3 Three Minute Presentation
“No one ever complains about a speech being too short!”
Ira Hayes (soldier)
3.1 You really can do all this in three minutes
You’ve gone through the book, acted on the advice that suits you best and applied it in a number of presentations. You’re seeing improvements in your confidence, the quality of your content, and the reactions from your audience.
Now’s the time to convert your skills and new knowledge into the ultimate; a Three-Minute Presentation.
You might ask yourself, “Why is this important?” It’s because on some occasions you’ll be called on to make the classic ‘Elevator Pitch.’
You never know when you might be in the presence of an influential person for your project, career or own business. Generally those influencers will be busy people. If you can get your message across in three minutes, the speed and efficiency alone is impressive and highly appreciated, because very few people can. You give a clear message: “I respect that you are busy so I’m adapting my story to your situation, not mine.”
It sounds daunting. A presentation in just three minutes? But believe me: if you’ve followed the suggestions in this book, you already have all the tools required to do it.
3.2 Prepare an elevator pitch
First, go back to Chapter 11 and review the Post-it note method of preparation. Remember how it’s all about finding the three main points and building from there? Use the Post-it note approach to prepare the structure of your short presentation.
Next, think again about the Power of Three. For each of your three main issues, you might be able to mention a maximum of three sub-points within the time available.
How to find them? Make sure you’ve done plenty of coffee-machine talk. The ability to describe concisely what you are working on is exactly what you’ve been developing while talking to your colleagues for snippets of two or three minutes.