A few weeks back, I was sitting in the audience and listening to a keynote speaker. Now, when you think of a keynote speaker, it’s safe to assume that their talk will be around 45 minutes. They are usually who and what everybody came to see, so they are giving the most time to talk and hopefully influence. They are the showtime. Anybody who has 45 minutes to talk has more than enough time to pull their audience in, incorporate storytelling, teach lessons and even leave their audience with actionable items to take away. It may seem like a lot as I’m saying it, but in a 45-minute time span it can get done. The speaker I saw was able to do all of those things, yet unfortunately, they did much more. Not only did they talk for 45 minutes, but the talk was closer to an hour and a half. While the talk was impactful and included lessons to learn from, the speaker overstayed their welcome. This leads me to ask you: When you practice, do you time yourself? Do you take your phone out or use some timing device to see how long your talk is? You should all be saying yes. But if your answer is no, let me explain why you should. 

First, there is a respect factor. Since the lights will shine bright on you and you will garner so much attention, you should respect the time of all parties involved. The audience is taking time out of their busy schedule and in some cases, paying money to see you speak. You should be honored. On the flip side, think about an occasion when you felt that somebody wasted your time. Maybe it made you late to another meeting, or maybe it simply tired you out. It’s a feeling that you want to make sure audience doesn’t encounter. As a speaker, it’s your responsibility to get your message out, but do it as efficiently as possible. You should help the conference flow or at the very least, not throw things off. It will go a long way if an event organizer can see that you are treating this opportunity like your life depended on it. 

Secondly, an orator is a public speaker who is eloquent and skilled. He or she knows what they want to say and the do or should know how to say it. You shouldn’t need to take up extra time trying to get your point across. When you can do this and everything flows and you don’t overwhelm your audience, you are showing true skill. You are showing the ability to impact and influence without being overbearing. This means that when you are designing your talk, you need to be particular about every word you use. You need to make sure your story or stories are beneficial and help advance the talk. You need to make sure that every move you make and word you say serves a purpose. 

Last but not least, as speakers we want our audiences to remember our talks. That’s actually a generic statement and the reality is, some people will remember your takeaways, some will remember your story, some won’t pay attention, and some will fall in between or all over the place. But the key thing to remember is that the information your audience is able to remember depends on how you deliver it. Always remember, you don’t have to deliver all of the information you want on the stage. There are follow up methods you can use to deliver the extra information you need. You just need to worry about delivering the primary information, or what you think would best be delivered while you are in front of your audience. 

I’ve made my case as to why you should always time your talk before you officially deliver it, but there is one major thing to also note. Just because you fall within a certain time frame when you practice, doesn’t mean you will fall in the same time frame on the stage. So, make sure to do multiple runs so you can get an accurate ballpark of how much time you need.

Make your next presentation, your best presentation!

Sincerely,

Julian A. Leonard
(Founder of The JLeonard Group LLC)

Previous Tip