Know the substance deeper than you share.

In the early 2000s, I discovered communication and leadership expert, Paul Scanlon. Paul was the leader of a church which had transitioned from a small middle-class church in Bradford, to a thriving church of over 1,000 people. One Sunday, I was at the church when he was speaking about how he preps for message he delivers to the church each week.

He said something powerful, which stuck with me. For a 45-minute talk, he has 3 hours of material. He literally prepares in depth, so he can talk for 45-minutes and still have hours of content he could share. That level of preparedness gives you a confidence and a clarity, which is more powerful than any notes.

It got me thinking about the substance behind experts and how we communicate. Always be prepped with more material than you need, so when things go off piste, you have enough depth of subject matter material to go with it.

Someone recently asked me how I manage to 45 minute live sessions each week with seemingly no notes. Well, I have hours of reps on my chosen subjects, winning clients, social selling and LinkedIn. When you've delivered hours and hours of training, you have the depth of experience with the subject matter, to be able to share it off by heart.

The lesson is, always know more than you share, you'll exclude confidence, be less reliant on notes, more comfortable in your own skin and surprise your audience with a level of depth they probably didn't expect.