Give a Presentation WITHOUT Notes | Jim Kwik on Public Speaking

Welcome back. In this lesson, I'm gonna share with you a 2,500-year-old memory technique to easily and confidently give a presentation without even using notes. So if you have to give a book report or you have to present your thesis, you need to speak in front of a body of people, a lot of people get very nervous. And the thing that they're nervous about, 'cause I know public speaking is one of the highest rated fears for individuals, is people, when you dig down, they're scared of what? They're scared they're gonna forget what they need to what? To say. So here I'm gonna share with you a fun, easy to learn, easy to apply method for memorizing speeches, presentations, book reports for your class without using notes. Are you excited? Let's do this. Let's imagine you need to give a presentation, or maybe you really do need to give a presentation. I want you to watch this lesson, take lots of notes. So let's say a month from now, a year from now, you need to give a presentation. Rewatch this lesson. This is something that I've taught to TED speakers to Hollywood stars, if you follow me on Instagram, how to memorize their speeches and their scripts. So this is a very important communication skill for you to have, not only in school but in your career. So are you ready? 2,500 years ago, there was a man named Simonides, and he's a Greek orator, and he gave a poetry reading. And when he left the building, something really tragic happened. The building collapsed And killed everyone that was there. And because he was the lone survivor, he had the responsibility of coming back and helping family members identify the bodies of their loved ones. And he was able to. How? He remembered where each of them were sitting. And can't you do this already? Can't you do this? You go out with friends or you're in the cafeteria, can't you close your eyes and see who's sitting next to you? Or sitting around you in your classroom? You could do that because we store information in places. So I'm gonna show you an easy-to-apply method to memorizing, let's say, 10 points to a speech. And it's not verbatim like we do with actors because often you need to present, but you don't wanna do it word for word or to sound rote. What you wanna do is sound spontaneous, but you don't wanna lose your place. Now, what are we gonna memorize? What 10 points to a speech? Memorize the 10 keys for optimal brain health. So let's say you have to give a presentation in front of class, and these are the 10 points. What we're gonna do is take a place that you are familiar with, and the exercise you're gonna go through— I'm gonna shortcut it with you here— is to go through your home or your dorm room, wherever you're living right now. You can imagine, close your eyes, and see there's a lot of stuff. So you could use these places as places to store information. Now, for simplicity, we are gonna use my school, my office to help you to remember. And since you may or may not have been there, I'm gonna walk you through it visually, okay? And along the way, I'm gonna point out 10 places around my office. And when I do, I'm gonna say, this is the first place, this is the second place, this is the third place. And what you're gonna do is you're gonna take the first brain health tip, put it in the first place. The second brain health tip, Put it in the second place by what? Turning it into a picture. That's the tip. Turn into a picture. It's always the same. Easy as pie. Place, which would be my office. I is imagine what you want to remember, which is in this case the brain tip. And then you entwine. You put those 2 things together. So in the first place you have this. By the way, if you ever found yourself saying in the first place this and the second place that, that's where the languaging came from. from that 2,500-year-old memory technique. The memory technique we're bringing back 'cause people haven't used it, but the languaging, interesting enough, is still there. Okay, so let's begin. I want you to close your eyes, and you should be able to focus here 'cause you're not on a treadmill, you're not driving, you're completely focused for our time here together. And I want you to close your eyes if it's safe, take a deep breath, exhale. I'm gonna walk you through a quick story. I'm gonna walk you and give you a tour of my office. The school that we teach in. I want you to imagine you're taking a plane, you're coming into Westchester, New York. It's right outside New York City, north of New York City, and it's suburbia. Lots of trees and buildings. And the car picks you up, you're in the back seat, and the car takes you to a big glass building surrounded by trees. Big glass building. And I'm gonna point out 10 places along this journey. And this is gonna become a mental palace for you. Okay. A mental memory palace. So when we get to the building, the first place is the parking lot. You get out, there's the parking lot. And so what's the first place? Say it out loud, because that's your auditory memory. It's the what? Parking lot. Very good. You get out, and there's the first point of your speech, because you have to give a talk on the 10 keys for unlocking optimal brain health. The first thing you see when you get out of the parking lot Is a good brain diet. There's a huge buffet of what? Avocados, blueberries, broccoli, good olive oil, eggs, green leafy vegetables, wild salmon. So you get out and you make it interesting. Remember, action, exaggeration, you make it illogical. So you have a big brain food fight. You're throwing the eggs, the dark chocolate, the avocado guacamole everywhere. That is in the parking lot. You go from the parking lot and there's a waterfall and it creates a moat around, like a lake around the building, and you cross a bridge. And you walk across the bridge. The bridge is the second place. What's the second place? Say it out loud. Bridge. Very good. And when you're crossing the bridge, you need to remember the second brain tip, killing ants, automatic negative thoughts. And so what are you doing? You know what you're doing. You're stepping on what? You're stepping on ants. You're killing ants. Ants. Is that memorable for you? Of course. And if it's not because you do it every day, I want you to make them big ants. Big ants, and you're trying to step on the ants and they're stepping back on you. Killing ants. All right? From there, you cross the bridge, you go inside the building. The 3rd place is the elevator. Say it out loud with me. Say it out loud. I'm there with you. Elevator. Very good. You get into elevator and you need to remember the 3rd brain tip, which is what? Exercise. So I want you to imagine you go into exercise mode, you go into beast mode, you start doing calisthenics, you start doing yoga, whatever you do, you're riding the bicycle in the what? Elevator. You're there with your personal trainer getting exercise. It's good for the brain, you remember that. From there you get out into the hallway, that's the 4th place. You get out of the elevator into the 4th place, the hallway. What's the 4th place? Say it out loud for your verbal memory. Hallway. The fourth brain tip: brain nutrients. Brain nutrients. So I want you to imagine the hallway is covered in bottles of brain vitamins. Omega-3 fish oils, vitamin E, vitamin B, ginkgo biloba. You have all your brain nutrients covering the what? The hallway. You're jumping over, you're slipping on all these bottles of brain nutrients. Great. You open a door to my office. Immediately to the left is the 5th place. It's the closet. What's the 5th place? Closet. Good. You open up the closet, inside is the 5th brain health tip. You need a positive peer group. All your positive, happy friends are where? They're in the closet. All your happy, happy, positive peer group, they're playing and having fun and partying in the closet. Can you see that? Can you hear that? Very good. You get it out of the closet, you go to the 6th place, which is the receptionist. Maybe you're registering for our Kwik Reading Program. You're gonna take 21 days, triple your readings because you're so excited, but first you gotta go to the receptionist. That's the 6th place. And the 6th place is reminding you of the 6th brain tip, brain health tip number 6, clean environment. So I want you to imagine our receptionist cleaning the environment, cleaning, organizing, Marie Kondo-ing the whole environment. If you know again that reference, everything has a place. Bleaching everything, vacuuming, mopping, sweeping, cleaning the environment everywhere. That is number six. Behind, we're half more than halfway there. Behind number six is the seventh place: tropical fish tank. We have a big tropical fish tank. And so what's the number seven? Tropical fish tank. Very good. And what you want to remember. 7th brain tip, sleep. So important, super critical. Pro tip, get sleep. So what are the fish doing? Nemo, Dory, they're sleeping. They're in their pajamas, they're in their bunk beds. Dory is snoring, right? Whatever picture you need to picture, but the fish are sleeping. That's what's going on in the fish tank. Very good. We're almost in the home stretch. You leave, you pass the fish tank, you go to the door of the speed reading class, but the door's locked. And you're thinking, oh, I have my Kwik Reading class. And the door's locked. The door is the 8th place. What's the 8th place? The classroom door. Very good. So how do you get in? The 8th brain tip is brain protection. If you want to have a healthy brain, you need to wear a helmet. So you put on your helmet to remind you of brain protection. You're protecting your brain. And you headbutt the door and it shatters open. Splinters everywhere. But you would never do that, but you're always going to remember that. Wear a helmet. And then finally, 9 and 10. The 9th place is right up front. It's a whiteboard. A whiteboard. Imagine a whiteboard in front of the classroom. What's the 9th place? Say it out loud. Auditory memory. Whiteboard. And it's me. I'm there because I am your Kwik student, your Kwik Reading instructor. And I'm writing on the whiteboard these words: new learnings. Because that's the 9th brain tip. You always have to learn. New learnings. New learnings to have an ageless mind, a very strong, resilient, energetic mind. New learnings. New learnings. I'm writing it in a marker. Imagine that. New learnings. In your favorite color. What's your favorite color? Say it out loud. Red. Whatever color, that's the color of my writing. Good. And then finally, on the side of the classroom are all these Japanese plants. Bonsai trees. Bonsai trees. What's the 10th place? Bonsai trees. Bonsai trees. Very good. These small Japanese trees. And you need to remember the 10th brain tip, which is what? Stress management. Stress management. So what are you gonna do? Picture, what does stress management look like for you? What do you do to relax? Maybe you're getting a massage on the bonsai trees. Maybe you're meditating on the bonsai trees. Maybe you are playing video games on the bonsai trees. If you're old enough to drink, maybe you're having a glass of wine on the bonsai trees, right? You're relaxing, you're having stress management on the bonsai trees. Okay, right now I want you to open your eyes. I want you to take out a piece of paper, hit pause in a moment, and write down the 10 keys to a quick So how did you do? How did you do? Did you get 4, 5? Did you get all 10? Are you not sure? Let's go through it. I know these are on your notes also, but let's go through it. You go to the parking lot, what's there? Good, good brain diet. From the parking lot you go to the— say it out loud— bridge. What do you do on the bridge? Killing ANTs, automatic negative thoughts. You go from there into the 3rd place, which is the— Shopping mall. Shopping mall. Elevator. Very good. What does it remind you of? Exercise. Good. To have good brain health and fitness, you got to exercise. From the elevator, you step out into the 4th place, the hallway. What's all covered on the hallway floor? Brain nutrients. You're slipping on the brain nutrients. You go into my office, immediately to the left, you open up the what? Closet. Who's in the closet? All my positive peers, my happy friends partying, right? From there, you go to the— Receptionist. Good. What's the receptionist doing? Cleaning the environment. Cleaning the environment. Behind the receptionist is what? The fish tank. What are the fish doing? You know this. Sleeping. Good. From the fish tank, you go to the door. It's locked. You put on your helmet to remind you of protect your brain. You headbutt the door open and splinters everywhere. Immediately up front is the what? The whiteboard. Who's drawing on the whiteboard? Your instructor right here. What am I writing on the whiteboard? New learnings. What color is the ink? Absolutely. From there, on the side of the classroom, you have your bonsai trees. What does that remind you of? Stress management. Fantastic. How do we do, Kwik Student? Kwik Student, you have quick focus. You have a quick memory. You have the quick ability to learn things as fast as you need to. Could you go backwards? Of course you could. You go from the bonsai trees, stress management. From there to whiteboard, new learnings. To the door, brain protection. Very good. To the fish tank, sleeping. Before the fish tank was what? Good, clean environment. Before a clean environment was? Your positive peers. Good. You go into the hallway, you see? Brain nutrients. Into the elevator? Exercise. From there? I don't even have to say the place. Killing ants. And then before killing ants, what do you have? Excellent. Good brain diet. That's the power of this location method. Now, how can you use this? Create your own location. I want you to close your eyes. Imagine you're stepping into the first room of your home. It could be your home or where you currently live, where you grew up from. And I want you to notice you're in the first room, not like a hallway, but the first room. Maybe it's a kitchen, maybe it's a living room, and notice there's a lot of stuff. And you're thinking, oh Jim, I didn't know we were going to do this. I should have cleaned my room before we did this exercise. But let's say you're in the kitchen and you're going to name 5 places going clockwise. So maybe number 1 is the microwave, number 2 is the stovetop, number 3 is the refrigerator, number 4 Is the dishwasher. Number 5 is the sink. Perfect. Then go into the next room. Maybe it is the bathroom, or maybe it is the living room, and you do the same thing. And then you have 10 things. Go into the next room, do another 5, and you have 15 things. All of a sudden, you have more mentally filing places. You could use my office. You could use your home. You could use your school, your college, your campus. Your school campus. You could use all these different places. All these different places are filing systems that you could use to record and remember almost an infinite amount of information.