PODCAST SCRIPT - SETTING THE PACE FOR YOUR PRESENTATION

Most presenters will speak too quickly. And speaking too quickly is a problem. It’s a problem for you because it will affect your breathing and your confidence.

And, importantly, it’s a problem for your audience. It’s a problem for them because when you speak too quickly they will struggle to understand your points.

You might speak too quickly for a number of reasons. You might be nervous. Tackle it. Remind yourself why you are the presenter today.

You might speak too quickly because you have too much material for the time available. Tackle it. Edit your material and time yourself in rehearsal, speaking at a consistent rate of about 150 words a minute.

And you might speak too quickly because you have too many slides. You can tackle that too. It’s not really a question of the slides themselves. Many successful speakers might have a hundred slides for a half hour presentation. Others might use only ten or fewer.

The problem is content again. When you build text on your slides you might be drawn into reading that text at a rapid rate. Don’t do it. Tackle the text. Remove it from your slides and remind yourself why your audience is there today. They want to listen to what you have to say, that’s going to be useful to them. Next, eye contact in your presentation.