The terms the course uses.

corridor test

The corridor test checks a throughline in the Source Talk Method. After the talk, a listener should be able to tell a colleague in the corridor, in one sentence, what the talk was saying. If they can only describe the subject area the talk covered, the speaker had a topic.

Taught in Lesson 2.3, The throughline

curiosity gap

The curiosity gap is a question a talk opens in the listener's mind that they then need closed. In the Source Talk Method it is the engine of attention, and the audience stays while it stays open. A counterintuitive angle opens it, such as the benefit of a thing people fear or the cost of a thing people chase.

Taught in Lesson 2.5, The curiosity gap

deep version

The deep version is the first pass expanded into the whole story, written for nobody and honest to the point of discomfort. Running eight hundred to eighteen hundred words or more, it holds the doubt, the person who thought the speaker was wrong and the day they almost stopped. It stays private as the source of every talk.

Taught in Lesson 2.2, Build the deep version

ethos

Ethos is one of the three forces Aristotle named, covering a speaker's character and credibility. The Source Talk Method defines it as character proven by action. The speaker earns it by showing the room one moment where they acted, such as leaving a job and building the thing themselves. This ethos moment usually sits at the turn.

Taught in Lesson 5.1, Credibility through action

finding the wave

Finding the wave means naming the change in the world that makes a company necessary, so the company arrives as its consequence. Three lines map it. The world has changed. That change makes something newly possible or necessary. The company is what the change makes inevitable. The wave then sets the frame for the whole talk.

Taught in Lesson 2.4, Find the wave

first pass

The first pass is the opening exercise of the Source Talk Method. The speaker tells their story in about three hundred words, written fast, the way they talk, and left unfixed. It answers four things in order, where they were when it started, what changed, what they came to believe, and why it matters to anyone else.

Taught in Lesson 2.1, Start with a first pass

five-beat spine

The five-beat spine is the load-bearing structure the Source Talk Method gives a talk. Its beats are hook, stakes, turn, idea and vision, and each one hangs on the throughline. The speaker writes one line per beat, fifteen words or fewer, as a one-page map of where to cut. A speaker can break it on purpose.

Taught in Lesson 3.3, The arc

hook

The hook is the first of the five beats in the Source Talk Method. It opens the curiosity gap and makes the audience want to know what comes next. In the speaker's raw material it is the earliest moment that holds a question the listener cannot yet answer.

Taught in Lesson 3.3, The arc

idea

The idea is the fourth of the five beats in the Source Talk Method. Here the speaker states the throughline plainly, out loud. It usually lands after the turn, once the audience has felt enough to receive it. Some concept-led talks state it early and spend the talk proving it. The rule behind its position is earned belief.

Taught in Lesson 3.3, The arc

jaw-dropping moment

The jaw-dropping moment is an engineered surprise, a single moment that resets the room. It can be a fact nobody saw coming, a reveal, a prop, a demonstration or one sentence that lands like a punch. The speaker places it deliberately, and it often coincides with the peak of the talk.

Taught in Lesson 5.4, The jaw-dropping moment

keynote cut

The keynote cut is the Room Cut whose job is to frame a moment for the people in the room, today. It keeps the opening scene, then names the now, where the field stands and what the room is worried about or excited by. It leads with authority and ends by handing the room a new lens.

Taught in Lesson 6.3, The keynote cut

logos

Logos is one of the three forces Aristotle named, covering logic and structure. The Source Talk Method defines it as structural inevitability. The speaker arranges the beats so each makes the next feel inevitable, until the conclusion feels unavoidable. The speaker anchors unfamiliar ideas to familiar ones and places the beat that earns belief before the beat that needs it.

Taught in Lesson 3.2, Logos as inevitability

pathos

Pathos is one of the three forces Aristotle named, the emotional connection between speaker and room. The Source Talk Method defines it as the specific sensory detail, such as the hold music or a spreadsheet rebuilt six times. The course holds that a live room usually needs a stronger emotional weighting than a document does.

Taught in Lesson 1.3, The three forces, weighted for the stage

peak-end rule

The peak-end rule holds that two moments of an experience tend to weigh most in memory, the most intense moment and the ending. Psychologists call this the peak-end effect, and the research is less tidy for long, mixed experiences than for short ones. The Source Talk Method uses it as a design principle and decides both moments deliberately.

Taught in Lesson 3.5, The peak-end rule

pitch cut

The pitch cut is the Room Cut whose job is to win a decision. It brings proof forward, such as traction, numbers and credible partners, and names the ask. The ask either closes, seeking the decision itself, or advances, seeking the next step such as a meeting or a call. The pitch cut ends on the decision.

Taught in Lesson 6.2, The pitch cut

rehearse to natural

Rehearse to natural is the delivery target of the Source Talk Method, between rambling and robotic recitation. The speaker practises until the words stop taking effort and what is left is the speaker, talking. The speaker still writes the opening and the closing to the word and drills them until they are automatic.

Taught in Lesson 7.1, Rehearse to natural, not memorised

Room Cut

A Room Cut is one public version of a Source Talk, cut for the job of a specific room. The course teaches four, the pitch, the keynote, the TED-style talk and the speech. Each keeps the opening scene, the throughline, the ethos moment and the sensory craft. The room's job changes the proof, the framing, the ask and the ending.

Taught in Lesson 6.7, What never changes

scene

In the Source Talk Method, a scene puts the audience inside the moment something happened, with concrete detail, so they live through it. The course advises two or three real scenes for the moments that matter most, and brief summary for everything in between, including evidence.

Taught in Lesson 4.3, Scene, not summary

script the open and the close

Script the open and the close is the Source Talk Method rule that a speaker writes the first sixty seconds and the last four lines word for word and rehearses them until automatic. The opening comes when attention is highest and nerves are worst. The close is the last thing the room hears and repeats.

Taught in Lesson 5.2, Script the open and the close

Source Talk

A Source Talk is the one deep talk a speaker builds first in the Source Talk Method, written for nobody. The speaker then cuts it into each public version, a pitch, a keynote, a TED-style talk or a speech. Its foundation is the deep version, the private story written long.

Taught in Lesson 1.4, The Source Talk Method

Source Talk Method

The Source Talk Method is a way of building talks from one deep story. The speaker builds one Source Talk, written for nobody, then cuts it into the version each room needs, a pitch, a keynote, a TED-style talk or a speech. It applies while the core idea holds, and a new core idea needs a new source.

Taught in Lesson 1.4, The Source Talk Method

specific over sentimental

Specific over sentimental is the Source Talk Method principle that feeling comes from one concrete, true detail, which lets the listener arrive at the emotion themselves. The speaker cuts every line that labels the emotion, such as saying it was a hard year, and puts the single concrete detail in its place, such as a spreadsheet rebuilt six times.

Taught in Lesson 4.1, Specific over sentimental

speech cut

The speech cut is the Room Cut whose job is to move a particular room on an occasion, such as a wedding, an award, a commencement or a farewell. The speaker names the room, speaks to the occasion directly and gives the room a feeling about who they are together. It ends on a charge or a toast.

Taught in Lesson 6.5, The speech cut

stakes

The stakes are the second of the five beats in the Source Talk Method. They make the room feel why the idea matters and what is at risk if nothing changes. The stakes come from the ground between the hook and the turn, and they describe the world's risk or the audience's risk.

Taught in Lesson 3.3, The arc

Talk Blueprint

The Talk Blueprint is the working document of the Source Talk Method, with ten sections tied to the lessons. It holds the talk the speaker is building, the deep version, the throughline, the five-beat spine, a sensory scene, the ethos moment, the peak and ending, the scripted open and close, the four cuts and a delivery audit.

Taught in The Capstone, Your Talk Blueprint

TED-style cut

The TED-style cut is the Room Cut whose job is to spread an idea that outlives the room. It removes the ask, keeps the evidence that makes the idea believable, and makes the idea the hero of the talk. It ends on the idea and trusts the room to carry it out.

Taught in Lesson 6.4, The TED-style cut

throughline

The throughline is the one sentence a talk exists to land, fifteen words or fewer by default. It states what the speaker wants the audience to believe by the end, and it gives the talk a destination. Every scene, fact and moment in the talk clips onto it, and anything that cannot clip on comes out.

Taught in Lesson 2.3, The throughline

turn

The turn is the third of the five beats in the Source Talk Method, the moment something changed. In the deep version it is the most irreversible moment, a day, a discovery or a decision after which nothing in the story could be the same. It often doubles as the moment that proves who the speaker is.

Taught in Lesson 3.3, The arc

vision

The vision is the fifth and last of the five beats in the Source Talk Method. It shows the audience the world once the idea is true and zooms out from the speaker's story to what it means for them. It answers what becomes possible now the turn has happened.

Taught in Lesson 3.3, The arc

vulnerability as permission

Vulnerability as permission is the Source Talk Method principle that showing something real and a little exposed, such as a doubt, a failure or a fear, lowers a room's guard. The speaker lets the audience see the real difficulty and uncertainty briefly, in service of the idea, in one moment of the talk.

Taught in Lesson 4.4, Vulnerability as permission

From From Story to Stage, a free written course by Aaron C. Leaman. Read what every lesson covers.