Connecting with an Audience

From inspiring employees, to presenting to potential investors, to performing nightly onstage, at some point most of us will have to stand up in front of others and speak to them. But how do you make it an effective and successful moment?

Firstly, you have to want to connect with your audience. Understand why you are here. Are you looking for a promotion? Trying to build a company from scratch? Giving a toast at a wedding and want to let the bride and groom know how much they mean to you? Before you focus on what you are saying, know why you are saying it. Lighting a fire in yourself will help to ignite the same spark in others.

Next, you have to know who you are speaking to. You can speak about the same ideas with a room full of children sitting on the floor or partners in a boardroom. All you have to change is the way you get those ideas across. What was the last thing your investor invested in? Ask questions beforehand, stalk them on Google, chat with the organization on the phone. Everyone is flattered when they are understood, and just a little bit of knowledge can drive home a joke or alter a presentation for the better.

Be vulnerable. This is the most difficult, and yet most important step. More and more people distrust big brands, and feel like they are getting “a line” instead of the truth. In the digital age, people believe that what you are showing to the world is a carefully curated presence that doesn’t tell the whole truth. They crave a real exchange, a personal experience. So talk about a time when you were wrong, and learned from it. Share an insecurity or a flaw. Don’t beat yourself down in front of others, but a little honesty and self-deprecation can go a long way to get everyone in the room onto your team.

Use little stories to tell a big story. Telling someone what they should be doing is boring or insulting. Telling them what Jim did -or what you yourself did- allows them to observe the story and the moral of it from a distance. A great example of this is the Stanford commencement address Steve Jobs gave in 2005. “Today, I want to tell you three stories from my life,” Jobs said at the outset of the speech. “That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories.” Jobs then used those three stories to tell his bigger message about “connecting the dots” in your life and how major life setbacks can be a blessing in disguise.

Ask questions. Engaging people and looking for input while you are talking makes what you are saying dynamic and compelling. You NEED them to say what you need to say. It helps keep your content fresh and makes people feel important. Make sure you are well-versed enough in your topic to be able to answer a curveball. If someone asks you a question back that is complicated, gets you off-track, or is irrelevant to the point you are making, all it takes is a simple “That’s such a great question I want to dive into it more. Let’s talk about that later.”