What is the unasked question you must answer?
Are You addressing the Unasked Question? Are you addressing the unasked questions? What’s that? Those are the questions within the mind of your listener, (assuming they are listening). You might say, “If they have a question, they should ask me, and I’ll answer it.” That’s not good enough. You must address the unasked questions if you want them to listen, believe and act accordingly. The questions vary depending on the relationship with your listener and the purpose of your presentation. Here is one of the most common questions. This question usually arises when you’ve delivered information. That includes data, numbers, and other facts. The question is, “So what?”. Consider this question an automatic response. More than facts. our brain is searching for meaning and relevance. So, what is your point? So, what does that mean? So what? You might believe that your audience only wants to hear the facts. They only want to hear facts that are relevant and they want to know the relevance. If you don’t explain the relevance of the facts, they might ignore the facts or create their own meaning, which might not match your intended meaning. Sometimes, the meaning is obvious, or you want them to reach their own meaning. If you announce, it’s started raining, they might be thinking, “Did I close my car windows?” “Where is my umbrella?” “Maybe the rain will stop by the end of this meeting.” In this case you don’t need to explain the relevance. If the meaning is critical to the purpose of your presentation, don’t assume that they will reach your desired meaning. Here are phrases you might use to connect the meaning to the fact: What that means to you is… The reason I tell you that is… The significance of that is… Or you might voice a rhetorical question before you provide meaning: Why is that important to you? How can you use that? How might this work for you? Examine your messages and test them with the question, “So what?” Then answer that question for your audience. Want to receive valuable presentation tips every week? Visit www.TorokTips.com Ready to transform the presentation skills of your team? Call George Torok at 905-335-1997 Access More Presentation Skills Resources Looking For A Speech Coach? Learn More Here
Is Your Presentation on Fire?
Great Balls of Fire Great Balls of Fire I believe that Jerry Lee Lewis was one of the greatest early rock and rollers. His music was the most engaging, His delivery was the most captivating. He was bold and challeging. He rocked the world of music and attracted attention. In this movie scene Dennis Quaid performed this song with the Jerry Lewis arraogance and brash in-your-face rock and roll. When he poured the lighter fuild on the piano he demonstrated his boldness about his brash rejection of the norms. He was was releashing his great balls of fire literaly. This is a fabualous visual scence of showing what you mean. This scene demonstrated arrogance, boldness and controversy and it grabbed the attention of the audience. It inflamed their passion. He was competiting with Chuck Berry and he knew he had to be radically different. Are you willing to push the boundaries to be differrent from your competition? How might you light a fire that imflames your audience and clients? What’s the craziest stunt that you’ve done recently? What’s next for you? Let’s enjoy the real Jerry Lee Lewis. Notice his over emphasised hand movements. Access More Presentation Skills Resources Looking For A Speech Coach? Learn More Here
Adapt Your Presentation to the Audience
Adapt Your Presentation to the Audience When your approach doesn’t resonate with the audience, you need to adjust your approach to the audience. What do they want to hear? This movie clip from The Blues Brothers illustrates how they want to play their blues and the audience wants to hear country, ala Hank Williams. Who needs to change? The presenter or the audience? The presenter. In this clip you can notice the shift from the band and instant postive response from the audience when the music changed to their liking. Speak to the audience in the language that they understand and want to hear. I first learned this lesson when I was a DJ spinning records for dances and weddings. A successful evening wasn’t about what I wanted to hear or play. It was about the audience. What did they want to hear and what music would encourage them to dance? If they were dancing, they were happy. My challenge was to encourage them to dance and exhaust themselves on the dance floor. I had to explore that every time by testing them early and noticing how they reacted. Usually, the first six songs told me alot of about thiis audience. That came from paying attention to the audience and understaning the common music themes. How did they react and how did they dance. What patterns did I see in their dance moves that told me how they might feel about country, rock & roll, waltz or jazz? The way you learn that is by observing their reactions and patterns. I wasn’t a fan of country music and I didn’t want to play or listen, however I learned that those country hicks could be a wonderful audience when they heard the music they loved. I learned to appreciate them and their love of their music. What is the music that your audience wants to hear and how might you start liking it more? And yes, I much more appreciate this clip of the Blues Brothers presentation this blues song, Every Body Loves Somebody. The Blues Brothers at their best with the right audience. If you appreciate the blues you will enjoy this next clip when Arretha Frankoin busts out with this redition of Think. Enjoy, even if you are a country music fan. Be clear on the expectations of your audience and what they want. That’s how you shine – when you meet and exceed expectations. Access More Presentation Skills Resources Looking For A Speech Coach? Learn More Here
Two Techniques To Build Rapport With Your Audience
Two Techniques To Build Rapport With Your Audience Have you heard about horse whisperers? People who exhibit an almost mystical bond with horses. They can calm the horse. The horse trusts them and follows their guidance. Imagine if you could have that effect on your audience. Establish trust and have them follow your guidance. The way you do that is by establishing rapport. To establish rapport, the audience must believe that you understand them and share common experiences or values. Demonstrate how you are like your audience. How might you do that especially when you don’t know your audience well or believe that they are different from you for economic or sociographic reasons? Leverage Your Family Talk about your family. Tell a short story about your family. Even better if it’s funny or expresses frustration with certain family members. Why is that effective? Because everyone has family, and they typically have strong memories and feelings about family. When you talk about your family, they can connect with you because of those similar emotions. We all have family and strong feelings about family. Use your family stories to trigger those common emotions. Shared Pain A second way to build rapport is to reveal a flaw or embarrassment. Tell a short story about that. One where you are not the hero. Instead, you’re the butt of the incident. It doesn’t need to be a major flaw. When you reveal a weakness, flaw or embarrassment, you are being vulnerable. When you do that, we trust you more because it seems you have nothing to hide. The other benefit is that the audience can relate to your pain because they all have similar incidents they’d like to forget. The added benefit of sharing pain is that you demonstrate how you are imperfect just like them. Too many speakers present themselves as perfect. They believe you’ll listen better if they are perfect. The opposite is true. When a person claims they are perfect, they are lying because nobody is perfect. When you claim perfection, we hate you. But when you admit your imperfection, we can identity with you because secretly we all know we are imperfect. Be selective about which flaws you reveal and don’t tell all your flaws. You want to maintain credibility. Build rapport with your audience by demonstrating how you are like them. Imagine if you could be an audience whisperer. Superior Presentation Tips from George Torok Regsiter at https://toroktips.com/ Access More Presentation Skills Resources Looking For A Speech Coach? Learn More Here
Speak to an Audience of One to Connect
Speak To An Audience of One to Connect Imagine how you might feel when you’re sitting in an audience listening to a speaker and it feels like the speaker is talking directly to you. It seems more like a one-to-one conversation despite the audience present. Now imagine that you could convey that intimate feeling when you are the speaker. The secret is to speak as if you’re speaking to one person. Sounds simple yet few speakers have mastered this technique. Here are three changes to make in your presentations to connect with your audience as individuals. See them as Individuals The first step is to adjust your mindset. Don’t see a crowd or audience. Instead, see a gathering of individuals. Imagine yourself speaking to each individual one person at a time. You can get into this mindset if you great them as individuals when they arrive. You don’t need to call out every name or where they are from. Simply connect with a few. The other benefit of seeing them as individuals is that you will feel less anxious about public speaking. Mind your Words Stop using crowd language. Don’t refer to them as a crowd. “Hello everybody” is both impersonal and reinforces that they are part of a crowd. Instead say “Hello”. And don’t ask “How is everybody today?” because we know you don’t care. You’re not going to let every person tell you how they are. This question is from the Motivational Speaker 101 fake enthusiasm guide. The word” anybody” is equally distasteful, as in “anybody have any questions?” Yuk. Don’t refer to the audience as “You guys”. Instead say “You” because it is both singular and plural. Make a point to use the word “you” often during your presentation because every time you say the word, each person feels as if you are speaking directly to them. Remove plural versions of words that describe the audience. Instead of saying “as members of” say “as a member of”. Use these phrases: You and your team You and your fellow members Test your words by asking yourself, “Would this be appropriate I was sitting across the table and talking to one person?” Eye Contact When you are in the room with an audience, move your glance from one person to another and hold their eyes for a few seconds before moving to the next person. By the end of the presentation every person should feel that at some point “the speaker was talking directly to me”. Of course, if you’re speaking virtually, you stare at the glass eye of the camera to convey the same feeling. Look at the camera, not the screen. Effective eye contact is from the perspective of the audience not you. It’s not that you thought you looked at them. Did they believe you looked at them? Convey the feeling that you are speaking to one person. Imagine how each person will feel when you speak to them as an individual, not a crowd. Superior Presentation Tips from George Torok Arrange for weekly tips at https://toroktips.com/ Access More Presentation Skills Resources Looking For A Speech Coach? Learn More Here