4 Ways to Get Your Pace Just Right
If Goldilocks attended your next virtual presentation, would she think it is too slow, too fast, or JUST RIGHT?
A well-paced presentation will help your participants feel comfortable enough to stay till the end. Move too slow and they’ll click away to something more interesting. Race too quickly through all that fabulous content and they’ll probably miss the important information that can help them the most!
Getting your pace just right doesn’t have to be hard.
Goldilocks (and your viewers) will stick around and be engaged when you use your time wisely with the following ideas.
Take A Moment — The best approach to creating a conversational pace is to make sure you pause for a moment after making an important point. If you are giving a sales presentation, pause after you show them how your product/service can solve their problem. If you’re teaching a new concept, give your students a moment to grasp that new idea. Let people think about what you just said. You can even say, “I’m going to give you a moment to think about that."
Take A Seat — Literally, sit down. I encourage presenters to stand while they’re speaking. It elevates the energy and sets you apart from all the other virtual speakers that slouch in their desk chairs. However, a great way to shift the pace half way through your presentation is to pull up a stool and sit. The activity of grabbing that stool creates a natural pause, catches people’s attention with your movement, and figuratively brings you to “eye level” with them.
Tell Them Before You Tell Them — Picture this: You ask a question and stare at the screen waiting for their '“chat” to come pouring in with all their wonderful responses. But, if you are lucky, only three or four people engage. You feel the desire to wait for more, but the time is ticking and you need to move. Ugh!!! Don’t assume that the audience isn’t interested. They just needed a few moments to get ready to pull up that chat box and type in their ideas. SO — try this phrase before you ask your question next time: “Get your chat box ready. I’m going to ask you in a moment to quickly respond to a question.”
Save Some For Later — Goldilocks ate that whole bowl of porridge! Then she desperately needed a nap. You run the risk of exhausting your listeners when you try to jam too much information into one session. Break that presentation down into chunks and offer only a few of the essentials (three or four bites) so they can enjoy the “meal.” Make it soooo good they will want to come back for more.
It takes some practice to get that perfect pace. So, get out your spoon and start sampling different ideas until you find the one that feels just right.
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