Actress Kate Hudson starred in a movie, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. She played a journalist for a women’s magazine in search of a story. Inspired by her single friend who couldn’t make it past the first date, she pitched an idea to her editor. After observing her friend’s mistakes, she wanted to target an unsuspecting young man to date and then try every bad behavior to get him to stop dating her. She was convinced she could do it in 10 days.
Well, as a presenter, you don’t have 10 days to lose your audience. You have about 10 minutes. And I’ve seen presentations derail faster than that. But an audience will probably give you a chance for the first 10 minutes. After that you’ll be speaking to yourself. The audience will check out.
Here are three ways to lose an audience.
Start with your bio. It’s not interesting to listen to someone’s resume. If somebody is going to introduce you, don’t give them a bio. Create a speaker introduction. An introduction is short, creates interest and may use humor. It’s not a listing of all your credentials. It’s a highlight of you as a person and a brand. Opening with a bio or speaker introduction doesn’t grab attention. Prime your audience first with a headline, grabber or question and deliver it with excitement. Then introduce your speaker. The audience will be attentive and ready to listen.
Make it all about you. The mistake meeting planners make is they hire a celebrity thinking their meeting or event will hit a home run. Celebrities will sell tickets but not necessarily satisfy the audience. That’s because they think you want to hear what they care about. There was once a journalist who was the keynote speaker at a conference. All she talked about was her career. Nobody cared. She never related her journey to the audience. She didn’t talk about anything relevant. When you’re selected as a public speaker, focus on the audience. Make sure your message has value to them. When you tell your story, connect the dots.
Be a talking head. If you’re going to lecture, it better be a fascinating topic and you need to be an outstanding storyteller with facts that nobody has heard before. Attention spans continue to wane and most people are not trained listeners. If you continue to talk non- stop you’ll lose the audience. It’s taxing to the brain to sustain attention for periods of time. The brain will shut on and off. In order to stimulate the brain, do something different. And that involves engagement. Break up your presentation or lecture with a question, an exercise, a story, a moment of reflection, a video, ask someone to read a quote from the screen. Adults want to be involved in their learning. They want to know you understand their needs. Lecturing is old school. The talking head is dead.
The first 10 minutes are critical in a presentation. Your opening sets the tone. Avoid these public speaking mistakes. Prepare in advance how you’ll maximize the beginning of your talk and there’s a good chance your audience will stay with you to the end.
Make your opening interesting, focus on the audience, and trade lecturing for interaction. And that’s how you give a Knockout Presentation.
To get ready for the next level in speaking ask about my coaching programs at http://www.diresta.com