Attracting Audience Attention

Knowledge on the topic alone is insufficient. You must have authority. Until you have convinced the audience that you are an authority on the subject you are delivering, you will not have their complete attention. Your task then is to impart your authority (experience, qualifications, etc.) as soon as possible via a brochure, a flyer and etc. Therefore, the introduction is important to arouse the interest of the audience and create the desire for them to listen to you. The introduction is the bridge connecting the speaker and the audience. It sets the tone and creates the environment best suited to receive the message of the speaker.

A good speech starts with a great “attention grabbing” introduction – an introduction that generates curiosity as well as alerts the audience. For a successful speech, it is important to attract your audience early in your talk. An inattentive audience suggests that the speaker and his message are not important. If the audience isn’t listening to what you are saying, the purpose of your speech will never be achieved. If you plan to motivate or inform or sell your ideas and people are not paying attention, you won’t achieve your goal.

First Things First

Before you start to write the introduction, make sure you know the steps for giving a great presentation. Make sure you know the purpose of your presentation, understand who the audience is and research the topic thoroughly. Once this is done, start thinking about how to organize the presentation.

The Four Simple Ways to Start your Speech

After the first things are done, start writing an attention-grabbing introduction. Given below are some ways to grab your audience’s attention. These tips, if used properly, will improve your speech by a great degree.

Here are the four simple ways to attract your audience’s attention –

1. Ask them a Question – Asking questions is a great way to start a speech. Questions engage people. Questions start our thought process as we tend to find answers for questions. One thing to keep in mind – questions asked should be appropriate to the group. Keep your audience in mind and ask the right questions.

2. Tell them a personal story – A personal story connects the speaker and audience. When the speaker talks about a personal story or an experience, it creates a sense of belonging and the audience will be attached and attentive.

3. Use a Quote – A quote from a famous personality is a great way to attract attention. Most famous personalities have made some comments that have become famous quotes. People can relate to those quotes. They are moved by these quotes because the quotes force them to redefine their perspective. Quotes are thought-provoking. This technique is especially useful when used in motivational speeches.

4. Present Interesting Facts – Presenting statistics and facts tells people that the speaker has done some research. Data are perceived as more authentic than most other methods. Everyone loves surprising facts. People like to be surprised and this makes them more attentive. Facts are very useful in informative and persuasive speeches. Once you have an attentive audience by delivering good introduction, next step is to keep the attention.

To keep the attention of your audience, present an equally good body and end with a punch. There are seven more ways to grab your audience’s attention.

We have briefly talked about what makes a great speech and how to organize your talk. We also discussed the importance of a good introduction. Let’s see some more ways to attract attention.

1. Show a Picture – The first tool in this list is using pictures at the start of your presentation. Using pictures as an introduction is a powerful way to attract the audience. A picture generates curiosity. It makes people wonder, what will be this speech about? They say “A picture is worth thousand words”, when used in introduction, people tend to ask “Which words?”

2. Draw on a Whiteboard – Whiteboard, flipcharts or the old blackboards, using them for introducing your speech is another unusual and uncommon way of starting your presentation. Draw or write something relevant to your topic and interesting for your audience.

3. Tell a Joke – Jokes ease tension and stress in almost any situation. Telling jokes during the first 30 seconds of your presentation can relax the audience and you – the speaker. Everyone likes to laugh, people like things that are funny and in general, people like people that are fun. But remember, choose jokes that are clean and appropriate, or this technique might fall on face and you might hamper your credibility. This technique works great for humorous speeches.

4. Share some News – Sensational news or an unexpected news interests people. If you start your speech with a recent news report on a related topic, audience will turn their radar on for more similar content which interests them. Alternatively you can also share some interesting facts, as discussed in previous post.

5. Create Drama – Dramatizing openings make a presentation very lively. Even before you greet your audience with a formal “Hello”, if a little drama is created, it will grab attention instantaneously. This is often a good start if your speech is a storytelling type.

6. A video – Just like showing a picture, a video can also do magic too. A short video about the topic, something that will generate some questions in the audience’s mind. Asking questions is one of the basic tools that was discussed earlier. Videos are very helpful in building a foundation of the talk and when used effectively, can make a speech successful.

7. Give a Freebie – This last tool, in this post, is the most uncommon of this list. This technique involves declaring that there are some freebies at the end of the speech for anyone who meets a certain criteria. I have seen this trick mostly used by people in sales. The criterion set for getting the freebie is usually answering a quiz, question or something similar to that.

8. Involve Your Audience – Engage your audience as and when you can to keep them involve in whatever you are delivering. Do some exercises, play some games or to sing a song are good ways to involve your audience. These will interest your audience by having hands-on on the things they are about to learn. On the other hand, it also allows your audience to remember what you had shared with them.

“I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand.” – Proverb

The doing is much more powerful. Therefore, it is wise to involve your audience to do something together with you to drive the message into them.

9. Use Gesture Effectively – Gestures are like words. Use them only when they mean something. Experienced speakers use gestures to: o Emphasize o Elaborate points o Describe o Express emotion, etc. Don’t flap your hands when there’s nothing else to flap. Best to let your hands follow your line of thinking so as to gesture naturally.

10. Vocal Variety – Speak fast, slow, high, low, loud, soft, clear and most importantly, speak to be heard – don’t ramble in a monotone. Your voice can be trained. You can emphasize a point by raising your volume or by whispering. Sometimes a whisper well executed is much more effective.

For further information on how you can power up your presentation skills, get your personal copy of Instant Guide for Instant Speaker today…

The Truth Can Be Seen.

Who you are and how you react to things show the truth in you.

Many thought that they know themselves well but most of the time, those around you can see the true you. Whether they are willing to tell you or not and help you to improve is another question.

Most people don’t like to be told and many don’t tell either.

Imagine having people telling you how bad of a person you are and what lousy character you have will make you feel negative for the rest of the day. Some may take weeks, months or years to recuperate.

We choose not to tell because most of us are afraid that we will hurt them and lose a friend or two. Most of us are not expert in communication therefore the more we feel that we might hurt those we spoke frankly to. We simple don’t really understand those around us. Haven’t we experienced having friend or friends who turn their back on us suddenly and we don’t even know what happen? Have we sometimes unconsciously agitate our spouse and we don’t even know it?

Truthful communication is important among family, loved ones, friends, colleagues, superiors and those around you. Thru the sincere truths, we change and become better person whom others would love to be with.

Some people has unique characters which they don’t even know. While others may have bad temper, bad habits, or too possessive, or any other unwanted character. I have experienced seeing people rubbing their private part or digging their nose or ears while talking to others.

These are habits and they are unconsciously done in the presence of others. Those around you can see what you did but you may not notice it at all. Therefore, it is always good to be conscious of what you are doing at any time.

Recently, I was called to meet a “true leader” by a friend who has been involved in Multi-Level Marketing / Network Marketing for more than 10 over years. He was happy to have such a great leader in his organisation and he made the arrangement for us to meet. Hoping that this “true leader” can arouse my interest in joining him but I ultimately said “NO”.

I warned my friend about his organisation. With the kind of uplines and the “true leader” whom I know, the organisation will collapse in a short period of time. True enough, the uplines offer the “true leader” a position to be my friend’s upline instead, at a price of S$5,000.

Imagine, if this upline goes around and start offering all the downlines the same offer, he will be rich without working on his Multi-Level Marketing business. Moreover, he can move each group in his organisation to balance up so that he can make more money for himself. On top of that, he will also snatch away some of the great builders for one of his leaders from one of his binary legs (group) to another which is weaker to maximise his own profits.

What if everyone does the same thing? What will happen to those who have work so hard to build his group but to find out that the uplines are snatching away good people in his group to be transferred to another group to support the selfish uplines.

This is common in Asia but not so in U.S.A. or Europe. American and European will duplicate the system accordingly to what they are taught. While Asian will think of ways to out-smart the system and be greedy over their own immediate success in Network Marketing or Multi-Level Marketing then to bother about building a great relationship with his organisation so that everyone is happy so as to build a long-term business.

Croaked stick produce croaked shadow. People can be judged by the cover, by the way we talk and act. That is why we need to have the right concentration, right understand, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness.

So, Friends. I can only urge you to learn to art of living and the truth about yourself. It is the inner you that shows the outer you. Upgrade and improve yourself daily and project the best in you to those around you. You will feel the difference once you have the change in yourself as the world changes with you.