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05From Story to Stage · Lessons
Every lesson, in order.
Seven modules and thirty-eight lessons. Each page here gives the idea of one lesson, its key points and the questions it answers. The full lessons, the writing fields and the worked examples open with your email, free.
Module 1
Why talks land.
What a story does inside the brain, the three forces weighted for a stage, and the Source Talk Method end to end.
- 1.1Why talks fall flat and how depth fixes themNames the depth problem behind most talks that fall flat and shows why a talk needs a deep, private version of the story before any public one.
- 1.2Why stories stick better than facts in a talkExplains how sensory detail can turn a talk from information the audience files into an experience the audience lives through and tends to remember.
- 1.3Ethos, pathos and logos in public speakingDefines ethos, pathos and logos for live talks and explains why a talk on stage leads with feeling and still needs all three.
- 1.4How to turn one story into a pitch, keynote and speechIntroduces the Source Talk Method, where you build one deep story and cut it into the version each room needs.
Module 2
Find your throughline.
Write a first pass and then the deep version, cut one idea out of it in fifteen words, and find the shift in the world that makes your work necessary.
- 2.1How to start writing a talk when you are stuckGives you a fast way onto the page, a rough first pass of your story that the deep version later grows from.
- 2.2How to write the deep story behind a talk or pitchShows you how to expand your first pass into the deep version, the long, private source document every version of your talk gets cut from.
- 2.3How to find the throughline of a talkDefines the throughline, the single sentence a talk exists to prove, and gives you a test for everything you might include.
- 2.4How to make an audience care about your companyShows you how to frame your company as the consequence of a change in the world, so the room meets the change before the product.
- 2.5How to create a curiosity gap in a talkShows you how to find the counterintuitive angle in your throughline so the idea opens a gap the audience wants closed.
- 2.6Where to find the core idea of your talkShows you where a throughline comes from, using six kinds of story and the point where purpose meets vision.
Module 3
Build the spine.
The five beats. Find the turn first, then locate hook, stakes, idea and vision around it. Engineer the peak and the ending on purpose.
- 3.1How to structure a talk so the audience follows youA way to plan a talk's structure before you write, by mapping where the audience starts, where they must land, and the steps between.
- 3.2How to make the argument in a talk feel inevitableHow to build logos into a talk through order and familiar anchors, so the conclusion feels unavoidable by the time you reach it.
- 3.3The five beats of a talk, from hook to visionA five-beat skeleton that most working talks share, what each beat does, and where your central idea belongs in the sequence.
- 3.4How to find the five beats of a talk in your draftA method for locating the five beats inside the deep version you have already written, so your structure comes from your own material.
- 3.5How to use the peak-end rule in a talkHow the peak-end effect shapes the structure of a talk, and why you decide your peak moment and your final line before you speak.
Module 4
Make them feel it.
Specific over sentimental. Swap the summary for the scene, and use vulnerability as permission.
- 4.1How to make an audience feel something in a talkWhy labelling emotions on stage backfires, and how a single concrete detail lets your audience arrive at the feeling on their own.
- 4.2How to use sensory language in a talkHow sensory detail turns abstract claims into moments an audience can live through, and how much of it a talk needs.
- 4.3When to use scene and when to use summary in a talkHow to choose which moments of a talk to play as scenes and which to summarise, so the moments that matter stand out.
- 4.4How much vulnerability to show in a talkWhat vulnerability means in a talk, why a brief moment of honesty earns trust, and how to keep it in service of your idea.
Module 5
Earn belief, and own the edges.
Credibility through action. Script the open and the close word for word, and let the middle breathe.
- 5.1How to build credibility in a talk through actionYou learn to earn a room's trust through one moment where you acted, and where that moment sits in your talk.
- 5.2How to script the opening and closing of a talkYou learn which parts of a talk to write word for word, the reasons behind the rule, and how the close shifts with each Room Cut.
- 5.3How to open a talk that sparks curiosityYou get five reliable ways to open a talk, the reason to open on tension, and a rule for when to give your name.
- 5.4How to create a jaw-dropping moment in a talkYou learn what an engineered surprise is, the forms it can take, how it links to the peak of your story, and where to find one.
Module 6
Adapt to the room.
The four cuts, built one at a time, then set side by side. What the job moves, and what never changes.
- 6.1How to adapt one talk for four different roomsYou learn the four jobs a talk can do, what moves with each job, and how rooms such as demo days fit the four families.
- 6.2How to structure a pitch to win a decisionYou see how the job of winning a decision changes your proof, your ask and your ending when you cut a talk into a pitch.
- 6.3How to write a keynote speech for your eventYou learn how a keynote frames a moment for one room, the authority it leads with, the lens it ends on, and how it fills a longer slot.
- 6.4How to write a TED-style talk that spreads an ideaYou learn to cut a talk to spread an idea, covering the ask, how much evidence to keep, who the hero is, and what more time changes.
- 6.5How to write a speech for a wedding, award or farewellYou learn how a speech marks an occasion, how it sits beside a keynote, and how to end by handing the room something.
- 6.6Pitch vs keynote vs TED talk vs speech comparedYou get the four Room Cuts side by side by job, ask, proof and common length, and the principle that the job decides the ending.
- 6.7What to keep the same when you adapt a talkYou learn the four elements that stay the same in every Room Cut, what moves with the job, and a check to run on your own cuts.
Module 7
Deliver and refine.
Rehearse to natural. Cut to time. Treat questions as the last beat of the talk.
- 7.1How to rehearse a talk without memorising itA way to rehearse a talk until it sounds like you speaking, with rules on how much to script and which parts to drill.
- 7.2How to be yourself when you give a talkWhy your delivery should match who you are, and what happens to a room's trust when a speaker borrows someone else's manner.
- 7.3How to use humour in a talk without forcing itHow to bring humour into a talk from the way you already see the world, and why a joke outside your nature fails twice.
- 7.4How to use slides without reading them to the roomA test for every slide and prop in a talk, so that each one does a job your spoken words cannot do.
- 7.5How to cut a talk down to fit the time limitA line-by-line test for cutting a talk to the time the room gives you, until nothing is left to remove.
- 7.6How to handle Q&A after a pitch or talkThree rules for answering questions after a talk or pitch, plus a way to handle a hostile question that keeps the belief you built.
- 7.7How to review a recording of your own talkA method for recording your talk, auditing it against what the course teaches, and lifting it by rebuilding the weakest sixty seconds.
- CTalk planning template for pitches, keynotes and speechesA tour of the Talk Blueprint, the ten-section working document that holds your Source Talk and its Room Cuts for every stage you face.