This entry is the third installlation to a seven part series that answers to some of your most frequently asked questions below:

How do I interest, impact and impress the audience?

Can you share with me how I can influence my audience?

How do you make sure that your audience listens intently to you?

What suggestions can you give to help me capture the attention of the audience?

What are all the crucial ways to draw the audience into your speech hence connecting with them. Please elaborate in details each of the way.

E3. Keep Them On Their Toes

The attention span of an average audience is approximately 12 minutes. A good guide would be the TV program. Notice that after 12 minutes into the show, there will be always be a commercial break, no matter how engaging the show is. This break allows the audience to mentally rest before they get thrown back into the thick of action where their full attention is demanded.

Likewise in your speech, you want to ensure that your content and delivery grabs their attention and keeps them on their toes. And you can achieve that by the three techniques listed below.

1. Surprise them
Do something different or unexpected and you will have your audience at the edge of their seats for your presentation. It’s a natural reaction. The first time you perform something of that nature, you will catch 80% of the audience off-guard. However after that, there is a high chance that your most audience will sit up and pay attention so that they will not miss your next surprise act.

I have ever seen a speaker pulled a dove out of his hat in the middle of his speech to the amazement of his audience. Or a speaker who donned an Elvis costume and started grooving to his tune when he was introduced. If you are adept at performing magic tricks or hitting the right notes, you can always follow their footsteps. However, there are other “surprising” acts you can perform. Your creativity is the limitation.

Some acts that I have done before that surprised my audience:

In my defense, I was equally surprised for the last one! I had absolutely NO idea that my cordless mic was on, as such I made quite a fool of myself in front of a lot of people.

Just a reminder, do not surprise your audience for the sake of surprising them. Make sure you made a point otherwise the act will just be a cheap thrill. No points for that.

2. Get your audience involved
You must have heard this an umpteen times and there is a reason why. Because it works. Can you imagine sitting down doing nothing but listening to a speaker talk? Unless he is interesting or the content is extremely valuable, you will bound to switch off! As such, getting the audience in action is a must. This can come in the form of getting them to answer some questions, doing pair work or even engaging them in an activity that has a lesson behind it. On top of helping to make your lesson interesting, the act of doing also helps to anchor the lesson and make your presentation memorable.

3. Vary the way you deliver your content
Variety keeps your audience on their toes. Just like advertisements that creates rest stops for the listeners, changing your style of delivery helps to keep your presentation fresh and interesting. Here’s how your presentation can vary.

- Tell a funny story which leads to the objective of your presentation
- Graphs & numbers to illustrate point one
- A demonstration to illustrate point two
- Q&A session
- Pair share to crystallize what have been learnt so far
[Break]
- Show a short video clip to lead to the second half of the presentation
- Relate a personal anecdote to illustrate point three
- Run an activity to apply what they have learnt so far
- Invite guest to share
- Q&A session
- Pair share to crystallize what have been learnt so far

Here’s the rule of thumb: engage your audience visually, audiory and kinesthetically! Appeal to all their five senses and don’t be afraid to add variety to your presentation. In fact, my suggestion is to keep an arsenal of stories, video clips and mini activities that you can use anytime you find that the energy of the group is low.

So to sum up, in order for you to eric-trify your audience and have them eating from your hands, you got to ensure that they are at their toes at all time. I have suggested three ways of doing so: (i) Surprise them, (ii) Get your audience involved and (iii) Vary the way you deliver your content.

Cheers,
Eric Feng
Your Public Speaking Coach

P.S: Want answers from experts to ALL your pressing questions on public speaking? Dying to get hold of a cheat sheet that can help you win audience over in no time? In a hurry to become a speaker superstar? … … … NO YOU CAN’T until you get yourself a complimentary chapter of The FAQ Book on Public Speaking right now. (Download Free Chapter Now!)

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