Have you ever been in an audience when watching a presentation and you find
your mind wandering? You start to think, "Oh, what am I gonna have for dinner?" Or you
start checking your phone trying to make sure nobody's watching. Well, when you're
giving a presentation, you do not want that to happen to your audience members.
Here are three quick tips to help you grab your audience's attention and then
keep it. And if you enjoy them go to 50SpeakerTips.com for more.
One of the things that you love about watching movies, TV, concerts, and any
other experience where somebody is performing is contrast. You love the
contrast that they offer you. For example, let's say there's no contrast.
None whatsoever. Everything is the same. You go to watch Yo-Yo Ma play the
cello. And he's one of the greatest musicians of all time. And he played
the most beautiful note that you've ever heard in your life.
It's just perfect but he played it for three hours. You'd lose your mind. You'd
screaming out of the theater. But the reason that it's so powerful is because
the notes have such an extraordinary range. There's a lot of variety in your
experience. And the same thing is true for speaking. And there are three
different types of contrasts that we can employ. Number one: delivery contrast.
Right now I'm standing up delivering to you. If we weren't filming this in the
frame was just this size, I can use this whole space. I can deliver from the
theater itself, inside the house. I can use different levels. I can go down. I can
stand up on a chair. I can lie on the floor as long as there's enough
visibility to be seen. I can use different parts of the stage. I can
deliver using visuals. I can deliver using audio. There's a lot of
different ways to deliver what you have to say or share. Number two: we want to
find as much emotional contrast as we possibly can. So the experience for the
audience is a rollercoaster ride. You make them laugh, then you make them cry,
then you make them think, then you make them wonder. You keep moving them from
one emotion to another to another to another to another. And as a result the
time goes like that in a good way. And finally number three: we want to have
content contrast. The way we're delivering our content changes. Sometimes
we use sequential formatting. Sometimes we use numerical. Sometimes we use
compare and contrast. Sometimes we use problem/solution frameworks. There's a
lot of different ways to organize our information and our ideas and we want to
find as many different ways as we can. We may open with the story and then go into
something very technical and then move into a case study type example and then
into a how-to, step-by-step process. But we want to make sure that without
overwhelming them or confusing them, leveraging a variety of ways of
introducing that content. So we have delivery contrast. We have emotional
contrast. And we have content contrast. See if you can put as many of those
types of contrasts into your speeches and they'll be much more effective.
People will sit on the edge of their seat because there's so much variety for
them. So try it and I think you'll enjoy it.
Get right to it.
Many times the speaker will come out at the beginning and do some filler. And say,
"Oh boy. You know, just flew in from Boise. Boy my arms are tired."
Completely unnecessary. Not funny. Or we will have some banter with the audience
that is not orchestrated. That is not part of the speech itself and then we
say something like, "Okay let's get started." Well your speech started as soon
as they saw you. In fact, it started when the bio was read. If they feel
like you're wasting time up there, they're gonna stay in there phones or
gonna stay chatting with their friend until they feel, "Oh now something is
relevant." Come out at the beginning and deliver immediately so they're
paying attention. Cut all that filler at the beginning. It's generally just not
necessary unless you know how to do what is called a warm open. And it's crafted.
It's orchestrated. And you can deliver it every single time successfully.
But if you haven't done that, then just do a cold open which is right into the
material so that they feel that their time is being respected.
Whe speaking, leverage the power of the rule of three. It's powerful, it's potent and it packs a
punch. See what I just did there.
This is most obvious tip of them all. And it might also be the hardest for many
people. Have fun. Honestly, have fun when you're doing this. Very often people will
get an opportunity to present in front of a group and then spend six months
freaking out about it, working themselves up, getting so stressed out that it is no
longer fun. And then when they come out on stage it feels like work. It doesn't
feel like they're having a good time and if you're having a great time
the audience will forgive a whole host of mistakes. They really will. If you're
having a good time and you're delivering on your promises to them then they will
have a good time and the speech will change the way they think, feel, or act.
But you make it work and if you make it painful and torturous, why are you doing
it? Don't do it if it's going to be painful.
Now that's different than the challenges or the struggles that often come with
creating something out of nothing. The challenges that you will face when
you're making something great but those are meaningful challenges. Hard work that
when you work through you feel good about. That's very, very different than
that self-absorbed, self-flagellating sensibility that we often experience
when we take stress and turn it into frustration. And take
frustration and turn it into resentment because I've seen speakers who seem like
they resent the audience or resent the people who brought them there when they
asked to be there. Have fun. If it's fun for you in the rehearsal process, if
it's fun for you on the stage, it'll be a heck of a lot more fun for the audience.
And really, you're there to serve them and if they have fun in the process, well
you've done a great job.