The biggest fundamental difference between average speakers or good speakers and great speakers is that great speakers realize that the speech isn't about them, it's about the audience.
If you are focused on yourself, you give yourself the luxury of thinking about yourself to the point where you get nervous. If you are preoccupied with your audience members and their learning experience, you don't have time to get nervous!
Me-centered speakers play it safe, because they are worried about saving face and remaining "respectable." Audience-centered speakers take risks, because they know that the worst that can happen is that their audience might not learn that much more but that at least the monotony was broken.
Self-centered speakers put lots and lots of words on their PowerPoint slides because that is easier for them to remember what to say, never mind that it is boring to the audience. The audience-centered speaker never puts words on a slide. Instead, he/she puts interesting and memorable images on slides. The audience-centered speaker puts notes on a small note cared that only he or she can see.
The me-centered speaker wastes time at the beginning thanking the audience, talking about happy he is to be there and explaining why and how he decided to talk about the topic and how he decided to organize the topic. The audience centered-speaker, from the very first second she opens her mouth, says something of interest and relevance to the audience. The audience-centered speaker dispenses with the boring cliched formalities.
The me-centered speaker can flawlessly execute a speech, use perfect elocution and diction, and yet still come across as a self-centered prig. In contrast, the audience- centered speaker can occasionally mispronounce a word, lose his place, or make a stumble, and yet still come across as sincere, powerful and have an impact.
At the end of the speech, the self-centered speaker asks "how'd I do? How many people applauded? How many people gave me a four star rating?"
The audience-centered speaker asks "Did the audience learn as much as they could? What can I do to give the audience more value? Can I help the next audience learn even more?"
Are you going to focus on yourself or your audience? You might not know, but your audience will figure it out instantly.
~ TJ Walker
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LESSONS OF THE DAY
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LESSON OF THE DAY
TJ emphasizes the importance of speaking in a passionate matter
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The biggest fundamental difference between average speakers or good speakers and great speakers is that great speakers realize that the speech isn't about them, it's about the audience.
