Are We On The Same Page?

My last newsletter explored the difficulty entrepreneurs and small business owners sometimes have when they’re trying to describe themselves and what they do in an introduction. I decided to continue the conversation in this newsletter because as speakers, we are in a similar situation.

With our presentations, we work hard to provide our audiences with valuable information and actionable takeaways. When we do a good job with this, the people in our audience are more likely to trust and believe that the problem-solving path/solution we’re offering is the real deal.

Sometimes though, a speaker can pay so much attention to making sure they’re putting all the right things in their presentation, they kind of lose sight of their audience. They speak and exit the stage totally believing they did a great job… right up to the moment when they start reading their feedback forms and find out they may not have been as connected with their audience as they thought they were.

I do NOT want that to happen to you! So let’s talk about something many speakers don’t know to look for when they’re trying to build their talk, or fix a talk that isn’t working. It’s the general assumptions they make about how much their audience knows, and what they need to share with them to take them to the next level.

The converse is true too, which means our audiences are making assumptions about us. This is why we need to do our homework. It’s not just about making sure we have a great presentation. It’s about figuring out where our assumptions and/or their assumptions might get in the way of us connecting. These first items will help you avoid a couple of generic assumptions that almost always generate negative feedback.

Research the organization that asked you to speak to make sure you’re the right speaker for them. Notice I didn’t say “they’re the right audience for you.” The organization should be able to provide you with information about their audience and their audience’s needs/problems. Then you can build your talk around their actual needs rather than generic assumptions about their needs.

Research the Audience so you have a good idea of how much knowledge of, and experience with, your topic/solution they have. This makes choosing a common-ground starting point a piece of cake!

The thing is, no matter how well we prepare, we may find ourselves in front of an audience that has an entirely different reaction to something we’ve said than the reaction we’d assumed they’d have. The lesson? Don’t just assume you and your audience are still on the same page. Instead:

• Casually take in people’s faces and their body language. Are they attentive? Facing forward? Looking at you and not always otherwise engaged? Maybe they’re taking notes?
• Ask a question that invites engagement. Open-ended questions are great for gauging an audience’s interest. Shy people might not raise their hand, but they’ll be attentive when other people are answering. People who are lost will look confused. People who have checked out will avoid eye contact. Better yet… build “check-ins” right into your talk.
• See if your audience is responding to you. When people are engaged with someone, they have a tendency to mirror what other people are doing. If you smile, are people smiling back? If you tell a funny story, are they laughing with you?

And now that you’re at the end of this article, you might be thinking, “Okay Beth, you provided some great info about how to not let assumptions get between us and our audience. But you haven’t told us what to do if it happens.” Well, one thing’s for sure. I’m not going to assume you know what to do (even though some of you will 🙂). I’ll just refer you the Speaker Tip below, where you’ll find a link to multiple solutions.