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Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio.
Good morning.
This is Laura.
Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Today's tip is to remember the 8x rule you can become known as an excellent speaker simply by spending more time preparing than most people do.
Today's tip is from my recent Before Breakfast interview with Bill McGowan.
Bill is an award-winning journalist who now coaches people on giving memorable presentations.
In our discussion he mentioned that, as a general rule of thumb, you should spend eight times as much time preparing for a presentation as you will be talking.
So if you are giving a five-minute welcome to a group, spend 40 minutes practicing.
If you are giving an hour-long keynote, spend 30. eight hours practicing.
Now it is possible that for a really big presentation let's say you're giving a TED Talk on the main TED stage my guess is that you'd spend more time than that preparing.
But for your average talk, people don't spend anywhere near that amount of time preparing.
If someone is asked to give a toast at a colleague's farewell luncheon, my guess is they spend nowhere near eight times the amount of airtime practicing that toast.
That 15-minute presentation to your team about the new review process?
Also, nowhere near two hours spent practicing for that.
And you know what?
It probably shows.
We sometimes have this idea that some people are excellent speakers, or even natural public speakers, and some are not.
And maybe some people are more inclined that way than others.
But the biggest difference between people who seem to be good at speaking and those who aren't is how much time the good speakers spend preparing and practicing.
If you rehearse your presentation multiple times, you are going to do better at it than if you don't.
So, once you have figured out what you intend to say, build in eight times the amount of time to practice as the length of the talk.
This might seem hard, but it also might not be.
I practice my speeches in the car.
If I've got a 30-minute talk and I am driving an hour to the airport to fly somewhere to give it, that could be two rounds of practice right there.
In the past, people suggested practicing in front of a mirror or a friendly colleague.
But as Bill noted, your phone is one of the best options for practicing.
Film yourself giving your talk.
Then watch yourself giving the talk. you will learn a lot.
Though, if you have a friendly colleague who might be willing to watch the video and give you feedback, that can be helpful too.
People list public speaking as one of their main phobias, but I think this is as much about exposure as anything else.
Pilots are not frightened of turbulence.
Professional deep-sea divers are not scared of sharks.
They are fascinated by them.
Likewise, if you have practiced a talk eight times, including maybe once or twice in front of a smaller group, if that is possible, you are just not going to be as nervous as if you don't do that.
And since anxiety and nerves can kill a lot of time when you might have been relaxing, making time for practice might just be a move that seems like it takes time but actually saves time over the long run.
In the meantime, this is Laura.
Thanks for listening.
And here's to making the most of our time.
Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast.
If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, Before Breakfast is a production of iHeart Media.
For more podcasts from iHeart Media, please visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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