3 Game Changing Tweaks To Make To Your Talk (Even In The Late Stages)
If you’re in the late stages of prepping for a talk and you want it to be really impactful, what’s the best things to tweak?
After helping 200+ people prep for a Conference talk, I know from experience there are 3 things worth focussing on.
If you’re coming to me late in the piece, generally your slides are already submitted and the talk is already well developed.
In these cases, wholesale changes are out of the question. ❌
No-one wants to rework everything at a late stage. I get it.
So the changes I suggest at this late stage are small. 🐭
They elevate a talk, but with minimal effort and hassle.
I wanted to share what those things were.
So you can check whether you’ve got these items under control.
Here’s what I generally recommend you tweak if you’re already in the very final stages of prep, but you want to make sure it’s really refined.
They’re what I’m calling the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) of changes.
#1 – YOUR OPENING
A great opening draws you in. It helps you understand the relevance of the talk and gets you eager to hear more.
The simplest tweak you can make here is not even to re-design the whole opening. Yes you can create an opening that’s never been done before, or is super creative.
But, if you want to elevate your talk, the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) change would be to make sure you:
>>> Include the value your audience can get out of your talk.
Not what the title of the talk is, what your solution is, or the agenda.
What people care about is what they’re going to get out of your presentation.
Look, it doesn’t have to be corny, nor does it have to have anything to do about money.
But, it does need to genuinely speak in currency / language your audience DOES care about.
PRO TIP: Think about the end result your audience really cares about. E.g. If I was talking about the Art of Storytelling, the value is not “understanding the art of storytelling” it would be what that results in, such as “greater influence, more career opportunities or perhaps a better personal brand”.
#2 – YOUR CLOSING
The purpose of a closing is to reinforces your key points and inspire your audience to take some action.
So the simplest tweak here is the refine your closing and cut, not add to it.
>>> Make it short and sweet. Aim to reduce it to 30 secs.
Don’t include anything new. Don’t explain any of the points you’ve already made. Don’t add a lot of key takeaways.
That will confuse people more than anything.
PRO TIP: If you’re not sure what to keep in that 30 secs, simply re-iterate the call to action + the main compelling reason why they’d take that action.
#3 – SUMMARIES
Summaries ensure that people can follow along and can make sense of everything that you’re sharing along the way.
Often people say a lot in presentations, which makes it hard for an audience to synthesise in real time.
If you’re not sure about the key points until the very end, it can be hard to process everything in the middle and this is where a talk can fall flat.
So the simplest tweak to make to the body of your talk is to include summaries.
>>> Summarise each key chunk or section before moving on.
It simply needs to be a short 1-2 sentence summary of what you’ve just said (and ideally how it leads to the next chunk).
PRO TIP: If you’re stuck for what to say in a good summary, think about what you want them to remember (about what you’ve just said), if they could only retain one key thing.
IN SUMMARY
If you’re in the late stages of a talk prep, but you only want to spend a tiny amount of time refining it, focus on these 3 MVP changes:
>>> Opening + Closing + Summaries
If you get these aspects right, your talk will be far more impactful. 🔥
Cheers,
Emily
P.S. If you’d ever like my help on a talk, send me an email, or DM me via LinkedIn.
Hey, I’m Emily Edgeley, a Public Speaking Coach for the Tech industry.
Since 2017 I’ve transformed the lives of thousands, by helping them to communicate with more power. I’ve run 300+ group coaching sessions, coached more than 250 people privately, and helped more than 100+ others give their first ever Conf talk.
I’m on a mission to help anyone in Tech communicate with more clarity, impact and confidence. To boost their brand, career and influence.
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