When
you are developing a brand new presentation, plan on spending 1 hour
of preparation time for each minute of presentation time. In other words,
if you are speaking for 20 minutes, you should invest 20 hours in research,
development, organizing, outlining, fleshing out, and rehearsing your
presentation. Sound like a lot of time? It is, but it's necessary if
you want to delivery a dynamite presentation.
Most
people have no idea how much time is required to put together a presentation
or seminar. For that reason, I only speak on subjects where I'm sure,
if I invest the time to construct a program from scratch, I'll be able
to deliver the same or a similar version to other groups. The most well
known speakers have only a handful of presentations. As Dr. Norman Vincent
Peale said, "I give the same mashed potatoes for each speech, I just
change the gravy."
If
you will invest the time to thoroughly research your subject, you'll
find that you can develop several presentations from the material you've
gathered. As you give the same or similar talks in the future, you'll
find that "changing the gravy" will require perhaps only an hour of
preparation for each five minutes of presentation.
Copyright
1999-2000 by William C. Wilson, Jr.
All Rights Reserved.