The Camino Way and Less is More!
Recently I did part of the Camino Way with my husband, yes, that is him trudging along in the picture! Before we went we asked for tips from people who had done it before. We got lots of fantastic advice but there was one thing that every single person said.
You will pack too much stuff.
They were right!
In presentations quite often we try to pack too much in too, when we probably already know that Less is More. Here are 3 quick tips to help you to put less into your presentations so that they have more impact.
- Establish the core message you wish to get across, how long you have for the presentation and the number of points that you need to cover. This is a bit like looking at how many days you will be away and how much you actually need to bring.
- When you have decided on your points and your content is complete – go through it again several times and see if you are repeating yourself or if there are points that are not absolutely vital. For our Camino trip, we packed and then un-packed and culled items as we packed the second time. In hindsight, we probably should have gone through this exercise a few more times. So when you go through your content, cull as you go and be ruthless! It is very seldom you hear someone saying a presentation was too short…
- Finally, practice out loud and record yourself several times. Play back your recordings and look for opportunities to choose your words more carefully so that you have less of them. Having a dry run like this can be extremely effective.
Our trip this year was our dry run – you can be guaranteed next year, when we do the next section of the Camino Way, that we will take the advice that Less is Definitely More!
