Times Have Changed
There was a time in my life when the prospect of spending 7 minutes up on stage speaking to a large group of people would have seemed like a truly impossible task. What would I talk about? What if I forgot my presentation? What if I look like an idiot?
To be fair, these are all still valid concerns but it has been such an interesting journey going from not knowing how to fill a 7-minute presentation, to feeling like that’s hardly enough time to share just one of the many valuable lessons I’ve learned and have a desire to pass on to others. Looking at how I’ve perceived time through my speaking journey is an interesting concept because it has changed more than once.
When I started, I didn’t really know what I was doing so the time it took to tell my story was simply “as long as it took to share my story”, which was about 45 minutes when I chronologically talked my way through; life before the attack, the attack, the operation, the recovery, and where I was at that point in my life. You may be thinking “Wow! 45 minutes is a long time for someone who thought 7 minutes was unattainable at the beginning” but I’ll be honest, I was only present for the first couple of seconds and the last minute as I tried to figure out a way to have some sort of profound finishing line, the rest was a complete blackout from fear.
But as I progressed, I found little stories and anecdotes that resonated with people, so I simply added them in. Before I knew it, I was able to talk for 90 minutes! At this stage, I ended up working for a local mental health company doing workplace education and training so that meant I could share my story, and then include the content on the back of it, which meant I was doing workshops for anywhere between 2 and 6 hours! Not bad for someone who thought 7 minutes was an eternity to be the centre of attention.
Then there came a time when I decided to go out on my own and pursue this whole speaking thing for real. Which meant having to dissect and assess my story in a critical way to develop a keynote that could have a real impact in 45 minutes. Despite all of the challenges I had in gaining the confidence to be up on stage for longer and longer periods of time, the first true struggle I had was when I had to shorten my story for the very first time. This presented some real issues because I had to figure out how to be more efficient with my time so I could share the powerful parts of the story but still include time for the audience to have their takeaways.
The natural inclination is to include absolutely everything you did in the longer presentations but just speak faster. I’m sure there’s a metaphor here that explains why nicer restaurants do smaller portions, rather than just shovelling more food onto your plate but I think I’ll leave any culinary metaphors to the master, (in my experience) Luc Longley. It was at this point that I got some advice in relation to developing a keynote that stated “It’s sometimes the parts that you leave out that make it impactful”.
This was a game-changer for me. I started looking at the key messages I wanted to share and building around them with the stories and anecdotes that had the most impact. My presentations not only improved in structure, but relatability, and most importantly at this stage, time as well. I was able to craft a number of meaningful presentations that were all much shorter than the 90-minute-plus ones I’d been doing before. 45 minutes became the standard until I was asked to fit into shorter and shorter windows. 30 minutes, 25 minutes…
This is where the idea of the 7-minute presentation arose. A few weeks ago, I was approached to speak at a men's health luncheon. This was going to showcase a number of extraordinary local men who all had a story to share. The only issue was the volume of speakers that had been given a time slot, so when dividing up all of the time, I was given a 7-minute window. This is most certainly a candidate for one of the most difficult presentations I’ve had to do because there becomes a point where you simply can’t share everything, you really only have time for one message. Despite my improvements in condensing my presentations, this felt like a step too far because I’ve always included a base understanding of the attack, I’ve always thought that’s what everyone wants to hear. But would that have the most impact?
Reflecting on the theme of the luncheon, I decided to skip the attack this time and put all of my focus into one powerful story of support and looking at the way we connect as men differently. Did it have the excitement of the attack? No. Did it create intrigue and awe in the journey of regaining my life as a surfer? Also, no. But did the focus on one specific message give enough depth and understanding to the audience so they knew exactly what I wanted them to take away? Based on the feedback, yes.
I often try to reflect on my journey as a speaker to acknowledge all of the things I’ve learned along the way and this is another example of that. What 7 minutes has meant as I’ve gone through these various stages has constantly changed and this recent experience has really highlighted how I've adapted my story to the point that I feel comfortable on stage, no matter how long that is for. The real gain has been in the change of perspective from taking “as long as it takes to share the story” to “whatever I need to do to connect”. The story doesn’t change, but the messages do and when I consider what matters most and why I share my story, it’s this that will leave a lasting impact for the audience that I hope to continue to do for many more years to come.