Help! I designed 4 hrs. of content for a 2 hr. workshop

You put together your workshop or webinar and find that you’ve designed twice as much material.  Don’t worry.  You are not alone!

Over 85% of the Speakers, Coaches and Entrepreneurs I work with run into this issue.  And, boy have I experienced this myself.

You have great content.  You have a LOT of content and you want to provide a ton of value.  But, you’ve designed too much.

Here are 5 tips that will help you resolve this:

 (1) Cut Down Your Learning Objectives: Go back to your learning objectives and see if you’ve included too many.  For a 1 hr talk/webinar, having about 3 is great.  For a 2-4 hour talk, about 5 is good. Is there a complete learning objective you could move from this talk and create a follow-on webinar or talk for?

 (2) Shift How You Deliver Material: If you need to cover all the topics, you can alter the way you deliver them.  For example, instead of doing a full blown exercise where you divide into groups and have each group debrief, switch to a “popcorn” brainstorm where each person gets individual thinking followed by a group brainstorm to capture answers on a flip chart. Explore how your interactivity could be facilitated differently.

 (3) Move Parts of Topics: Perhaps you need to still cover all the topics, but do you have to go into as much detail in each area?  Take each major area/module and see which pieces of that module could be moved to a follow-on module/tool or template you could offer afterwards. This enables you to provide continued value and follow-on revenue.

 (4) Ask for More Time: You could go back to your buyer and sell them on the value of the additional content/interactivity.  Get clear on what’s in it for them, what it will take (addl. time/$$) and ensure the ROI exceeds the cost.  There’s no harm in asking!

 (5) LESS is More: It’s better to cover a few topics deeply than 10 topics at a high level.  Your audience will leave with tangible value and deeper experiences.They will not only remember the workshop and the learning but they will hire and refer you in the future.

When you go out to dinner, do you eat your appetizer, meal and dessert all at the same time?  No. So, why would you expect your audience to digest all your content AND have room for more afterwards?

I invite you to try these tips on and notice how much easier it is to cover less more deeply AND how much more follow-on business you attract as a result.

I’d love to hear from you!  What tips do you have to add?  Comment below and let me know what you think.