Selling Yourself As a Speaker 85
Adapt your speech to the time of day
You already know you should keep your speech short and
simple because an audience’s attention span is limited. You should
also determine the length based on the time of day you’ll deliver
your talk.
A very good rule of thumb is: The later the hour, the shorter
the material.
Most people in the real world are up at 6 or 7 a.m. They work
all day. They attend meetings. They work on numerous projects.
Their energy and concentration levels are running low as evening
approaches. If you’re speaking in the early evening or after din-
ner, limit your speech to 10 or 15 minutes and try to give it plenty
of energy.
What about making a speech in the morning? You’ll have an
audience that’s fresh and energetic, so you can probably hold their
attention for 30 minutes if you’re dynamic.
Luncheon programs are still another thing. People are usually
satiated and relaxed after a luncheon and are not as willing to
listen to a speaker as at other times. It’s usually best to keep your
speech to a maximum of 20 minutes. They’ll thank you for being
considerate. You can’t lose if you strictly limit yourself.
If possible, consider adding a question-and-answer period to
luncheon or dinner speeches. This pumps some energy into your
talk and gives the audience an opportunity to interact. Of course,
some subjects and some rooms are not appropriate for question-
and-answer sessions. You must judge that in advance.
Be prompt
Always start on time. Why punish those people who made it a
point to be punctual? If a break is scheduled, do your best to
break promptly and resume on time. Breaks are dangerous be-
cause the refreshments and social atmosphere are terribly tempt-
ing. Ask your host or your staff to start rounding up your audi-
ence a couple of minutes before you’re scheduled to continue.
The rhythm of eye contact
In Chapter 2 I spoke about eye contact involving situations
that were predominantly one on one. For platform presentation