157 Timeline and Critique of My 8 Minute Presentation
I share my timeline and break down my process to create an 8 minute presentation within 2 days. You will also discover the areas I did well and could improve on and why.
The catalyst for this information was a text from the president of the organization that let me know I my 8 minute presentation went on for 10 minutes and 45 seconds. I was almost 40% over time, which doesn’t seem so bad when you hear 3 minutes. But if this was a 30 minute presentation, my final timing would have been closer to 45 minutes, which is more significant.
And as a person who speaks often, this is not a good metric to hear. I have also shared successful speaking tips for business leaders.
I was doing a quick mental recap right after I read the text, and I knew exactly the three slides I should have removed. Which would have taken me from my 11 minutes to 8 minutes. I also cataloged some other items, positive and negative. Before long, I had a list, organized meaningfully to share on the podcast.
Day 1 (Monday) – Say Yes
I accepted the request to do the presentation because the original presenter was sick. I said yes (and will figure it out how to make it work.)
It is also a presentation that I knew was coming, so I had been thinking about ideas in my head. It is a brand-new presentation that I’ve never created before.
Rough Outline
That night I wrote in my notebook a quick outline of the eight main ideas. I needed roughly one minute per slide, which is 8 lines, or 8 points to cover.
It’s taking me a while to get to this point because it typically is about 60 seconds, plus or minus 30 seconds.
One Slide = One Minute
I’m going to spend on each slide, but one minute per slide for me is a superb guideline and I do speak fast, so it also forces me to slow down. It also focuses me on the areas that I need to make sure the audience walks away with so that I don’t give too much information.
I’ve really, really had to learn over the years that less is more. Giving them specific action they can remember or take action on is better than bombarding them with everything else. So that was my first thing.
Day 2 (Tuesday) – Create Your Speech
First thing in the morning and I put all of that information from my paper outline into slides.
When I was trying to determine the format of the PowerPoint slides, I struggled with this for a bit because I knew they were going to take this information and put it into an existing slide deck and so I wanted to make it as easy as possible.
So, based on that criteria:
- no formatting
- no animations
- no special text
- no system footers
I wanted to make it as easy as possible for the person incorporating my slides into the main slide deck. Since this was a last minute, fast turnaround time, I wanted to minimize the issues for them.
Also, for me, the more important thing is there was going to be at least half of the slides were going to have pictures on them and I wanted people to look at the pictures and not get distracted by the slide formatting.
Overall, I was happy with my final version of presentation slides. I wanted to concentrate on 2 or 3 ideas and felt that I had accomplished that. I emailed the slides in PDF format and PowerPoint format.
I printed out all of my slides and I made my additional notes on them while it was fresh. The things I wanted to highlight, and make sure I covered. Also, I like to have it handy, so I know which slides are coming next (I don’t like the preview option on PowerPoint).
And finally, I quickly jotted down about two to three questions so that if I had crickets when I asked for questions, I had these ready. I often will say something like, “I often get asked… (and complete with one question I had prepped). Sometimes, to help kick off the Q&A Sessions, I may “seed” an audience member with a question (from my same prep list) before the presentation. I will ask them to ask at the beginning of the Q&A session to help get things started. No one ever wants to be the first to ask. And I have found that as soon as one asks a question, then others will start.
Day 3 (Wednesday) – Day of Presentation
I gave my presentation, no technical glitches.
I did not know the order of the 2 speakers, so was a little surprised that I went first. This wasn’t a high pressure environment, so I went with it. I didn’t ask prior to this event like I normally do. I have learned to always be ready because you never know when you may go “on stage”.
Use Of Stories
One area I have been working on telling more stories, and incorporate story telling into my fact based presentations. I was happy with my output in this area.
Audience Engagement
There was an interactive and engagement piece. I had them go out to a website and just test the process to see how easy it was. And it probably took about 15, 20 seconds. I had them come back to the chat and type in yes. I was happy with that interactive this component.
Brilliance
Another thing that I often find for me, is that I say these wonderful things, or phrasing, or connections, that I only get in front of people. That happened this time. I made the connection between one of my first jobs as a bank teller, and trust, to a series of roles until now. That applied to the topic I was sharing.
To help catch this “brilliance”, I often record myself so that I can stay present about being audience focused. Remembering my “stuff”, or capturing what I said, is the last thing on my mind. But, I didn’t record myself this time. In fact, I am surprised I remember this item. I often don’t.
Be On Time
Being on time and following the agenda is important to me and the organization that I am speaking. I use my timer, and also have someone else remind me of the time at a 50% and 75% time markers we agree. And how they will remind me. Here, I would have had them do it in the chat, another cue, or had them verbally interrupt me if I didn’t acknowledge them. I didn’t start my personal timer and didn’t see the time clock anywhere.
So I wouldn’t have spent this much time recapping if it was for myself, but I wanted to share this information. And if the leader didn’t text me I was over time, I wouldn’t have known.
Callbacks
The other area that I was happy with was I did a callback. A callback is a topic, joke, reference, or statement that happened prior during the meeting that I call back during my presentation, or a more formal callback definition is recall.
Specifically, someone in the group mentioned time for New Year Resolutions, and I referenced how that would affect the topic I spoke of. There was another example that I used in my speech where I referenced the person’s name that mentioned the idea I was sharing.
The callback is a way to show you are listening and paying attention, that you can be spontaneous, and include other members of the group into your speech, making it more personal. I was happy that I knew the material and felt confident enough to do this activity twice during the presentation.
Call To Action (CTA)
What I could have done better was the call to action (CTA) at the end of the presentation. What I did was list out the services for this new area I talked about. That’s it. A list. No actions to take.
I could have said call me, email me with your questions. Or better yet, put a yes in the chat if you have questions, you want me to contact you.
Also, another option would be to go back to the people that commented during the engagement piece with a “yes’, and manually reach out to ask what questions they had.
Happy with the interactive component, not so much with the call to action, but I can learn.
How Much Time I Spent Developing Speech and Critique
Outline the 8 steps in my notebook – 15 minutes
Create initial slides – 45 minutes
Review and download some personal pictures – 45 minutes
Review and download customer pictures – 45 minutes
Review slides, and flow, mental run throughs, add in pictures – 2 hours
Emailed .pptx and pdf format to organization – 1 minute
Print and add notes to outline. Add a couple starter questions – 30 minutes
Presentation – 10 minutes 45 seconds
Recap – 90 minutes
Total time – about 6 hours and 30 minutes.
The Kim D Snyder show episode 157
https://KimDSnyder.com/podcast
https://KimDSnyder.com/157
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