What to keep the same when you adapt a talk

You 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.

Across all four Room Cuts, the Source Talk stays the same. The public cut changes wherever the job of the room demands it. Four elements stay constant in every version. The opening scene stays, the thing that pulls the room in. The throughline stays, your one idea in one sentence. The ethos moment stays, the moment that proves who you are through action. The sensory craft stays, the scenes and specifics that make a room feel something.

The job changes, and with it the proof, the framing, the ask and the ending. Each room gets its own frame around the same story.

The lesson gives a test for any set of cuts. If the only thing that changes between your four versions is the last sentence, you have adjusted the ending and have yet to cut. A real cut changes what the talk proves, how early it proves it, and what it asks the room to do.

Key ideas.

Four things stay the same in every Room Cut of a talk, the opening scene, the throughline, the ethos moment and the sensory craft.
When you cut a talk for a new room, the job changes, and with it the proof, the framing, the ask and the ending.
If only the last sentence changes between versions of a talk, the speaker has adjusted the ending and has yet to cut the talk for the room.
A real Room Cut changes what the talk proves, how early it proves it, and what it asks the room to do.

Questions.

What should stay the same when you adapt a talk for different audiences?

Four things stay the same. Keep the opening scene that pulls the room in, the throughline that states your one idea in one sentence, the ethos moment that proves who you are through action, and the sensory craft of scenes and specifics. The job of the room changes the proof, the framing, the ask and the ending.

Is changing the ending enough to adapt a talk for a new audience?

Changing only the ending adjusts a talk and leaves it uncut for the new room. A real cut changes what the talk proves, how early it proves it and what it asks the room to do. The ending is the visible part of a deeper change in the job of the room. If the last sentence is the only difference between versions, the talk still needs cutting.

Lesson 6.7 of From Story to Stage, a free written course by Aaron C. Leaman, published by Brighter Future. The terms it uses are defined in the glossary.