We’ve all been there – standing backstage, ready to deliver a carefully planned presentation, only to find out… you’ve lost half your time. Maybe the previous speaker ran over. Maybe the schedule changed last minute. Or maybe you just have too much good content and not enough minutes!
So what do you do when you have more slides than time, and you still want to deliver impact, value, and connection?
The Day a TV Star Stole My Time Slot…
Years ago, I was booked to deliver a keynote at a real estate industry conference. I had an 80-minute slot and had meticulously designed and rehearsed every moment – the stories, the audience interaction, the persuasive techniques, and yes, the slides. I was excited.
In the time slot before me, a well-known television personality took the stage.
He was charismatic. He was funny. He was famous. And he talked. And talked. And talked.
He went for so long people started looking at their watches.
Ten minutes before I was due to start he was still going…..
Ten minutes into my time slot…
Then 20 minutes in…
Then 30 minutes in… still no sign of wrapping up.
I looked to the organisers. No one moved. No one cut him off. I was standing in the aisle obviously waiting for him to stop.
When he finally finished, I had just half the allotted time left. I had half time I was promised.
And yet… when I walked off that stage, the audience was buzzing. People were happy.
They had no idea what I had to delete, skip, or shorten. And that’s exactly how it should be.
How did I do it? And how can you?
Here are five essential strategies you can use when your content doesn’t match the time you’ve been given – without losing the soul of your message.
1. Start with your audience in mind
What is most important for them to know, feel, or do? When time is cut short, your job is not to deliver every slide – it’s to deliver the outcome.
Ask: “What will they remember tomorrow? What do they need to hear today?” Then cut anything else.
2. Know your core message cold
If you’ve attended my Presentation Skills Course, you know I teach a persuasive structure that works in any time frame. When you’re clear on your message, the time doesn’t matter as much. You can flex around the edges while keeping the heart intact.
3. Design for flexibility
I always advise people in my Presentation Skills Training to build modular content – stories, examples, activities that you can skip or expand based on the people in the room.
If you have 10 key points, know in advance which 3 are “must-deliver,” and which can be cut if needed.
4. Practise time-trimming
In my Presentation Skills Course Online, we practise this skill:
Ask: “What would this message sound like in 30 minutes? In 10? In 2?”
Practise your transitions so they’re sharp and seamless, and know how to close early without saying “Sorry I’ve run out of time” (that’s a credibility killer).
5. Don’t show them what they missed
Here’s the key – the audience doesn’t know what was on slide 36. Or 47. Or the brilliant analogy you cut out. If you act like nothing’s missing, they’ll never notice. But if you say, “I had more to show you but we’ve run out of time…” they’ll feel disappointed and short-changed.
Pro Tip: Create a value-add handout
If you’re consistently over-prepared (like many of my clients), you can always offer extra value by sending a short PDF with bonus content, a checklist, or further reading.
Not only does this solve the time issue, it gives your audience something tangible – and keeps you in their inbox after the event.
Presentation is a Connection - Own It
Presentation isn’t just about pretty slides and good ideas. It’s a connection – and your job is to read the room, work with what you’ve got, and leave your audience feeling inspired, equipped, and seen.
🎬 Final Thought
Remember: great presenters don’t need all the time – they just need the right focus.
So next time you’re faced with too many slides and too little time, don’t panic. Just pause, prioritise, and present with purpose.
Your audience won’t notice what you left out. They’ll remember how you made them feel. Happy Presenting!
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©2025 MICHELLE BOWDEN is an authority on persuasive presenting in business. She’s run her Persuasive Presentation Skills Masterclass over 1000 times for more than 13,000 people over the past 26 years and her name is a synonym for ‘presentation skills’ in Australia.
Michelle Bowden is a multi-million-dollar pitch coach to her client list that reads like a who’s who of international business: banking and finance, IT, pharmaceutical, retail, telecommunications plus many more.
Michelle is the creator of the Persuasion Smart Profile®, a world-first psychological assessment tool that reports on your persuasive strengths and weaknesses at work, the best-selling internationally published author of How to Present: the ultimate guide to presenting live and online (Wiley) and her new best-selling book is called How to Persuade: the skills you need to get what you want (Wiley).