I’m giving the keynote at The Newsletter Conference this Friday — just me, in front of a room of 400 of my peers in New York City.
I love doing these sorts of talks, and I’ve been lucky to have done a lot of them over the years. One thing I’ve learned, though, is that if I try to memorize the talk, it doesn’t work as well. Some of what happens on stage just has to happen, right there, for the first time. I’m reading the room, figuring out when to try to lighten the mood or when to pause for effect.
But that doesn’t mean I show up without practicing the talk. I always run through the talk multiple times, making sure I know the transitions between sections and giving myself the chance to play with different points of emphasis throughout. I know the material — I just don’t want every word and motion to be choreographed.
But I do always memorize one thing: The first 30 seconds of the talk.
I’ve found that once the talk is underway, I’m going to be fine. But there are always those first few seconds of nervousness, looking out over the crowd and realizing: Holy crap, 400 people have put aside their busy lives to hear my talk. Make it good, Dan!
So that little bit of memorization helps. It gets me through the nervousness and into the meat of the talk. Once I’m in, I know I can take things from there.
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That’s me on stage at the very first edition of The Newsletter Conference in 2024.