Should You Read from a Script OR Speak from The Heart?

To Script Or Not to Script

Hi, everyone. Todays’ topic is to script or not to script. Should you speak from the heart or should you script a talk, a presentation, a pitch deck presentation? I have two examples for you on that, one who did and one who didn’t and results.

The advantage of scripting is that you can stay on track for exactly what you want and it keeps you completely focused. The beauty of that is it gives you room to speak from your heart. Plan, prepare and practice so you can be free to be spontaneous. But scripting sometimes confines us in, meaning we think that we have to go through all of these points and we’re married to them. And when we’re too tightly married to them, it can create tension and inflexibility. When you speak from your heart directly, sometimes the issue is that you’re rambling and you’re not getting the points out that you want.

I’m going to share these two examples. One: a potential client just came to me and it was about his business manager. He had what sounded like a pretty incredible product that could change the world, third world countries right away, but he hadn’t gotten any investment capital. He’d been to pitch fests, he had pitched private investors, angel investors, VC’s to no success. The business manager told me that this person always spoke from their heart but they couldn’t convey why this particular product was important in those 12 to 20 minutes. The issue was that is twofold.

Captivate Investors

Number one, this person did not actually make their point in being able to present their product in a way that would captivate investors. The second part is if he’s always speaking from the heart but he’s not connecting to his audience – Yes, you can speak from your heart but speaking from your heart is not a one-person affair – it’s an affair between you and your audience. So, when you’re connecting to your heart, you need to be connecting to other people’s hearts too. It’s not just I’m connecting, I’m speaking from my heart and I’m in my own flow. It’s the flow between you and your audience that’s important.

$200,000 in One Afternoon

My client who is a Sufi master was speaking to an audience of a couple hundred people and he had scripted out his presentation and in the middle of it, he said you know what, he felt something different. He felt and really read the audience in such a way that he varied from his script and he spoke directly from his heart to the people and guess what happened? A person came up to him right after that speech and handed him a check for $100,000.

They said, “We believe in what you’re doing.” He had a university that needed funding, that was about to go under. They gave him a $100,000 check. And then a little while later, someone else came up and wrote him another $100,000 check. So, $200,000 for speaking from the heart but actually making the connection that was meaningful to the audience.

So that is the difference between the two. When you speak from your heart, it’s got to be in such a way that it moves the other person. It doesn’t just move yourself.

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I invite you to subscribe, click the button, ding the bell and enjoy, comment. And I think that scripting, yes to script and being able to never read it, of course. But be able to speak it as if you’re saying it for the first time. I hope this has been helpful.

I’m Susan Harrow, media coach, marketing strategist and author of Sell Yourself Without Selling Your Soul® published by HarperCollins. And CEO of prsecrets.com and I hope to connect with you. I’d love to hear what you think: script, speak from the heart? Have you done it? Have you seen people do it that’s been really effective? I’d love to hear what you think.

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