What should you cut when your presentation time gets
Cut in order: examples and stories first, then supporting points. Nobody is counting your points. They care whether you were clear.
What I say in the video
You've prepared a twenty-minute presentation, you walk in, and somebody says, "We're running behind. Can you do it in ten?"
When you need to shorten on the fly, cut examples and stories. If you have three examples, pick the best one. If a story runs over sixty seconds, save it for Q&A or drop it.
Second, cut supporting points. If you have three arguments, go with the strongest one or two.
Nobody's counting how many points you made. They care about whether you were clear.
What I didn’t say in the video
Cutting feels like losing the work. It isn't.
You spent nine hours on that deck. Those nine hours are the reason you can do it in ten minutes at all. You know which point matters most because you built all the others and compared them. Someone who prepared twenty minutes and then cut to ten gives a better ten than someone who only ever prepared ten.
None of that preparation disappears when the slide does. It shows up in how fast you get to the point, and in how easily you answer the question nobody expected.
The deck gets shorter. What you know stays the same size.
Try it today
Do the prep before you need it. Tonight, write your one-minute version on a single page and say it out loud once. Next time someone cuts your slot, you're not improvising.
Bill Smartt is a New York executive presence and public speaking coach and the founder of Smartt Talk. He works with leaders in financial services, tech, advertising and startups.
