This vlog is about how you can connect with your audience by remembering that you are talking to real human beings

Think about your audience

Here’s the summary if you don’t have the opportunity to watch the video.

Who are they and how does it help?

When you’re preparing for a presentation, I am sure that you will know that you need to think about your audience.

But what do we actually mean by thinking about your audience? And how does that actually help you in terms of crafting and delivering a presentation that has massive impact, and has the influence that you want it to have?

Well, for a lot of people that I come across, thinking about their audience starts with how many people are going to be there. What companies are they going to be representing? What status do they have in those companies or in the world of employment? Where will they be sitting, where how far will they have travelled from and all that sort thing.

And then that stops, that’s as far as they go.

Now, obviously, that information is useful knowing if there’s five people in an audience, or five hundred in an audience is significant in terms of how you’re going to deliver.

Knowing whether you have got people who work on a shop floor or people who work in the c suite is important in order that you pitch your talk at the right level, but lots of people miss the opportunity of digging deeper than those fundamental pieces of information.

It’s more than the fundamental information

What do I mean by that? Well, everybody who comes to listen to your presentation, everybody who sits in your audience, you are talking to real human beings.

And that’s not as daft as it sounds. It means that when you want to share something with your audience. This isn’t just about giving them a piece of information. For all you could do that with a brochure, you could send an email. You could send them a report to read.

Part of presenting powerfully is connecting with your audience, and connection happens between two human beings.

Remember you are talking to real human beings

So when you’re thinking about your audience, think of them as real human beings. Human beings just like you who have irritations and problems. They have desires and hopes. They enjoy things and laugh at things and cry at things and shout at things.

They’re real human beings. And when you can tailor, what you say and how you say it to resonate with those real human feelings and emotions and experiences in their audience, then you will get deep connection. 

And when you have deep connection, people listen to and absorb your messages much more easily. Much more powerfully with more impact, and therefore you have more influence.

So the next time that you’re preparing a presentation or a speech, remember that you’re talking to real human beings, and make sure that you speak to them as real human beings.

I hope that helps. Let me know and get on.

And of course please get in touch with me if you have any questions. I’d be happy to answer them.