Its sounds obvious. It may sound a little gross. But it has to be said: make sure you don’t literally spit on your audience when delivering a presentation?
How could this happen? After all, few speakers care to show obvious contempt for their audiences.
Well, I was spat upon at no lesser a venue than a seminar at the National Speakers Association. The speaker was a wildly successful speaker/consultant who routinely spoke to business groups all over the world.
As a public speaker, I like big audiences, the larger the better. There’s a chance to reach more people and have a bigger impact. But from an audience’s perspective; there will never be anything better than having a monopoly of the speaker’s attention—and that means no one else is in the room.
When you speak to only one person, you can see if they get what you are saying. You can ask that person a question if it seems he/she doesn’t understand.
In life, we all get in ruts from time to time. We coast; it’s only human nature. But too often speakers end up coasting through speeches and audiences end up coasting through their listening responsibilities during a speech.
Is your audience coasting? Do they have glazed looks in their eyes? Are they shifting in their seats? Are they expressionless? Are they craving an afternoon nap?
Sometimes you have to break the mode and get them out of their coasting. Here are ten specific tips:
If you speak long enough to groups in-person or on TV or radio, you are likely to offend somebody seriously.
If you are on a TV or radio show that has a call-in format, you might be called a fascist or a communist, simply for expressing a mild preference for a mainstream political figure. If you are giving a speech, someone in the audience may ask you a threatening question, or worse, try to shout you down.
As a speaker, the larger the number of audience members in front of you, the better, in terms of potential sales, impressions, and messages delivered.
But not always.
If your goal is to really and truly get people to understand your message, then the smaller the audience, the better.
Here’s why:
In large audiences, often people are afraid to ask questions. If there are 70 or 700 other people in the room, most people are too bashful or nervous to stop the presenter and ask a question.
Frequently, I will see a speaker finish a presentation with a strong closing.
He/she summarizes the main points and then brings it all together with a bang. Furthermore, the speaker then answers the audience’s questions thoughtfully and skillfully.
But then…
“Are there any more questions?†“OK, well, thanks for coming and goodbye.â€
The once great presentation just ended with a thud. It’s as if he just completely ran out of gas. Suddenly the speaker’s final statement is undermined by the manner in which he abruptly left after the question and answer session.
It started out like any other day of presentation training. I was working with four executives on how to be a better public speaker. About 15 minutes after we officially began (and 30 minutes after the time when trainees were supposed to show up), James walked in. The fact that he was very late and missed the opening wasn’t the disruptive part. It was that James sat in the front row, two feet in front of me, with his eyes closed, and he did this all morning. I all but asked him if he’d like pajamas and a cot so that he could really stretch out and go to sleep. I felt like asking him if my talking was interrupting his sleeping. But I didn’t.
“Welcome to our podcast!â€
“This is our first ever podcast.â€
“We hope you are enjoying our podcast experience.â€
These are all phrases I here constantly from people’s podcasts. What is the one thing they all have in common? Nobody cares about Podcasts!
By that I don’t mean that no one listens to Podcasts. Podcast audiences are growing everyday – audiences now reach into the millions.
Audiences want to know that you, the speaker, know more than they do on the subject you are discussing. Otherwise, what would be the point of them listening? But they also want to know that you came from their position of ignorance, or at least their position of less information.
This is why all-knowing lecturers come across as arrogant and out of touch. If you as the speaker can share stories, examples and other personal details about how you came to your area of expertise it will enhance your standing with your audience in the following ways:
Many people are big believers in the benefits of vitamins, minerals, daily aspirin and other supplements. I’m not going to enter a health debate here, but I do want to warn you about taking pills before a speech or media interview. If you want to take pills or medicines of any kind, do so in private where no one can see you.
If you are seen popping a harmless Vitamin C pill in a TV studio’s green room, another guest may assume you are taking powerful narcotics to calm your nerves. If you are seen taking a multi-vitamin at the water fountain before giving a speech in a hotel, one of the audience members may assume you are addicted to valium.