Lesson 6: Memorization techniques, association of words, drifting away from the text. 

Guten Tag! Oops! That`s German! Let`s focus on speaking English for now! 

This point marks a very important step on your journey and you´ll see why in a minute. Before starting, as always you should have all the advisor`s tips done and corrected. If not, you know what to do. Leave this place! Be gone! Just kidding… Come back when you have all your most powerful tools ready. 

Also, remember that you have learned and created warm-up techniques, you should already come to this lesson and all assessments, all warmed up and ready to blow up minds. 

We are ready to take the next step towards the completion of your project. From now on, we won`t use any physical, written, or made by you objects. What??!! Oh no! Insert crying face, Yes! We can see your face of surprise! And we are loving it! This step is precisely what we have been trying to reach since the very beginning. It has been your destiny to reach this milestone since the start. 

To be perfectly clear, your CANVAS, and your script are extremely powerful tools. They are design to help you produce even grater things. So were we are heading, you guessed it, is greater than any physical object. The power of words, is something incomparable, is infinitely greater than any known thing to human kind. Your tools should all be redirected to improving your speech skills and your ability to transmit an idea through oral means.

Therefore, our main goal from now on will be drifting away from the text and creating a compelling speech. Mostly, based solely on your ability to organize a sentence in your mind and speaking it out loud in a logical order.   

Today we`ll examine how to drift away from text and not die trying. First off, let’s try creating associations of words. One of the best ways to organize a whole paragraph in your mind before speaking, is thinking like a cloud. Not a literal cloud! But seriously how cool would it be to actually be a cloud! Think more like a structure with the shape of a cloud. On the center of this cloud, there`s a huge title written with a huge bold font size. The title should be the thesis of the paragraph and from there, smaller titles should branch out and so on until it makes sense. For example, my podcast about climate change is going to look like this.      

As you can see, Climate Change is in the center because is the main subject. But from there, it starts expanding because I`m planning to speak about three different subtitles or main points. The arrows represent the direction I plan to take. I can`t talk about CO2 Emissions without having done an introduction of Green House Gases. This way I can keep a logical order and have a flow of ideas instead of speaking randomly. When I`m done Talking about CO2 Emissions I can go on and talk about corporate inaction and be done with the whole subject. 

After finishing one of the subtitles, I can go on and choose to talk about either waste management or Lack of Actions and create a new flow of thought.  When I am done with all flows, I can think of a wider picture, creating whole new structures with other thesis on the middle. For example,

In this case, I have the entire podcast already mapped out. The order doesn`t really matter, except for the introduction and the conclusion which should obviously be at the beginning and at the ending. As you may notice, they look like a group of clouds but you can picture them like a group of islands or stages of a video game. Being as creative as possible is also good for memorization. Try to create an order that is logical for you, where you can express your thoughts as clear as possible. And it can branch out as much as you wish. We have seen never-ending cloud structures, the most elaborate structures are as simple as this, where a flow is determined and when you finish this flow you can have a small breath and continue to another flow.

Now comes the easy part, creating your own cloud structure (It can be whatever shape you enjoy the most.) Take your script and translate it into this structure. The simpler, the better, so we`ll reinstate a rule we have used before. ONE word or key phrase per cloud. This way you`ll have less to memorize and a clear path to follow. For instance, 

Climate Change- Global Warming- Rising temperature- Rise of sea level- Extinction of species – End of productive chain. 

In this ocation I didn`t need to build a structure, but I mandatorily follow a flow of thought which I can`t skip or leave out. The important thing is that I have a clear path on my mind. 

So, please create your structure and turn it in so your advisor can make sure that you are going through the right path to success!

After creating this, we can recommend two or three tips more.

Behold! Text to image! Very similar to the cloud structure, is the image structure where you can introduce images in any particular order that you desire. This will serve as a visual aid for you and your audience. Images are strong tools because they can carry 1000 words! However, It’s complicated to memorize 1000 words, so try to include images straight and to the point. Avoid open-interpretation images, make sure every image gives the exact meaning you desire to transmit. For example.

Even though the first image is amazing, I liked it to have a lot more context, I went to Canva and added elements that were helpful to transmit more ideas within one single image. On the firs image I could only talk about a happy octopus swimming around. On the Second Image I can explain how this octopuses’ environment is threatened by all the hazardous toxic waste ultimately causing the temperature to rise and kill all marine life.

Look for the best royalty free images on Pixabay, Pexels, or just Google “free commercial use images”. In the most elaborated cases or if you can’t find the right image, create it from scratch. Go to a Text to Image artificial intelligence, and type whatever you can imagine. Now when you have a lot of images, create a regular flow, just like we learned. 

A great way to remember lots of things is by using a rhyme. Why do you think we can keep a song for hours? Try to make the order of your subjects into a song, a baby nana or a military jingle. For example, this military-like chorus, Climate change is not good at all, Emissions are taking our soul! Make the corporations pay, or soon we’ll all be out of air.

The last tip we can assure are acronyms. Create an amusing acronym that fits the order of your subjects and recite them according to the letters. My podcast`s acronym is CLAW: Climate Change Effects, Laws should be stronger, Action against Green House Gases, & Waste Management efficiency. If you can notice, the first letter of every subject represents a letter in the acronym. This way I’ll remember the order and the content of my platform.    

It has taken you 6 Lessons, 6 Assessments, A CANVAS, and a script to reach this point. You know your stuff, believe in yourself, and express freely about the subject that most passion makes you feel!  

Remember to memorize the whole platform of your speech, it will be where you stand and be most comfortable. Then we can see about talking from the heart and improvising.

 As always, remember to book a meeting. See you next time Ninjakat!