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Overcome That Anxiety And Keep Your Audience Listening

There are hundreds and hundreds of articles around the Internet helping you to overcome the fear of Public Speaking. You may have seen some.

And the vast majority help you overcome the fear of getting onto the platform, standing up and actually starting to speak.

Now I agree that is a common fear and can cause much anxiety and stress.

But what about the actual ‘art of Public Speaking’?

What about the fear of not being able to engage with your audience?

They might find you boring. Their minds could wander off. They can get distracted.

Maybe you have been the recipient of a boring presentation and your mind wanders off to think about ‘what you are going to have for dinner tonight’ or ‘I could be doing my emails’ or ‘I just wish I wasn’t here…I have so much work to do’.

Even in entertaining, insightful presentations the general level of your audience’s attention wanes. Every single one of your audience will be distracted, for whatever reason, every 5 – 10 minutes.

So how do you keep your audience engaged, entertained and actively listening?

Combat it with these 6 techniques:

1. Make sure that before you deliver a key point you grab everyone’s attention so that they can hear that point – change your voice, body language, and eye contact. Warn the audience that they need to listen: ‘you will find the next point interesting / crucial / fundamental / amazing…’

2. Maintain good eye contact with all your audience not just the ones that are smiling and nodding! If you are talking to a large group scan the audience regularly (but not in a set pattern) and scan towards the back of the audience so that everyone forward from the back will feel included in your gaze.

3. Use lots of questions followed by pauses and eye contact. Unless you are prepared for ‘wrong answers’, ad-hoc responses and potential ruination of your structure, stick to hypothetical questions

4. Keep changing your voice and body posture to maintain interest. Change:

·    The volume

·    The pace

·    The tone

5. Try different ways of expressing yourself – a story, anecdote, conversation, question, voicing an objection

6. Use people’s names or make reference to their interests, background, experiences, potential objections, likely questions or queries

So you have overcome your fear, your anxiety of the actual getting onto the stage and speaking.

Now use these 6 techniques throughout your presentation and ensure your audience will be actively listening (to you).