Why Should Your Audience Listen to You?

Everytime you present to an audience, you are entering into a bargain with them - they are swapping their time to listen to what you have to say.

What is it that you have to say that they are going to value?
Do you know what the What's In It For Me (WIIFM) factor is?

Why should they listen to you? Are you going to....
* Save them money?
* Save them time?
* Reduce their stress?
* Make them richer?

I was working with a fantastic coach, with a great product and she wanted market her programme to potential clients using some free presentations. Her working title was "Time Management" but it had no WOW, no promise, no WIIFM. By the end of our session, she got crystal clear on the benefit to her audience - and decided to promise that she could save her audience an hour of time every day if they used these techniques.

That is some WIIFM factor!
Would you spend a few hours listening to a presenter who can save you an hour every day of the week?

Think about this when you are designing your presentations - why should your audience listen to you?

Selecting Images that Speak to Your Audience

This week I've been creating a very 'Zen' style presentation on the topic of Parent Advocacy.

I love 'Zen' design and my slides were looking good.....

• Simple.


• Stylish.


• Strong beautiful images.


• Powerful phrases.

I was feeling pretty chuffed with myself until I noticed one thing.....

I had tin cans connected with string for communication.
A power of books for information and advice
A megaphone for parent voice.

But not as single picture of either a parent or a child.

This entire presentation is based on reminding parents how important they are, and how we want to give them a new voice in our region. How could I have missed that?

A few minutes later and the revised version is much stronger - showing images we have taken at our events, and people (young and old) my audience will relate to.

Now, all the powerful phrases such as "Giving Parents a Voice" are next to images of a parent holding a microphone.

I put the audience in the picture, so to speak!

Start A Conversation

Presenting is no more difficult than having a conversation. You simply open your mouth and talk- something most of us do every day with ease.

Ask someone for a natter over tea and they rarely break out into a cold sweat the way they might if you asked them to present for a few minutes at the next team meeting.

Why?
It's not physically difficult - it's only as hard as talking.
It is our mind that tricks us into thinking it's difficult.

Our mind plays out disaster scenarios of tumbling over simple words - words we say faultlessly everyday- of embarrassing ourselves, of not knowing what to say.

Our thoughts create uncertainty in our mind - an uncertainty not present in water cooler chats.
Uncertainty breeds nerves and suddenly a simple act of talking becomes the momentus task of presenting.

The nerves tell us it's a big deal and stop us having a simple conversation with just a few more people listening in.

Instead of presenting to crowd, start to think in terms of conversations- with friendly people you like, where a few people (even a few hundred people) just happen to over hear it. Be your normal, charming, funny self.

No over exaggerated stage persona required.
Try it, you never know how the conversation will end.

Say What You Need to Say

"Nobody cares if you can't present well. Just get up and present. Great presenters are not great because of their technique, they are great because of their passion!" ~after Martha Graham

Martha's quotation was about dancers, but the same thing applies whether its painting, science, yoga, cooking or presenting.

The message is simply to start.

All too often we let our need to be perfect get in the way - we wait until we are sure, or ready, or some such thing that is far away....

Don't expect to be the best presenter in the world straight away - just get in touch with the passion you feel; the words and skills and knowledge you yearn to share with the world, and get out there and share.

Share it because people need to hear it.
Share it because you need to say it.
Share it because someone needs to hear you say it in order to really hear it.

Start NOW: book a room, phone someone and offer to speak for free. Just get out there and share. You might just find you fall in love with it!

Storytelling - Words, Song and Dance

When you are getting ready to deliver a workshop, a lecture or a presentation, what do you spend the most time preparing?

Chances are you spend the most time preparing what you are going to say. In fact, apart from your slides and handouts, which are just notes to enhance or supplement what you are going to say, many of us spend 100% of our time on this aspect of our presentations.

Yet a huge percentage of our message and our impact comes from not WHAT we say, but HOW we say it - our body language, and our tone.

Great storytellers practice their delivery in detail:
* where and how long to pause
* words to stress
* phrases or elements that are whispered, shouted, or just said
* when it is appropriate to add physical movements or acting to draw the audience in
* when to use facial expressions to enhance the story

Not only that, but a story teller is acutely aware of their audience and uses feedback to modify their story telling. So why not think like a storyteller for your next presentation and spend a little more time on HOW you deliver it, as well as WHAT you will say?

Curiosity Might Have Killed the Cat....

But it is without doubt one of the most important states that you can create in your audience before any sort of training, meeting, presentation or event.

How do you create curiosity?
I'll tell you in my next post............

Do the Opposite of What They Expect!

Today I saw a wonderful article on a children's art programme - all about Green Graffiti - where an artist sandblasts a dirty wall (in this case at Brighton's marina) using some templates to create a work of art. The shapes are formed from "clean wall" against the lichen, moss and dirt of the wall.

What a genuinely novel idea - a wonderful example of reversing ideas and coming up with something better..... Burnley has also reversed ideas about art - by creating works of art called Invisible that magically comes alive in the dark, as it is painted in UV paint.

It is the same for presenters and trainers - the very people you wish to engage and inspire have probably seen and been to dozens of presentations and training events. It all becomes rather predictable - been there, done that, got the t-shirt.

So how do you get their attention?
How do you make them curious?

Simple - do something different.

I can remember the excitement and curiosity when I brought a room full of trainers into a room that was pitch dark, using torches to light their way. It was eight o'clock in the evening after a full day's work and they were at an evening class - tired and just dying to go home. But the dark signalled that something different was about to happen and they perked up brilliantly.

Think of the "norms" and turn them upsidedown:
* If they are expecting 127 PowerPoint slides, give them none.
* Instead of sending them an invite - send them a puzzle to solve
* Instead of starting off with an energiser - give them a really difficult task to solve
* Instead of giving out handouts - get them to write they key points on a credit card sized piece of paper and laminate it as a ready reminder
* Instead of using a happy sheet - get them to design a quiz to test their own knowledge at the end of the day and use a "runaround" quiz to explore what they are thinking and feeling

Today - think of just one thing that you "normally do" during your presentation or training, and then think of the opposite. Then work out how that might work to grab your audience's attention and engage their hearts and minds.