Connecting with an Audience – A Shift in Perspective

It’s always surprising to me how many outgoing extroverted people clam up when they have to deliver a speech. It’s as if once they step on the platform, the microphone sucks out all of their charisma and energy. Next thing you know, you have a boring monotone shell of a speaker in front of you.

What happens in the minds of these otherwise peppy individuals that turns them into boring speakers?

There is a shift in their focus. An charismatic person is usually a great conversationalist because they are ultimately focused on making a connection with the other individual. Their focus is on making the other person interested and engaged. For some reason, when these people have to give a speech, their focus shifts to a much more unproductive area. They, instead, focus on the speech. The next slide. The next point. Where to put their hands. The handout. Their notes. They completely cut out the cornerstone of a great speech: connecting with the audience.

As I have said before, preparation is one of the most overlooked elements when creating a speech. Slapping something together last minute will only get you so far. However, a person who has prepared but not connected with the audience will always be ranked lower than a speaker who hasn’t prepared but does make that connection. Emotional response trumps intellectual. (Granted there are exceptions to every rule and I’m sure some of you would love to debate me on this point. In which case, feel free to leave a comment.)

How can a person make that connection?

The crucial moment for establishing a connection with the audience is right before you step up to the podium. It’s all about your frame of mind and your focus. If you are normally and outgoing person, but you lose your charisma while speaking, then you need to implement one of these techniques into your speaking routine.

1. Get to know your audience: Perhaps you are one of those people who is excellent one-on-one. Arrive early to your speech and visit with people as they arrive. Learn a few people’s names. Ask what they hope to get out of the presentation. Learn their story. Then, when you speak, you have a few friendly faces in the crowd. Also, when you reach a point in your presentation that applies to someone specifically, you can say, “I know this will help you out, John, because when we were talking you told me that this was one of your biggest challenges.” While you are talking to the group, you have a few select individuals with whom your mind is focused on creating that connection.
2. Mantra: Mantras are a great way to calm your pre-presentation jitters as well as getting you in the right frame of mind. A mantra is a sound, word, or phrase you repeat over and over. It is a meditation technique that is calming and focuses your mind. My mantra before speaking is “just connect”. This simple phrase reminds me that the presentation isn’t about me – it’s about them. It shifts my focus from the upcoming speech to the people I want to help with the speech. It allows me to set aside the work I’ve done in preparation and allow the work to work for me, because once I step on that stage, my focus is about them.
3. Pray: Prayer is very powerful. A small prayer turns your energy from being inward towards you and contained in your small space of worry to a more powerful outward, welcoming, and embracing energy towards your audience. You can pull your strength from a higher power and ask that the minds and hearts of everyone in the audience are open to listening to your message. This is a much more hopeful and optimistic perspective of your audience, rather than the “boy, I hope they don’t hate me” thought process.

We all have our different reasons for shutting down on the platform. At the core of most freezing freak-outs is the loss of perspective. A good speech creates a connection with the audience. A connection with the audience starts with the perspective that it’s not about you – it’s about them.