Ep. 123 Why Less is More

Hey there, Mark Brown. You taught me this. Less is more. What?

Yeah, the thing is, I've discovered over time some people do too much in their presentation. And today I want to discuss very briefly how we can limit what we say. But we would have greater impact because truly, less is more.

Anyone can give a presentation, few deliver unforgettable presentations. What's the difference? You're about to find out. Welcome to the Unforgettable Presentations podcast with your hosts, world champion speakers and coaches, Mark Brown.

Mark Brown, your life tells a story and there's someone out there who needs to hear it.

And Darren Lacroix. And Darren Lacroix.

Stage time. Stage time. Stage time.

Ready for some powerful presentation? Ahas. Let's dive right in.

Mark. Over and over again, we've seen toastmasters who write a nine minute speech and try and say it in seven. We see professional speakers who do a 90 minute keynote and they try and squeeze it into 45. And we've heard Craig Valentine say over and over again that if you squeeze too much in, you squeeze your audience out and it's also less powerful. I mean, you and I, when we worked on our championship speeches, you had so many back and forths with your coach, David Brooks, trying to get the words right, trying to make it tighter. I remember the question that was in my head over and over again when you made me write it out, which I will confess, I argued with you because I didn't get this point. That's the point is I didn't get this point that you can say more with fewer words if they're the right words. So don't get us wrong, we're not saying just like say less, we're saying, no, no, no. Say the right things with fewer words and you'll have so much more audience impact. However, here's the challenge. It's more work to say less. It's more work to say less. So I sat there looking, you remember, I would send you, I would email you my speech every day, three times a day. Hey, Mark, you know, it started at 1492 words. Hey, Mark, I got it down to the 1132. Now or later? Hey, Mark, I got it down to 1101. Hey, Mark, you know, and so, but I was tightening it, tightening it, tightening it. So here was the overriding question. How do I say it better in fewer words? And I had to ask myself that a thousand times, how do I say it better in fewer words? I don't know, how could I? But without that editing question, I would have had way too Many words. There were no extra words in my speech, thanks to you. There were no extra words in your speech? There were a couple, but that's just because my mind wandered at the moment. But for the most part it was tight.

And the thing is, Darren, you know, for those who may not be a Toastmaster, if you aren't a Toastmaster, you may not get the reference. A Toastmaster speech contest. You have to deliver a talk, it's five to seven minutes long and you get a 30 second grace on the outside to go seven and a half minutes. And on average, Toastmasters contest speeches, word count will range between 700 to 850 depending upon someone's speaking rate. I won't go into that today, but generally when Darren says, oh, I got 1400 words, wow, he's saying his talk was 12 minutes long and he had to edit it down to seven minutes. So when the word count was going shorter and shorter, he was feeling, yes, I'm making progress. It isn't enormously easy to edit. So sometimes people say, I can't find any of you with words. There are a couple of things to consider. One, are you saying too much that is peripheral? Are you investing too much time being descriptive? How blue the sky was, how lovely the birds sang, how the park bench was painted green. I mean, is that really important? So, one, you've got to think about what is important to your presentation. I have a mantra, kind of when I'm editing or helping someone edit their speech and reviewing their text. And I sent this talk to someone yesterday who had sent me their script of a speech for my review, one of my clients. And I said, look at this paragraph here and ask yourself, if I remove this paragraph, will it impact my speech in any way? If the answer is no, chances are you don't need it. And sometimes what happens is we think we have to give a speech, therefore we must be loquacious and verbose and eloquent. But sometimes the fewer the words, the shorter the sentences and the fewer the syllables. It provides greater clarity for your audience. I'll say it again. Fewer words, shorter sentences and fewer syllables can be very, very impactful. And sometimes a sentence of two words, it can be more effective than. As I stood there wondering what I should do next, I realized that now would be the most opportune moment for me to implement this process as opposed to. As I assessed the situation, I decided, it's time. So much more succinct. Fewer words, both monosyllabic, one syllable. It's time. But in that Context with the part before it. It's time. Boom. Is that much more effective. So one challenge we have is to think about what we have written in our scripts. And if you're a toastmaster in a competition, I strongly recommend you write a script so you know your word count in case anything goes wrong in delivery. But look at those scripts and ask yourself, am I using my words economically and effectively? I'm not saying always use short sentences every single time. You have to decide when to do that. It isn't an organic process. It takes some time. And I recommend getting someone to coach you and guide you. 26 years ago, I had a coach, David Brooks, who helped me. Matter of fact, Darren, you asked about my correspondence. I happen to have kept copies of our letters and our script changes that I had with David Brooks over the years. We actually wrote letters. I use a Microsoft program. I would go to the fax machine and fax it to him in Texas. If you're unable to fax machine, you can ask Siri or Google it. But if you look at some of the notes that David wrote for me in response to my script, I had a whole bunch of questions here. And he would put comments in, and I'd rewrite it, and he'd say, okay, why would you want to do that? That's too wordy. Cut it down. And he taught me the power of using fewer words, shorter sentences, and at times fewer syllables to make it simple and clear. In that context, I have learned that less is definitely more.

And again, reminder, we're saying it's more effort. I know you don't want to hear it. It's the truth. Tough love. More time, more effort in order to say it better in fewer words. And Mark, I love when we had our workshop and there was one of our students, I won't mention his name, but he saw you hold up those papers and all the edits. We had just watched your speech. By the way, you can find my speech and mark's speech on YouTube. Just search world champion speech. Mark Brown, World champion speech. Darren Lacroix. And you watch Mark's speech, and there were no extra words. And he just thought that Mark's just a great writer. He didn't see the literal effort behind the great writing. And, Mark, one more thing I want to bring up. Sometimes people try to make too many points in their speech, and they may be related. They may be great points. And there was a. I critiqued my website. A speech by a movie star, a commencement speech. He's a movie star. One of the coolest people on the planet. However, he made 13 points in a commencement speech. Now, they were all good points. I believe he was giving people a plethora of ideas. Choose what you want. I get it. However, there are some points that were so good, I wish he developed them more. It would have made the whole speech more memorable. Instead of, I like this point and this point. I'll use those. Make it that unbelievable, as you say, Mark, make that an experience. If people are saying too much, it's not an experience. You know, it's I'm sitting here, I'm listening to you. You're saying, I'm listening. Oh, here's an idea. Let me write that down. As opposed to wow. As opposed to being unforgettable. That's what we're here for, to teach people how to do exactly that.

You mentioned that critique you gave, and I hadn't thought about this until you said it just now. 13 points could all have value, I have no doubt about that. But it occurred to me, when I'm delivering a message, who's in the audience? What? You always say the most important part of a speech is the thought process in the audience's mind. Yeah. I was thinking, Darren, as you mentioned that particular critique, I didn't hear the whole speech, but a thought occurred to me. We have to be aware of who's in our audience. For example, I'm 21 years old, done four years of college. I've got my cap, my gown underneath, I've got a tank top, I've got shorts and flip flops. I'm going to party with my friend for the next two days. And I appreciate any speaker who come to talk to me for commencement. But my mind, my mindset is not really prepared to absorb 13 points of wisdom. Ideas for me to apply to my life today, to live a mature, successful life in the future. I'm not saying I'm irresponsible, but at that time, I don't believe the average university graduate is there prepared to absorb 13 points of wisdom. So what's the best two or three tips you can give to that audience to really prepare them to take on the world? That's my perspective. And similarly, if we think about giving them fewer ideas but drilling them down and making them unforgettable, in that case, I believe less is more.

Yep. And by the way, we could belabor our point, but our point is made. Whatever you're trying to say, it's going to be a little more effort to make it less. But that will give you More impact. If you're struggling with this, one of the things that would help you is number one, wait a day. You know, I couldn't figure out how do I make it tighter when I was working on my speech. But I go to sleep, I wake up with the next day and my subconscious was working on it because I was thinking about it before I went to bed. Next day I looked at it, I was like, oh, I could say this and use these words and that line doesn't matter and it would just be beautiful. So number one, take an extra day, look at it tomorrow, put it away. And number two, get a coach. Get somebody who's skilled in this to help you. Mark Brown is a brilliant writer. Mark Brown was my coach. Mark Brown went to David Brooks. Get a coach. So if you haven't, if you're looking for a coach, hey, this is what we do. If you love us, reach out. Go to GetASpeakingCoach.com GetASpeakingCoach.com by the way, we even have the podcast right at the top of the page where we talk about how to choose the right one. So we have all the faculty there who do one on one coaching. Go check that out. But if you have a coach that you like, that you really believe could help you get a coach to help you say why less is more, but how to say less but have more impact, I got to give you the.

Darren, because you know, like I said, I got a coach and I love to coach you. Listen, it may not be me, but get someone who can help you to navigate this. I'm going to stop. Because you know what? Less is more.

By the way, if you have a question for Mark and me, please go to unforgettable presentations podcast.com scroll down a little and there's a place where you can ask us a question. So question, comment, feedback, just go to that page Unforgettable Presentations podcast and submit your question to us. Mark Brown. I don't think we need to say more.

Less is more. Be unforgettable. We'll see you next week.

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