"It's Only 20 Minutes, Right?"

Someone asked me recently- “It’s only a 20-minute keynote – that’s not that long, right?”. It was a kind question. They were trying to be respectful of my time.

Here’s the truth. A 20-minute talk isn't a third of the work of an hour. Sometimes it's more.

When you have an hour, you have room to wander a little. When you have 20 minutes, every minute has to earn its place. You cut more. You choose harder. You let go of good stories so the right one has space.

Whether it's 20 minutes, an hour, or a full morning, the work behind it looks a lot the same.

It starts with the room, not the speech

Before I write a word, I want to understand who will be sitting there.

Sometimes the person planning the event has a clear picture. Often times they don't, and that's okay. They're juggling a hundred details, and reading the mood of a few hundred people isn't on their checklist.

So, I do some of that homework myself. I ask what I can. I look at what's happening in their community and their industry. I pay attention to what's on people's minds before I ever get there, including the demographics – all female or a mix of males and females – what about age ranges of the audience, etc.

A talk built for your people sounds different than one pulled off a shelf. The audience can feel it, even if they can't name why.

Then comes the writing. And the rewriting.

The first draft is never the talk. It's just me getting everything out of my head and onto the page.

Then I start cutting. Stories I love. Points that are true but don't serve this group. Sentences that read well but don't sound like me when I say them out loud.

Then I practice. Out loud. A lot.

Words on a page and words in a room are two different things. Something that looks great written down can fall flat when spoken.

I practice until it stops sounding like reciting and starts sounding like talking. I time it. I find where I rush. I find where a pause will do more than any sentence could.

And then, the delivery

By the time I step up, the talk feels easy. That's the point. The ease you see on stage is built from all the work you didn't see.

That's true of leadership too

The leader who stays steady in a hard meeting didn't get there by accident. The one who knows just what to say to a discouraged team has usually done a lot of quiet rewrites first. Thinking. Preparing. Practicing the hard conversation before it happens.

What people see is the result. The preparation is where the real work lives.

If you're planning an event

Maybe you've got an annual meeting, a conference, or a gathering where you want people to leave encouraged and ready to act.

You already know if you want a talk that's built for your people, not just delivered to them. If that's you, let's talk.