A number of years ago, someone in my audience shared with me this great line:
“What comes from the heart goes into the heart.”
I’ll never forget it. And I believe it’s true. We can tell when a speaker is coming from their heart and it goes right into our own.
I had the privilege on Saturday night of attending the Saturn Awards in Los Angeles…and as each recipient got up to receive his or her award, those who spoke right from their heart were the most memorable of all. Some of the people presenting read from teleprompters; others read from scripts, but those who trusted their VOICE touched us all – it didn’t matter if they stumbled or apologized or backtracked or didn’t use perfect English.
And this is not to say that pre-planned speeches are bad. I’m a huge advocate of prep. But prep doesn’t mean memorizing…and word for word can be challenging unless you can truly connect your heart to the words. Otherwise, what’s the purpose of a script? Unless you’re giving a statistical report or one for analysts or for the press where each and every word will be quoted, you might seriously reconsider your approach.
