I want to talk to you about how to use notes when you're on stage. A lot of people think that I will say don't work with me. But actually, I think that's asking a lot, especially for a longer speech. There's nothing wrong with using notes. But there are wrong ways of using notes. And the main thing that people get caught up in when they've got D's in their hand, is looking at it too much.

So the technique that I learned in drama school called sight reading, and it is like reading because if you have to step into a play at short notice, let's say you're the understudy or you're doing a rehearsed reading, you might have a script put into your hands and have to read it quickly. Now, the way you do this, is that you need to look down at the notes and just take in a small amount of information each time and you look down you take that information in in violent note. And then you look up and you deliver that information. So the rule here is Talk only to humans. If you're speaking, you should be looking at the audience and nowhere else. Not looking at slides, not looking at the ceiling, and certainly not looking at the notes.

Notice the difference. If I try to look at my notes while I'm still speaking, then it looks like this. And I'm still speaking when I'm looking at them, then I'm looking up. And you see how we lose engagement. Every time I do that, it's much better instead to pause and then re engage when you know what you want to say. So that technique needs some practice.

So entirely natural at first, but if you practice it, you'll really get in the muscle. And I promise you, you can do it really well. The audience won't mind the pauses, you know what I always say? It feels a lot longer to you than it does to them. So trust that it's okay to talk only to humans.