I listen to ALOT of speakers and teachers on podcasts and in person, and have spent a significant amount of time on the platform myself which makes me horribly critical of other speakers when they fail to deliver a coherent message. By my estimate, that happens about half the time. Here is a tip I want to share and that I hope you’ll find helpful.

At the outset of your preparation answer this question: What is it I want my audience to do? Do I want them to take an external action? Do I want them to change a belief? Do I want them to volunteer? Donate? Behave? What is it that I want them to do?

The answer to this question helps to focus what you present. Speakers are constantly tempted to tell good stories that have nothing to do with purpose of their presentation. Time is too precious for that. You have limited minutes with your audience. If you are speaking to 100 people and you speak for 45 minutes, you just used 75 hours of time. If that time is worth $20 per hour you just burned through $1500. If you’re speaking to 1000 people worth $50 per hour you just burned $37,500 worth of time. You’d better say something worth $37,000!

If you are going to take someone’s precious time from them, you’d better make it worth their while. The best way I know to do that is to figure out what you are trying to achieve with your presentation, and then pursue that end with maniacal laser focus.