{"id":2566,"date":"2011-02-13T03:01:28","date_gmt":"2011-02-13T03:01:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/?p=2566"},"modified":"2011-02-13T03:01:28","modified_gmt":"2011-02-13T03:01:28","slug":"presenting-through-the-hourglass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/2011\/02\/presenting-through-the-hourglass\/","title":{"rendered":"Presenting Through the Hourglass"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ultimatumz.com\/screenshots\/hourglass.jpg\" title=\"hourglass\" class=\"alignleft\" width=\"320\" height=\"240\" \/>You have 15 minutes to deliver a presentation that was constructed for 45.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve all been there. My first ever professional presentation  happened in 1996 and was to convince my then SVP of Sales that we needed  to build a Web site for the company. I had a great deck put together. A  carefully crafted script and a slew of charts and handouts to make the  case over the course of the scheduled hour. The SVP runs in late and  says, \u201cWion. You got ten minutes. Go.\u201d I quickly made the case as best I  could. He didn\u2019t bite. Early #fail.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, I\u2019ll never forget his words. \u201cYou\u2019ve put together a well  thought out proposal based on the amount of paper here. But mark my  words\u2026this Internet thing is a fad. In two years, no one will remember  what it is.\u201d<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>I still mark his words with a warm chuckle. But that experience  taught me an early lesson. No matter how much time that you have to make  a presentation\u2014you\u2019ll always end up with less time than you need.<\/p>\n<p>Over the years, I\u2019ve made hundreds of presentations. New business  pitches, training sessions, case studies and the like, and more often  than not the agenda gets hosed and I am left cramming 10 pounds of stuff  in a 5 pound sack.<\/p>\n<p>But this is a good thing. It has taught me how to adapt quickly, read  an audience and synthesize most any presentation into the key  components that are necessary to impart whatever message(s) I\u2019m trying  to deliver.<\/p>\n<p>Whether you have never presented or do so frequently, here are some tips to help you be better at being faster:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> <strong>Know your place on the totem pole:<\/strong> If a some more senior folks are presenting ahead of you, assume that  they will take more time than they are alloted. The higher up some folks  get in an organization, the more they seem to talk. Assume that a  C-level or even more V-level folks will burn through most of the early  agenda for any meeting<\/li>\n<li><strong>Don\u2019t read every word on screen:<\/strong> This tip comes straight from presentation 101, yet so many folks still  read aloud what the audience is viewing over their shoulder. It is also a  huge time waster when your precious seconds are ticking away.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Don\u2019t become the Micromachine Man (aka the Fedex Man):<\/strong> Talking faster won\u2019t help the audience understand your points.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Talk fast, then slow down:<\/strong> You can pick upthe pace a little (not too much\u2026see number 3) but when  you get to your key points, slow down. The chance in cadence will help  drive your points home.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Let the audience choose:<\/strong> If you have several sections to go through on a presentation, ask the  audience to vote which is most interesting and skip to that particular  one.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Cut our your intro, jokes and \u201cdefinition slides\u201d:<\/strong> Most of this is extraneous setup material that isn\u2019t core to your message<\/li>\n<li><strong>Flip through your slides quickly:<\/strong> If you have several slides to drive home a point, summarize that point  vebally while flipping through the sides quickly. It will help give the  illusion that you are moving faster\u2026and your audience will appreciate  that.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Choose a story over stats:<\/strong> I can\u2019t emphasize this point enough. Your audience will remember a  compelling story long after interesting stats have faded from their  memory.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Offer yourself up after the presentation:<\/strong> Stay late for additional questions. Give your email address for further discussion.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Hope this helps! Happy Presenting.<\/p>\n<p>Rick Wion<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You have 15 minutes to deliver a presentation that was constructed for 45. We\u2019ve all been there. My first ever professional presentation happened in 1996 and was to convince my then SVP of Sales that we needed to build a Web site for the company. I had a great deck put together. A carefully crafted &#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/2011\/02\/presenting-through-the-hourglass\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[137,372],"tags":[1062,1061,1063,900,1059,1060],"class_list":["post-2566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-posts","category-rickwion","tag-compress","tag-deliver-fast","tag-executives","tag-present","tag-presentation","tag-shorten"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2566"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2568,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2566\/revisions\/2568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}