Eric Edmeades teaches the speech map, a visual method for structuring talks by placing your topic in the center and attaching memorable stories tied to specific points. He walks through examples from his WildFit material and shares how he and Tony Robbins both used this approach while touring together. Start by listing three stories, your talk title, and how long you want to speak.
Chapters
We use a speech map. And the speech map is basically like a mind map. You put the topic in the middle of the map, and then you tell your story and you make a point. You tell your story and you make a point. You create a visual map. If you want. You can even get really creative and put drawings in that remind you of each of the stories. When I'm talking about Wildfit, which I'm really passionate about, I start off with what I call the recovery story. And I always put a big R there. I just know I don't need to know the story. I don't need to rehearse the story. I was the one that. That recovered. I know the story. And then I know that I'm probably going to tell the elephant story, where I first recognize that the word diet means lifestyle. It doesn't mean temporary way of life, right? So there's the elephant story. I might draw a picture of an elephant, and then I might come along, go, oh, I want to tell the evolution story about how my great grandfather found the oldest Homo sapien skull in the history of Earth. And so I draw a little skull because I know I'm going to tell that story. And then I want to tell the story about how I created the company and how we've helped thousands of people all over the world. And so I put another picture there, and wham, bam, I have a talk that I can remember in an instant because it's a visual map. It's a visual map. And I'll share one more thing with you about these visual maps. I went on tour with Tony Robbins for a year and a half teaching marketing, and I had not done any speaking for about three years when I got that invitation. So I was a tiny bit concerned about doing the right thing. I created my speech maps on big sheets of paper, and I walked up to his team and I said, listen, is it possible for me to tape these down on the stage? Because I don't really want to use notes, and I want to just be able to glance at my maps in case I need help. And they said, yeah, come on, we'll do it right now. And we walked up onto the stage, and there was one problem. They had to move Tony's speech maps off the stage so they could put mine down. I don't know where he got it from. I got it. I developed it on my own. But somehow, you know, we ended up with the same strategy. And it was really reaffirming for me to see that because I felt a little like I was cheating. So, to recap, we build a speech map, and it's built on the premise of tell a story and make a point. Tell a story and make a point. And that creates for us a set that we don't have to remember, a set that comes from our memory. And we use a story journal so that we can populate that map whenever we'd like. If you would really like to create some change in this area right now, please don't be passive about this video right now. What I would suggest you do, if you don't have a notepad, if you just simply have a piece of paper, if you can take out your keyboard, what I'm saying to you right now is just think of three stories. That's all. Think of three stories that even if you don't know why, you would tell them, even if you're not right in this moment, sure. How you would use it on stage, Write the title of the talk and how long you think it would take the talk, and just write down those three. Because with three, you will have progress toward creating your speech journal, your story journal, and with progress, you will want to continue to move forward.
