One of my mottos is “The second time is twice as good and half as long” when it comes to public speaking. This technique worked for me recently when I recorded a video for a public company in the Southeast last week. I was onsite to work with senior leaders and the public relations team.
As part of my work, I coached the PR team on how to prepare executives for media interviews and videos. When it came time for me to record videos for leadership in the field, a member of the PR team coached me. My first “take” was more than two minutes in length. The PR professional said “That was great. Could you record one more time, but a little shorter?” I did and reduced the length by 40 seconds while keeping the most important content. In other words, her coaching — simply asking me to “say it a second time” — worked beautifully!
