“If you can’t write your message in a sentence, you can’t say it in an hour.”
Dianna Booher, Communications Consultant
There may be a few different ways to interpret Booher’s quote, but to me it says … do the heavy lifting so your audience doesn’t have to!
In other words, when you sit down to prepare for a talk or presentation, take a few moments to do some critical thinking about what you want your messages – or your main points – to be. If you don’t, you could end up talking and talking, as Booher suggests, and never getting anywhere.
The heavy lifting is simply a matter of preparing and packaging ahead of time. To find your message, ask yourself what your capture or summary points are. What are the statements that capture and convey the importance, significance or value of what you’re talking about? They should be one sentence each.
By writing your message in a sentence, you will be more efficient with time – yours and your audience’s – and you will have a much better chance of getting your point across to your audience.
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