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Six Strategies for Learning—NOT Memorizing—Your Speech

When you truly know your speech, you can deliver it with purpose, impact, and emotion.

On Stage

Public speaking

Stage performance

Russell

Ewing

Creative Director, Lead Performance Faculty

minute read

Published on

June 9, 2025

Using these six strategies can help you learn your speech more effectively and more quickly and deliver it with more impact, emotion, and confidence.

If you’ve ever tried to memorize your speech by:

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Repeating a tricky line over and over and over again…

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Mumbling your speech as you read it off your computer screen a few times every morning…

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Rehearsing in front of a mirror or walking around your house as you mutter your lines to yourself…

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You might agree that attempting to memorize a speech can be pure drudgery. These typical memorization methods can feel like the opposite of creative work.

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And here’s the thing: none of those methods actually works. Sure, they might help you regurgitate your lines onstage, but they won’t help you deliver a transformational experience for your audience. In fact, using those traditional techniques might even sabotage your performance.

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Why Rote Memorization Is Extremely Risky

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Rote memorization might work for learning the Pledge of Allegiance or a poem for a fifth-grade poetry contest. But if you want your speech to sound authentic, conversational, and like ideas are spontaneously coming to you at that moment for the very first time, rote memorization isn’t the way to go.

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You see, when a professional speaker delivers a rote-memorized presentation onstage, it often sounds robotic. To your audience, it can sound like you’re just “pressing play” and spewing off some memorized lines. In a way, it excludes the audience, because it feels like they’re not a part of this live experience. It feels like a monologue rather than a dynamic dialogue with your listeners.

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It’s not spontaneous. It’s not vital. It’s not memorable. And it’s most definitely not something that creates a transformational experience for your audience.

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And, it's risky.

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When you memorize your script as one long, unbroken string of text, any little bump in the road or unexpected moment could throw you off and break up your memorized rhythm. If at any moment during your speech something interrupts you, you’ll lose your place, and it’ll be hard to get back on track.

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The Difference Between Memorization and Learning

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Learning a speech, while similar to rote memorization in the sense that you’re still staying true to your script, feels different both for you and your audience.

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To your audience, it feels like it’s the very first time you’ve ever said those words onstage. It feels like there’s a dynamic dialogue between you and your audience, uniquely curated for them, for that specific moment in time.

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It feels alive, spontaneous, new, and urgent to your audience. It seems like thoughts, ideas, and words are coming to you in the moment, rather than just being repeated for the umpteenth time.

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When you truly know your speech, you can get right back on track after any unexpected interruption. Your speech is so deeply integrated into your body that you can thrive in new situations, handle curveballs from the audience, and even create on the fly and follow divergent rabbit holes if you need to because you know you’ll always be able to pick up right where you left off.

Full Transcript

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During GRAD | Stage Performance Mastery, speakers learn, uplevel, and iterate the speeches they worked so hard to craft in GRAD | Speech Writing Mastery.

Six Strategies for Learning, Not Memorizing, Your Speech

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Speakers who have been trained in stage performance learn their speeches differently. Try these six strategies to learn your speech. When you do, you’ll find that you know your speech even better than if you had simply used rote memorization.

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#1 Develop Your Speech With a Clear Progression of Understanding

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First and foremost, a jumbled speech is hard to learn. If your speech doesn’t have a clear progression of understanding, it will be difficult for your audience to comprehend and challenging for you to learn as well.

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The progression of understanding is a way of organizing your speech by meeting your audience where they are and moving them towards a new way of thinking using organized teaching points. In other words, it’s the logical learning order that will help your audience understand exactly what they need to fully accept and apply your core message.

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Make sure that during the content creation process, you adequately focus on your audience’s experience. What do they need to know and understand in order to be able to accept and act on your Core Message? Anticipate their fears, worries, objections, and questions to craft a message that seamlessly guides them from where they are now to where they will be when they accept your Core Message.

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#2 Use the Power of Muscle Memory to Your Advantage

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However you practice your speech is the way your body will remember it. If you’re sitting at your desk, mumbling your lines and impatiently repeating “What comes next…what comes next…what comes next,” that frustration, lack of flow, and lack of connection will become part of your muscle memory. Your body remembers how you practiced, and when it’s time for the real deal, you’ll subconsciously compress the level of expression in your performance.

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And rote memorization makes it very hard for your brain to do anything besides remember the image of the words on the page. If you practice like that, your body will remember those unhelpful feelings of intensity and frustration that you experienced while memorizing.

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So use the power of muscle memory to your advantage; develop positive performance habits that allow you to be fully present when you step onstage.

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practice how you want to perform; focus on being open, present, and emotive.

#3 Don’t Speak While Looking at Your Script

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Master performers start rehearsing their performance with a table read. This is when you sit down and read your script aloud. Your mouth gets used to saying it, your ears get used to hearing it, and your eyes get used to seeing it. (The table read is the first step of the 7-Step Rehearsal Process.)

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After you’ve done the first table read, do another. But this time, don’t speak while looking at your script. If you can rehearse with another person, that’s ideal. If not, use your imagination. It might feel murky at first, but the more you focus your imagination on someone outside of yourself, the clearer it will become.

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But don’t just read your script to them. Look at your script, take in the next sentence you’re about to say, then look up and speak it to the “person” in front of you. Say your lines to them.

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When you’re done with that thought, look back down at the script, absorb the next line and focus back outwards again. This layer of the work will likely feel slower than you’re used to. However, it will help you to always focus on your audience when you speak these words and begin to deeply learn your speech from even the early stages of table reading.

Don't

do a table read mumbling your lines or overperforming your speech.

read your script out loud as if you were talking to another human being.

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“HEROIC is hands down the best place to improve your public speaking skills. Many others say they do it—the truth is they don't! What you will learn at HEROIC is not just "how to give a great presentation,” but also how to develop your ideas, tell stories, prepare your draft, rehearse it, AND understand the business of speaking. World-class!”

Amer Kaissi

Professional Speaker, Executive Coach, & Author

#4 Learn Your Speech’s Emotional Sequence

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Learning your speech is much more than just memorizing the words on the page. You also want to internalize the emotional journey you’re guiding your audience through.

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Remember, your speech is a conversation between you and your audience. Sure, you’re the only one who’s technically speaking (and you have all the best lines), but there is a back and forth happening.

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Actors do this when they rehearse with their scene partners. They don’t just focus on the words that they’re delivering, they focus on how those words will make their scene partner feel. Each thing that is said causes a feeling that leads to a thought that leads to the next line that is being said. Everything is connected, and everything helps drive the performance forward.

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This emotional causality is also true for your speech. Your speech has a sequence of emotions that will move your audience. When you focus on how you want to make your audience feel with each thought you speak, you’ll be able to track the emotional experience your speech creates.

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When you’re rehearsing and you don’t know what comes next, rather than thinking “what am I supposed to say now?” ask yourself “how do I want the audience to feel now?” Oftentimes, connecting with the feeling underneath your ideas (not just the lines themselves) will help you organically understand and remember your speech moment by moment.

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And understanding the emotional sequence can help you make deeper connections and even learn your speech faster than just rote memorization.

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#5 Always Rehearse With a Target in Mind

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Whether you’re rehearsing in your hotel room, with a rehearsal group, or in your home office, always rehearse with a target in mind. You might focus on delivering your words to the people in your rehearsal group, to the lamp in your office, or even to an imaginary version of your younger self. Do whatever helps you unlock your performance and stay present; the point is to focus on something specific outside of yourself.

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Actually having a target reminds you that your goal as a speaker is not just to execute a series of words, but rather to use your voice and deliver your ideas in order to change the person in front of you. You want to change how your audience feels, thinks, and acts.

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When you rehearse your speech, direct your words to your target. Be completely present and feel the emotions behind each word. Experience the air in the room change when you deliver those powerful mic-drop moments.

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When you use this strategy, not only will your speech become easier to learn, it will also become more meaningful to perform when you finally step onstage to deliver the real thing.

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#6 Rehearse Your Speech Daily

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The best way to learn your material is by consistently and purposefully rehearsing your speech. That’s why it’s essential to rehearse your speech every day in some capacity.

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Not every rehearsal is going to look the same. Setting a clear, manageable goal for yourself and working in smaller sections can make it feel way more manageable for your brain to absorb your material.

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Sure, you might decide to tackle a whole run-through of your speech once a week, but there will be other times when it is useful to hone in and get all of the details right for a smaller chunk of your content.

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Once you’re confident you know your speech, you can use the Five-Minute Rehearsal Method to iterate and uplevel short sections. You’ll take a short section of your speech (oftentimes the section of the speech that you feel needs the most work), record yourself, and brainstorm ways to improve and make it even better.

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Focusing deeply on that one section for a whole rehearsal will make what was once a tricky part of your speech one of the most successful moments of your speech. Then, you can find a new tricky five-minute chunk to hone in on for your next rehearsal.

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Live Through Your Speech

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The ultimate goal is to learn your speech in a way that helps you feel connected to the “why” behind your words. As you use these six strategies to learn, not just memorize your speech, you’ll do just that. Speakers who rehearse this way learn their speeches on a much deeper level, and are able to transmit that profound sense of purpose to their audience.

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And instead of just regurgitating your speech onstage, you’ll actually live through your speech. You’ll inspire your audience with your words and help them feel deeply, think differently, and act immediately.

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Six Strategies for Learning, Not Memorizing, Your Speech

‍

#1 Develop Your Speech With a Clear Progression of Understanding

‍

#2 Use the Power of Muscle Memory to Your Advantage

‍

So use the power of muscle memory to your advantage; develop positive performance habits that allow you to be fully present when you step onstage.

Dont

practice how you want to perform; focus on being open, present, and emotive.

During GRAD | Stage Performance Mastery, speakers learn, uplevel, and iterate the speeches they worked so hard to craft in GRAD | Speech Writing Mastery.

#3 Don’t Speak While Looking at Your Script

‍

Don't

do a table read mumbling your lines or overperforming your speech.

read your script out loud as if you were talking to another human being.

Amer Kaissi

Professional Speaker, Executive Coach, & Author

#4 Learn Your Speech’s Emotional Sequence

‍

Learning your speech is much more than just memorizing the words on the page. You also want to internalize the emotional journey you’re guiding your audience through.

‍

And understanding the emotional sequence can help you make deeper connections and even learn your speech faster than just rote memorization.

Don't

#5 Always Rehearse With a Target in Mind

‍

When you use this strategy, not only will your speech become easier to learn, it will also become more meaningful to perform when you finally step onstage to deliver the real thing.

‍

#6 Rehearse Your Speech Daily

‍

The best way to learn your material is by consistently and purposefully rehearsing your speech. That’s why it’s essential to rehearse your speech every day in some capacity.

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