How to Make a Speech Longer

Where making a speech shorter requires the heart, making a speech longer requires the head.

It requires emotional intelligence to get rid of your lines.

It’s hard to destroy the lines that you created.

Making your speech longer is a different ball game.

Now you need to think of more content.

I will teach you a few ways to make your speech longer if you are falling short.

You’re only a few tweaks away from giving the audience what they want.

Start Strong From the Very Beginning

I have a simple rule for content creation:

• If I can’t ramble on it, then I won’t create content on it.

When I can ramble about a topic, it shows that I know enough about it.

When I know enough about it, now it’s just a game of trimming away.

On the flip side, when I don’t know enough about it, then I know I’ll be shooting blanks midway into the talk.

If someone came to me and said:

‘Create a talk about dolphins.’

I know for a fact that I can’t ramble on it.

Therefore, I won’t create a talk on it.

If someone told me to write a talk about my life story, I would accept.

Because that’s a topic I can ramble about.

This is a filter you want to use from the very beginning.

Plenty of people accept speeches that they have no business accepting.

Ask yourself:

‘Can I ramble on it?’

If the answer is yes, green light it.

If the answer is no, red light it.

Add an Anecdote

Let’s say you already started the speech.

Your speech is supposed to be 12 minutes, but you keep hitting 7 minutes…

Don’t fear!

This is where stories and anecdotes come in clutch.

For a lot of public speakers, they talk too much about the raw details and facts.

They’ll choose a topic, then they:

• Share the history.
• Talk about the important time frames.
• Mention the major figures.

The audience is bored out of their mind!

They can’t relate to the talk.

Turn the ambiguous concepts into something real for them.

Talk about the concepts in story format.

I can do something like that with this post.

Do you see how I’m talking about how to make a speech longer?

If I’m running out of content, then I’ll share a story about a time when I ran out of things to say.

The timer didn’t lie.

I’ll talk about the painful emotions associated with coming up short.

Then I’ll talk about how I fixed the short speech.

This anecdote can easily add 3-5 minutes to the speech.

Now the audience is entertained because they can relate to the talk.

Take Pauses, Smile, and Slow Down

Reading a 1000-word blog out loud takes me 10 ish minutes.

One time, I was in a rush, and I recorded it super-fast.

I think I hit the 7-minute mark.

When I listened back to it later, it sounded so bad.

I was repeating the words too fast.

Rushing caused me to turn a 10-minute talk into a way shorter one.

This is why I recommend recording your talks during practice sessions.

It gives you a chance to watch it back later.

When you watch it back, you’ll think:

• I should have paused when I made that point.
• I just told a joke. Why didn’t I let the audience laugh for a while before immediately moving onto the next point?
• If I ask the audience a question, it takes a few seconds for one of them to raise their hand.

Just like that, you are adding in more time with strategic uses of silence.

Watch your talks back and look for these phantom opportunities to add time to your talk.

Include the Audience

Another way to make the speech longer is to involve the audience.

• Ask them a question every now and then.
• Ask if anyone wants to volunteer.
• Or make them laugh and give them time to laugh.

These pockets of moments add up.

30 seconds soon turns into 2.5 minutes of extra time.

Engaging the audience is part of your speech as well.

Plus, the audience likes to be engaged.

They feel like they are a part of your speech.

So, factor them in if you keep coming up short.

What Else Did you Miss?

The final tip I can give you for making your speech longer is to ask:

• What else did I miss?

You don’t immediately need to respond to this question.

Just ask it and proceed with your talk.

When you ask this question and let it marinate, you will often be presented a great answer overtime.

When I was writing my book, Prolific Writer, I first outlined it.

I thought the overall structure was great, but it was missing some content.

I was too technical with the tips, tricks, and exercises.

I was missing something.

So, I asked, what am I missing?

One day, I was given the answer.

The history of writing!!

How cool would it be for me to introduce how writing evolved throughout human history?

When we learn the history of a skillset, we are much more likely to be consistent with the skillset.

By adding the question of what I was missing, I met my quota.

Bonus Tip

How did the line above make you feel?

The subheader that writes, “bonus tip.”

You felt some emotions, right?

That’s the same feeling the audience feels when you say, “bonus tip.”

When you are running short, give them a bonus tip regarding your topic like I am giving you right now.

If you gave a presentation on conflict resolution…

As you’re about to wrap up, hit them with:

‘Since y’all made it this far, let me give you a bonus tip!’

Then talk about why you should never tell someone to “calm down” when they are angry.

The audience feels like they got more than they were expecting.

They will leave satisfied with your talk.

For more insights into public speaking, check out the Speaking Wizard:

– ArmaniTalks