my words vs hearing my words are two very different things.
Because some words I write down I would not say out loud.
Then, I take that recording and I put it on my phone and I listen to it wherever I go.
Walks.
Driving.
Sitting and chilling.
It becomes a personal podcast.
The combination of listening, movement and time helps me to embody it, so when I do get on stage it comes from a different place.
It allows me to be totally present.
To respond to whatever is going on in the room.
And if I go off on a side quest searching for rupees, I can come back to the main story more easily.
This^ is one way of doing it, but it’s not the only way.
I encourage my clients to make contact with their material in as many different ways as possible.
The above works for me, but having your speech in other formats helps.
Long scripts.
Bullet point lists.
Drawings.
Whatever you need to do to embody your content, do it.
You don’t need to learn your scripts word for word.
But you do need to prepare.
If this is something you’d like to work on, then I have a one day “Speaking Without Freaking” workshops coming up in Bromsgrove on Friday 10th April 2026.
A day to work on finding your stories, putting them into a framework and delivering a short speech at the end of the day.
Ten spaces. Six left (as I write this).
If you want to know more then DM me.