How to Connect with Any Audience

It’s about you and your audience

I once co-presented with a dynamic visiting speaker from California. I warmed up in the wings by standing in silence, eyes closed. He warmed up right beside me by jogging on the spot, throwing punches at the air.

I went on first, made my speech, and finished to satisfying applause. Then my co-presenter came on.

He strode to the centre of the stage, projecting his voice magnificently all the way. Many people sat up straight, wide-eyed. They liked it. What a performance. What a showman. High energy, fluent, and utterly confident. They looked at each other and you could almost see them thinking, Wow, this is going to be great.

That approval lasted less than a minute. Then the audience started, once again, to look sideways at each other, but this time the thinking was clearly, What’s this guy on? But he charged ahead, oblivious to the rising negative signals – disconcerted looks, frowns, shaking heads.

Why did the audience change their minds?

Because it was so obviously all about him. Look what a wonderful presenter I am. They knew it and they didn’t like it. He was about as connected with them as with an audience of concrete posts.

Yes, this guide does show you how to be competent and confident. But it also offers you the other half of the story: how to speak with the audience, not at them. How to speak so that they warm to you and your message. The principles are universal. The methods apply to almost any kind of speaking context: meetings, presentations and formal speeches.

Discover the pleasures of engaging with your audience. Be a person who connects with people.

This guide is the result of hundreds of training workshops with thousands of people. It works.

Have fun.

• About the author

1. How to turn this guide into real skills
   1. Heads up!
   2. The fast track to promotion
   3. Which part of your speech carries the greatest impact?
   4. Making fear work for you
   5. How to programme your subconscious in advance
2. The fast track
   1. Self-consciousness and the ‘grim reaper’
   2. Shift focus? To what?
3. How to discover your personal performance key
   1. Get engaged!
   2. Pass the passion test!
   3. Act as if you are already a confident speaker!
   4. Have the courage to be imperfect!
   5. Warm up and have (appropriate) fun!
4. How to use visual aids with impact
   1. The PowerPoint revolution
   2. How to turn the electronic show off and on
   3. Jump directly to any slide, forward or back.
   4. How to move and speak with electronic visual aids
   5. Don’t engage with your own laptop screen
   6. Avoid ‘this is a cow’
   7. Other sophisticated presentation software
   8. Electronic smartboards
   9. How to move and speak with non-electronic (traditional) aids
   10. What’s the difference?
5. How to become more persuasive
   1. Build rapport right at the beginning
   2. Speak in a conversational language and tone
   3. Give them variety
   4. Look at people with your whole body
   5. Be open, but not an open book
   6. The power of deliberate silence
   7. Bigger audiences want you to be bigger
   8. Tell stories to make your message memorable
   9. How to handle embarrassing mistakes
6. How to handle formal or special occasions
   1. Formal salutations
   2. Introducing a speaker
   3. Thanking a speaker
   4. Farewelling a staff member or colleague
   5. Presenting and receiving awards
   6. Opening functions
   7. Funerals
   8. Other speeches to family and friends

• Endnotes Part II
• Bibliography
• Other books by Michael Brown