Three Ways To Use Who You Are To Connect With Your Audience

Let’s face it – we don’t give speeches just to hear ourselves talk. There is a reason that we go to the effort of creating a speech, practicing a speech, and then delivering a speech. The reason that we are willing to do all of this work is because we understand the importance of public speaking and we want to connect with our audience. We want them to understand what we are trying to tell them. We want to change their world. However, just knowing that we want to do this is not enough. We need to know how to do it.

It’s All About Fascination

So we already give speeches, what do we have to do in order to do a better job of connecting with our audience? It turns out that you probably don’t really have to change. You don’t have to change who you are or how you make your presentations. Instead, what you need to do is to take the time to truly find out who you really are. Most of us have a good understanding of what the world looks like to us. However, what we don’t fully understand is how others see us.

As speakers, we need to find the time to learn more about the unique aspects of our own personality that will make our audiences see us as both different from other speakers and appealing to them. If we are able to discover how the rest of the world views us, then this will give us an opportunity to make sure that both what we say and how we go about saying it are going to be based on our unique qualities.

If a speaker is able to get in touch with themselves and discover what makes them unique, then they will have discovered what makes them interesting to an audience. This can be a real advantage. We need to fully understand how our uniqueness can act as an advantage when we want to engage with an audience. Don’t view this type of connection with your audience as them being interested in you – it goes much deeper than that. Instead, think of their interest in your unique qualities as being a type of focus that can cause your audience to stop thinking and suppress emotions as they listen to your every word.

Power

In order to capture your audience’s attention, the first thing that you are going to have to do is to understand just exactly who you are. One type of person that we might be is the powerful person. This is the person who when they take the stage start to radiate power out to everyone in the audience. It quickly becomes clear that you truly believe in what you are telling your audience and because of how you deliver your message they want to know more about it.

Passion

Each one of us is different. Some of us may bring passion to the message that we are delivering to our audience. If this is you, then it’s going to be the warmth and the enthusiasm that you bring to your speech that will allow you to connect with your audience. If this is the unique characteristic that you have, then you are going to do a great job of being able to win your audience over to your side during your speech.

Mystique

Since what you want your audience to do is to pay attention to the message that you are delivering to them, how you get that message across matters a great deal. There are a number of ways to go about doing this, but being mysterious can be one of the most powerful ways. When you use your analytical skills and combine that with careful and thoughtful communication, you have the opportunity to uncover mysteries with your audience. You can lead them along a path and reveal to them at the end the message that you want to leave them with.

What All Of This Means For You

Going to the effort of making a speech requires a lot of effort on our part. As long as we’re going to be making all of that effort, it sure seems as though we should get something for our efforts. One payoff would be to successfully connect with our audience and use the benefits of public speaking to be able to change their world in some way. However, finding a way to accomplish that is never easy.

It turns out that the key to connecting with an audience is finding a way to fascinate them. The good news is that as a speaker you really don’t have to change how you give a speech. Instead, what you are going to want to do is to take the time to fully understand who you are. If you can discover how the world sees you, then you can tap into your unique qualities. Understanding what makes you unique will allow you to connect with your audience. No matter if your unique characteristics have to do with power, passion, or mystique they can be used to accomplish your goal of sharing your message with your audience.

Every speaker is unique. What we need to do is to take the time to fully understand what it is that makes us different from everyone else. Once we understand this, we’ll be in a better position to tailor our next speech in order to connect with our audience. Spend the time studying your presenting style in order to determine what makes you different and you’ll be well positioned to capture your next audience.

– Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World Public Speaking Skills™

Question For You: Do you think that you can get a friend to help you to discover what makes you unique as a speaker?

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Note: What we talked about are advanced speaking skills. If you are just starting out I highly recommend joining Toastmasters in order to get the benefits of public speaking. Look for a Toastmasters club to join in your home town by visiting the web site www.Toastmasters.org. Toastmasters is dedicated to helping their members to understand the importance of public speaking by developing listening skills and getting presentation tips. Toastmasters is how I got started speaking and it can help you also!