Question & Answer Sessions: Keeping Answers Brief

Video Transcript

"Alright, we're working on answering our questions and now we've established that we're not going to ignore our questions or laugh them off, we're going to answer them. But I want to caution you about something else. Don't say too much. There's several reasons for this. One is time. You only a question and answer period is only a certain amount of time and you want to try to get through as many questions as you can. So if the first question you're asked, you go into this elaborate detailed answer, then you're not going to have enough time to answer other questions and that's not in your best interest. Another thing is depending on the topic, you might not want to say too much. Answer the question, but answer the question with only the pertinent information. Now something could happen with a question that warrants a valid answer, but you already know based on the question, that the answer is not going to be short. You cannot just briefly answer that question. How you want to handle that is you want to say that's a great question and I would love to answer it, unfortunately for me to answer that, I'm going to have to go into a lot of detail. So if you want to see me after the presentation, I'll be happy to answer it. Don't just blow it off, I can't answer that, but establish that the answer is lengthy and so you'll have to address it at a later time, or after the performance or presentation."