Here’s today’s tip: “What orators lack in depth, they make up for in length.” – That quote is from Charles-Louis de Secondat
It’s hard to be concise with our words. It takes work. If you give me an hour to talk and a topic, I’ll have no problem filling the time and I probably won’t need to spend more than one or two times the alloted window to prepare. However, If you give me 5 minutes, I’m going to spend 10-20 times my speaking time in order to prepare.
With today’s shrinking attention spans, whether in person or on video, it’s important that we work hard on communicating within tight time constraints. We need to be concise and it takes significant effort to achieve that.
The first place you start this is by answering the three why questions which your campaign revolves around: Why Me, Why Now and Why this office?
For each of those, get all your thoughts on paper. Scratch them out and just word-vomit onto the page. Once that step is complete, begin organizing your thoughts. Pick the points you believe are most persuasive and hone their presentation. In the end, you’re going to want a few different versions of that information: A 30-second elevator pitch, a 5 minute appeal and a 10 minute stump speech.
Each length should have a specific utility and be focused on the type of audience that you are appealing to. You’ll then customize these stock speeches as necessary for the individual event.
Don’t assume that speaking a long time will make you sound smart. Short, tight remarks can often be the best way to impact your audience. By preparing well before a speech, you’ll communicate much more effectively and stand out among your competitors!
