In a vaulted episode of New Material, I received public speaking advice from Hamza (and, in exchange, advised him on publicity). While I was very focused on speaking as a business opportunity, Hamza’s most powerful advice for me was to practice speaking as its own craft, exactly like I treated writing.

With that intention, I’ve been seeking more stages to practice on. I’ve visited Creative Mornings a couple of times to pitch my book Creative Doing. When I’m about to go on stage, I feel nervous, and I remember that it’s supposed to feel this way.

This morning, I spoke at the University Club of Toronto. I had written a new speech for the occasion. It went well, even with a night of fragmented sleep, and I woke up super early to make the trek downtown. The train from the suburbs was very full, a gentle reminder that there are a lot of incredibly hardworking people.

As I was preparing, I remembered Seth Godin’s post in which he suggests memorizing several short stories instead of speeches. I pulled it up and noticed a new point. “We didn’t come to hear your words. If that’s all we wanted, we could have read the memo and saved a ton of time,” he writes. “Bring your heart.” This reminder resonated.

During my preparation, I also pulled up How to Tell a Story by Meg Bowles, Catherine Burns, Jenifer Hixson, Sarah Austin Jenness, Kate Tellers at The Moth. The most useful reminder was for me to focus on a specific memory—an afternoon, an evening, or something like that.

With these three pieces of advice in mind, I spoke from the heart. I pulled some material from this blog post into the speech. I didn’t have any problems memorizing this speech, even with limited rehearsal, because I’d already lived it.