Imagine you have a thirty minute presentation to give. Well in this article I’m going to give you the heads up on how to go about preparing it in a way that makes it easy and takes all the pressure away.
Instead of trying to learn either the skeleton or content of a thirty minute speech – we cheat – or should I say we work smarter!
We adopt the rule of three.
How Does It Work?
Here is how I go about it.
In a thirty minute speech I know I’ll lose at LEAST three minutes through interaction – this is usually laughter but can be other interruption.
I also know as a professional after dinner speaker that I have to stick to time as people have to get home etc.
Firstly I prepare a 27 minute speech at a medium speed of talking – definitely not fast!
If it looks like I am short on time – less than thirty minutes (I’ll have a timer in front of me away from the gaze of the audience) I have several “fillers” I can put in to add a few minutes.
This may be a joke, a thank you to someone, a few words about the organisation, the weather or whatever! but it’s up my sleeve just in case, and I will weave it in so it flows naturally – that’s the secret – not just say – I’ve got three minutes to fill, let me tell you a joke!
DIVISION OF SPEECH
Next I divide by three so I end up with three sections of nine minutes. The smarter readers will note my original 27 minutes is divisible by three so giving three x nine minute slots.
Why am I using three. Simple, remembering four, five, six or seven is a lot harder. Three is logical for example I now have a :
- Beginning
- Middle
- End
Each will be nine minutes in it’s way – so I will always know accurately where I am and how long I’m into the speech – more importantly how long I have left.
In the “beginning” – I will subdivide it into – you’ve guessed it – three sections of three minutes. Maybe “Welcome Intro” “thank you’s” “funny story about committee”
This is a rough guide but you will quickly see I have a structure forming. Once I’ve completed the “beginning” this will be repeated for the “middle” and the “end”.
Once I have my nine elements (3 x 3) I will put more work into their content and I can practice three minute sections very easily until I can do it almost without notes because THREE is easy to remember.
If you never read another word in this blog take home the Rule of Three – it makes life simple and will empower you to be confident.