What You Can Do When Your Audience Tunes Out

11 Deadly Presentation Sins by Bob Beeisenbach
11 Deadly Presentation Sins by Rob Biesenbach

Your audience will forgive you for almost anything – except being boring. Long before you ever take the platform, you must design and rehearse your presentation to catch your audience from the first line and keep them enthralled. Elements of a powerful presentation include: a strong opening, clear structure, emotional connection, memorable stories, well-paced delivery, eye contact, and on-message body language. Fine-tuning these aspects of your presentation is the best way to ensure that you won’t lose your audience mid-speech. However, in the middle of a presentation, is there anything you can do if you notice that your audience is actually tuning out?

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Speak to Promote Your Book

November is National Nonfiction Writing Month, also known as the Write Nonfiction in November Challenge. During this month, you are personally challenged to start and complete a work of nonfiction in 30 days. This can be an article, an essay, a book, a book proposal, a white paper, or a manifesto. It’s an honor to have been asked to close National Nonfiction Writing Month with my recommendations to help writers turn their book content into presentations. Speaking is one of the best and most cost-effective ways to market your book, develop a following, and expand your audience:

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Secrets Speakers Can Take from Copywriters

Executive Speech Coach and Hall of Fame Speaker, Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE
Executive Speech Coach & Hall of Fame Speaker, Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE

Developing a powerful and persuasive presentation begins with thoughtful structure and careful word choices. Speakers can benefit from learning the secrets of good writers.  I share this fascinating article from Ragan Communications explaining the psychological strategies copywriters use to craft headlines. Courtney Seiter explains how and why effective copy works on even the most distracted audience:

8 Successful Headlines and The Psychology Behind Them
by Courtney Seiter

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Sales Presentations – Your Audience, They Really Don’t Care Who You Are

Sales Meeting with Sales Presentation
You will never go wrong congratulating a potential client on an accomplishment or recent success.

You are competing for a major contract. All of the companies the being considered have great reputations, stellar client lists, and similar pricing structures. How do you craft and deliver your sales presentation to stand out as the clear choice amidst the competition? Here are some do’s and don’ts to be aware of:

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Sales – Prospects Perceive Value Through Your Commitment

Sales Person on Call with Prospect
Your commitment is going to build trust, rapport, respect, and credibility that will be transferred to value. Prospects define and buy value.

When you lose business you should have captured, you lose twice. First, you don’t get the sale or the cash flow. Secondly, your competitor gets both. It is not your prospect’s job to remember you. It is your responsibility to make sure they do not have the chance to forget you. I share this advice from my friend Scott Plum, sales expert and sales coach, on demonstrating your commitment to your prospect, by making yourself unforgettable.

Prospects Define Value by Your Commitment And Persistence
by Scott Plum

Lately I’m hearing a lot of salespeople say they call prospects, leave messages and they never call them back. Most times the prospect doesn’t answer the phone. In an age where every phone has Caller ID, it is a split second decision to quickly ignore the interruption. When this is true most of the time, we want to ask ourselves, “Why?”

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Celebrating Toastmasters’ 90th Anniversary

Toastmasters International LogoCongratulations to Toastmasters International on its 90th anniversary! Let us celebrate Toastmasters’ 90 years, as a non-profit educational organization helping men and women around the world develop their public speaking and leadership skills. Before I ever established myself as a professional keynote speaker, before I had the honor of serving as the first female president of the NSA (National Speakers Association), and long before I became the founder and creator of Fripp Virtual Training… I joined Toastmasters.  I share this from Toastmasters on the remarkable history of the organization and Toastmasters’ extraordinary role in nurturing and shaping the public speaking and leadership skills of generations of speakers worldwide.

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Public Speaking – How to Recognize and Reject Unhelpful Feedback

Feedback
Taking the wrong feedback to heart can actually make a good speech a bad one.

An outside perspective on your presentation or public speaking skills is often the best way to discover where you can improve your content or delivery. However, ask yourself: “Is this person giving their advice truly qualified to help me? Does this person have my best interests at heart? Am I asking for their input, or do they have their own motivation to give it to me?” Sometimes unsolicited feedback says much more about the giver than the recipient. My friend and fellow presentation skills expert, Darren LaCroix, explains how to recognize and avoid feedback that can harm, rather than help, your public speaking and presentations.

“Authentic” Feedback?
by Darren LaCroix

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Do You Treat Others, Even Strangers, with Courtesy?

Jane Jenkins Herlong
Author, Speaker, and Humorist, Jane Jenkins Herlong

I like to say, “A stranger is a friend, or a customer, you have not met yet.” My friend Jane Jenkins Herlong is a humorist, speaker, and author.  You may have enjoyed her comedy and songs on Sirius XM Radio and Pandora. I share this story from her book, Bare Feet to High Heels – You Don’t Have to be a Beauty Queen to be a Beautiful Person. Jane reminds us to treat others, even those we have not met yet, with courtesy.

Hey, Sweet Thang!
by Jane Jenkins Herlong

Every time I hear the words, “sweet thing,” I think of my pal, Red. One hot July day in the little town of Gaffney at the South Carolina Peach Festival, I met Big Red.

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Great Ways to Connect with Your Audience – Expert Advice

The Secret of Connecting to Your Audience

When your message is memorable, your communication clear, and your presentation powerful, you will position yourself for greater success.

If you want to excel as a public speaker you must make an emotional connection with your audience, regardless of your subject, setting, or message.

The most powerful communication combines both intellectual and emotional connections.  For effective public speaking, whether you have an audience of one or 1,000, you must connect with your audience emotionally. Consider how you might put the following three fundamental techniques for emotional connection into practice:

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Public Speaking – Delivery Strategy

Microphone
Your audience will feel comfortable, when you look confident.

After you have crafted and rehearsed your presentation, review your delivery strategy.

Public speaking can create an adrenaline rush – so, when you are about to take the stage you may feel charged with energy or a bit nervous. Your audience will feel comfortable, when you look confident. Remember, nobody knows how you feel; they just know how you act.

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