Hello, hello:
I spent last week coaching like a demon—3 days/8 people a day— and if there was one theme that emerged it was “Nobody cares about you.”
Happily, as some of you may remember from an earlier blog post, (http://www.francescolejones.com/2013/06/cares/) this is a theme for all my clients.
Let me elaborate.
What I mean by “Nobody cares about you,” is that while your audience may well be excited to hear you speak, they are likely to be far more interested in what is going on in their own lives.
How can you use this to get their attention? Before you speak, channel your inner psychologist. What might this sound like? Ask yourself these three questions:
- “What is my audience proud of?”
- “What makes them feel inadequate/tense/awkward?”
- “How can I build camaraderie/help them?”
Here’s an example of how this works:
One of last week’s clients was a chef who was on her way to Austin, Texas. As we discussed what she might make I pointed out that since Texas is known for their tacos, tacos were likely to land well.
Next we considered her audience’s hang-ups. Many of them were going to be Moms. What are most Moms tense about? Getting everything done.
Armed with this info, then, my client began her demo like this:
“How many of you have 2 hours to make dinner every night? None of you? Wow! Me neither! That’s why I decided to demo an easy taco recipe for you—and since Texas is known for their tacos, if you all sign off on these I will know they are good!”
Bang: something that they might feel tense about/building camaraderie/something they are proud of & that will help them—all in one fell swoop.
So before you begin to craft your next presentation, I highly recommend paging your inner Dr. Freud….
Frances Cole Jones
