Here’s How I Prepare My Keynote Presentation to Allow for Stage Day Screwups
As a 1-Man consultant, I understand one thing. Screwups are part of everyday life.
I am a believer in contingency planning.
Anything that can go wrong may go wrong. I am not one of those pessimistic 1-Man consultants you meet on the streets. However, I do know a little about life’s harsh realities.
Screwups happen. And they do because we failed to see it coming.
And it is not surprising. What we can anticipate is a direct reflection of our library of experiences.
Therefore, we work with what we do to do a good job.
And then, we stretch out what we know. It helps us plan for an unforeseeable curveball thrown at our faces.
What We Do Know as a 1st Time Keynote Speaker
Don’t rush to start a task. Execution can blind us to our workstations.
Instead, I recommend 1-Man consultants to do this. Take stock.
This is what I do in the context of a keynote presentation.
- Prepare a keynote script
- Prepare a set of presentation slides
- Prepare for continuous updates of content during personal rehearsals
These are our known variables. No matter how inexperienced or experienced you are as a keynote speaker, you must prepare for these 3 elements before Stage Day.
And it is critical to construct scalability and flexibility in each of them.
What works at scale may be different from scaling what works. Pilots often succeed, while scale-up often fails when the context changes.
1-Man Consultants Think in 3s
And this does not apply solely to our presentation material. No. It is a mindset. It is how we cope with the unforeseeable future.
You can relate this to your daily life, consultant or not.
Take, for instance, me. I have 3 different types of reading speeds.
- Very fast — I flip magazines for interesting images while waiting for a meeting to start
- Normal — Going through and replying to emails, typing content for publication
- Very slow — I need to think about it, and decisions need to be made
I embrace the same mindset during my working hours.
- Speaking quickly — Pantry conversations, internal discussions.
- Speaking normally — Non-commercial client discussions
- Speaking very slowly — Deal pitches
Chances are, you have the same mechanics too. And each of those works brilliantly in a different context.
We can apply this line of thinking when writing our keynote script. And yes, I recommend that you write out your thoughts. Visualizing what we write allows us to quickly point out and cover the gaps in our thinking.
I recommend writing 3 keynote scripts at differing levels of detail.
- Super high-level — For a presentation duration of (approximately) 10 minutes
- High-level — For a presentation duration of (approximately) 15 minutes
- Detailed — For a presentation duration of (approximately) 18 minutes
You might contest the need for additional effort. I get it. Here’s why.
You never know what will happen on the stage day.
If you feel confident on the actual stage day… you may deliver content beyond the prepared material. That extends your total presentation time.
If you are behind an unprepared speaker… get ready to start your keynote presentation late with the expectation of ending on time.
So on and so forth.
Let us move on to the how.
Firstly, start with a mind dump. Write everything you want to share with the world. Pull no punches. Write until you are done.
And then, using the timer app on your smartphone, record the time duration as you read through the initial draft. Don’t rush. Read normally.
I recommend using Zoom to do the actual recording. You can review the video afterward for reading speed, enunciation accuracy, and clarity of message.
Take note of the time taken. There is a high chance you will overshoot the 18 minutes for a detailed presentation. Go back to your script and perform strikethrough on unnecessary words.
That brings you down to the detailed version.
Next, think through how you would like to synthesize your message further. This is how you can produce a 15-minute version from the 18-minute draft.
- Retain the introduction and conclusion
- Present segments in bullet points
- Keep the case studies
Remove everything else.
To get to the 10-minute super high-level version of your presentation, (simply) remove the case studies. If you must have them, stick to 1. You have no time.
When you have the 10-minute keynote script ready — You can start working on the keynote presentation deck.
I have one piece of good news for you — You only need to prepare one set of presentation material. Good grief!
The basis of your presentation material should be your 10-minute keynote script. That is because you can articulate the details. And you should.
Otherwise, the audience’s attention will be sucked into the slides and away from you.
I recommend including the following when constructing your presentation materials
- Images — Boatloads of them. You can elaborate on your thoughts on the images
- Bullet points — For a structured presentation of your presentation framework
- Timeline — Our journey, where we are today, and a picture of the future
Avoid making your slides too busy. It drains the energy of your audience. You know it is busy when you must use Arial font size 6 to squeeze all content into the PowerPoint real estate.
Exercise keynote discipline. Keep your fonts at a minimum of Arial 36.
Parting Keynotes
Screwups are part of our daily life. You should expect screwups during keynote presentations too.
And there is no need to think negatively about screwups. It is a different way of expressing our lack of experience.
We can negate our lack of experience by preparing a scalable presentation framework. It allows us to adjust our delivery given the constraints or conditions on Stage Day.
This is something we can do as 1-Man consultants so to give ourselves the best shot for maximum audience engagement and message retention.
As a content contributor, I write my observations from daily life and my business exposure. Because our life experience is the bedrock of our unique perspectives.
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