There’s no such thing as a “10-minute speech”

Or a five minute speech.

30 minutes, three hours—it doesn’t matter.

Don’t think of a speech like a single, uninterrupted performance.

I grew up with musical theater soundtracks. I remember listening to Les Miserables as a kid. My favorite songs were “The Confrontation”, “Master of the House”, and “Do You Hear the People Sing”.

I didn’t think of Les Mis as a 2-3 hour epic—I thought of its most memorable musical building blocks.

At first, I struggled to put together my longer speeches—whether it was 20-minute presentation for graduate school or an hour-long keynote—until I applied this same principle to my performances.

In a so-called 10-minute speech, you need a memorable set piece once every 30-60 seconds.

This could be a new story. A new joke. A new prop. Dynamic movement. Just like how not every musical theater song is a huge act one closing number like “One Day More”, not every attention-grabbing device needs to be a 10/10, no-holds-barred explosion of energy—but it should differ from the prior 30 seconds’ approach.

Attention spans are dwindling (here’s a study from Northeastern Global News). Your audience is experiencing uncountable stimuli and distractions every second. Even 90 seconds of engagement before a lecture does a whole lot to improve learning outcomes (Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning).

Earn their attention. Keep re-earning it.

I spent a week in London with a group of new team members, interviewing over 100 people to create a brand new product. At the end of the interviewing cycle, we proposed our idea to venture capitalists and pitching experts in an eight-minute performance, Shark Tank style.

All three of our groups’ judges called our performance exemplary.

This wasn’t an accident. It was just the 30-second rule in action.

• 0:00-0:30: a story (with funny images) about our target customer’s pain point (a lack of natural sleep solutions for health-conscious travelers).

• 0:30-1:00: the details about the people we interviewed, including a funny picture of some folks in the pub). Throwing in a joke about one of our judges.

• 1:00-1:30: an explanation of how the alternatives of alcohol, CBD, normal tea, and sleeping pills aren’t good enough.

• 1:30-2:00: audience engagement—getting into the market opportunity by asking the crowd what’s the second most popular drink in the world (tea!).

• 2:30-3:00: introducing the product—a self-heating tea with sleep aids—including its rhyming slogan (“twist to heat, then drift to sleep”).

• 3:00-3:30: explaining the history of the self-heating tech we’ll use.

• 3:30-4:00: describing the three Es that set us apart (effectiveness of the ingredients, ease of heating, and engineering for safety).

• 4:30-5:00: detailing why the biggest tea brands aren’t already doing this (referencing their S-1 filings).

• 5:00-5:30: joking that we need a rocket scientist to explain the tech further—and then introducing the rocket scientist in our group.

• 5:30-6:00: funny, tired-looking pictures of every group member; a fast call and response, describing our lack of sleep.

• 6:00-6:30: going into the unit economics, CAC, and LTV—only high-level, big-picture numbers.

• 6:30-7:00: getting into our distribution strategy by showing pictures of the places that expressed interest in the product.

• 7:00-7:30: direct appeals to the judges in front of us by referencing how their expertise could help us, including a screenshot from one of their websites.

• 7:30-8:00: concluding with our future plans, offering samples of the product, and bringing back our slogan (“twist to heat, then drift to sleep”).

I didn’t begin the project with a specific plan of what we would do in every specific 30-second segment. But I know we’d meticulously take advantage of every 30-second split.

We rehearsed a half-dozen times, only stopping once we were at seven minutes. Why? Because I knew we’d have roughly one minute of laughter.

This is tough to figure out at first. But the more you speak, the more you benchmark your timing, the more you realize the power of planning every 30 seconds out.

We may turn this pitch into a real product, just like some prospective musical theater shows begin as recorded demos. It was a whole lot of fun.

Shout-out to Desi, Andres, Ramon, Alex, Sikha, and Trevor—we were Team E, and that means empathy, efficiency, and extraordinary work.

Your top takeaways:

1. Think about speeches in building blocks.

2. Use diverse engagement methods.

3. Leave space for reactions.

Structure sells!