Do you have the courage to be real with an audience?
My friend volunteers at a New York City institution. She recently heard the CEO speak and told me she was so impressed! He was highly educated, an art historian, experienced in the finance world, and president of a college. He held several degrees in different fields from ivy league colleges. But that wasn’t why she was impressed. What impressed her the most was how he related to the audience. An audience could be easily intimidated based on the speaker’s resume. But he had a gift for humanizing his presentation so that the audience felt like he was one of them. How did he do it? He leveraged these three techniques:
Self effacing - A little self-deprecation goes a long way to humanizing a speaker. An audience is initially guarded when a highly credentialed speaker takes the stage. If you’re talking to a group who may consider your background to be intimidating, try sharing a faux pas, challenge, or difficulty. For example, if you mention that you have a PhD, but you still need your teen-ager to help you configure your phone, people will immediately relate to you.
Humor - You don’t have to be funny to relate to an audience. But humor is a powerful way to engage and connect with an audience. Laughter will bond a group and relax the audience. We tend to like speakers who make us laugh. We lose our self-consciousness and resistance when we’re chuckling. What if you’re not funny? No problem. Play off the audience. Use their humor.
Every day language - You can ditch the formality and distance by speaking naturally. Using colloquial language will make you seem real. I have a friend who uses the word “amazinger.” He made it up. Nobody corrects his word usage. The mistake erudite speakers make is they try to impress with their vocabulary. A while ago, a manager was referred to me for coaching. He was a brilliant man and had an extensive vocabulary. His boss wanted him to simplify his language because it created distance between him and his team.
Advertising copy is written at a sixth grade reading level for a reason. It’s easy to understand and it’s memorable.
Too many public speakers strive to give a polished presentation. Instead, aim to be human. Don’t hide behind statistics and data, but remember the importance of human connection. It may be a digital world, but it’s an analog audience. When you humanize yourself and your message, the audience will relate to you. You’ll be memorable because they’ll think you’re one of them. So get real.