Connect With Any Audience

Disk 1, Track 1Introduction

I’m David Brooks, the 1990 Toastmasters World Champion of Public Speaking. Welcome to this program called Connect With Any Audience. Joining me on this three-hour program are my colleagues and fellow World Champions Mark Brown, Craig Valentine, Ed Tate, Darren LaCroix, Jim Key, and Randy Harvey.

We all share the title of World Champion of Public Speaking, and all of us are professional speakers. As such, we have collectively been in front of thousands of audiences.

In this program we will share with you what we have learned about how to Read an Audience and how to react to what you see and hear from the people who are sitting in front of you.

All speakers go through three phases of development. The first phase is when you are most concerned about yourself. That’s where everyone starts. The second phase is when you’re most concerned about your message. And that’s where average speakers stop.

You see, good speakers are comfortable with themselves, and they’re comfortable with their message. But great speakers are most concerned…with their audiences.

Great speakers know that you must make your audience your primary concern.

So how do you do that? In the next three hours, seven World Champions will do our best to explain.

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Disk 1, Track 2Determine what the audience wants, needs, expects

Before you ever take the stage, you must ask yourself one critically important question: What does my audience want, need, or expect?

One of the most important lessons I ever learned about public speaking is that perfection is not possible—it’s not even really desirable. Because if you are so fixated on a flawless presentation, you’re still focused on yourself. Therefore, your audience is not your primary concern.

And guess what, the audience doesn’t ever expect perfection. In fact, an occasional stumble simply shows you are human. An occasional fumble can be endearing. Now, I’m not giving you permission to be careless or sloppy; too many mistakes shows you don’t care about your audience. But the audience just wants you to be your natural self, performing at your best level of excellence.

Now, you’ll hear from Darren LaCroix, Randy Harvey, and Craig Valentine.

First up is Darren LaCroix.

What does the audience want? What is the optimal for any presenter? The audience wants to see someone real, someone sincere. They don’t want to see someone who is overly theatrical. “Oh my goodness! Aren’t they dramatic!” They don’t want to see someone who’s trying to be someone else; who’s trying to be Zig Ziglar or Tony Robbins or some comedian that’s a favorite of theirs. The audience wants to see and hear you. They want you to be real.

If you want to know what to shoot for as a presenter, it’s for the ability to be yourself right in front of the audience. That’s not easy to do. It takes years of stage time to get comfortable at that point and at that level. Now we want to be ourselves, but bigger, in front of the audience.

The other world champions who are doing this program with me, we all have vastly different styles and different techniques. But that’s what makes this program so cool is the fact that we are so different. And you can hear from different styles and different techniques. We all won the world championship in our own way, in own our style. We found a way that works for us.

We’re all influenced by the people that we learn from. Two of my favorite comedians are Robin Williams and Steven Wright. They’ve influenced my style, but I don’t try to be them. I created my own style by trying to be me and baring my soul in front of the audience. I always get compliments about how sincere and how real I am on the stage. My opinion is that’s what works for me.

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Go for being real onstage. That will meet the audience’s expectations because that’s what they want.

Next, let’s hear from Randy Harvey.

It’s important as a speaker to understand that you are there to present a message that’s going to benefit your audience. I never go into a situation without having a clearly defined message that I want to speak into the lives of those gathered in the audience. I want to give them a treasure to take home in their pocket, something they can think about in the days and weeks ahead. If I don’t connect, or at the end of the day if I haven’t given them a concept, quote, or a thought that they’ll think about, then I’ve failed my purpose as a speaker.

Secondly, I never violate my own integrity and my own values or beliefs. If I can’t deliver a message that is consistent with my values and beliefs, then I won’t deliver it.

Now, here’s Craig Valentine.

I’ve found out that it’s very important to create the right types of expectations before you take the platform. I had an incident in New Jersey where a lady called me to speak to her college. She said, “I saw you a couple of years ago and I was a member of your two-day training event. So I want you to come in, and I want you to talk about motivation. I want you to talk about how to use low-cost, no-cost incentives. I want you to talk about time management and delegation, and all the things you talked to us about.”

I said, “Great! That’s right up my alley.”

But when I received the flyer in the mail on how she was promoting the event it read: How to Make Money in Tough Times.

Huh? I didn’t know where that came from. So when I went to make my presentation I had to do a lot more research in that area on how to make money in tough times than I ever expected to do. And that wasn’t right up my alley.

The event ended up going very well. But if I hadn’t taken the time up front to make sure that we created the right expectations for that audience, it wouldn’t have been congruent with what I normally do and with the messages that I normally bring. So my advice would be to make sure that the audience has the right expectations, and that you can go in and exceed them.

Let’s recap: Darren emphasized the need to be real—your real self with your own unique style. He said to be inspired by those you admire, but don’t try to be a carbon copy.

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Randy said the audience expects a clearly defined message. He said his goal is to always present a message that gives the listener something to take away to reflect on in the days, weeks, and months ahead.

Craig said to take time up front to make sure your message matches what the audience has been led to expect. That is, make sure what has been promoted is what you intend to produce.

And at the top of the track, I reminded you that perfection is not possible, nor is it even desirable. Remember, the audience does not expect perfection; mere excellence will be good enough.

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Disk 1, Track 3 A pre-speech assessment: How to tailor your message to fit the audience’s needs

So now that you have an idea of what the audience wants in general terms, let’s get specific. How do you tailor your message precisely for your specific audience? That is, how do you show your audience that you know something about the issues and ideas that are important to them?

The best speakers do their research by using pre-speech assessments. Five of the seven Champions will explain how they do this.

First is Darren LaCroix.

This is actually one of my specialties. One of the things I do, especially for keynote speeches, is I customize directly to the audience. So I actually have a “questions for the meeting planner” guideline. And I come up and I ask several questions because every audience is different. But every audience has commonalties so we need to find them.

Some of the basic questions that I start off with are for my programs. I ask how much humor, how much message. Give me a percentage. Sometimes it’s sixty- percent humor they want. Sometimes it’s ninety- percent humor they want. But I need to know. Because I need to know what I’m going to be assessed against. How will the meeting planner know if I’ve reached my goal or not? Some of the questions that I always ask are: What is the purpose of the meeting? What’s the purpose for having me? What is my goal? What’s the average age range of the audience? The approximate number attending? What’s the female to male ratio? Will spouses be attending?

That’s real important, especially when you’re customizing because the spouses may not be privy to the insider information that I might gather elsewhere. So it’s important to know and acknowledge them.

I also ask who does everyone in the audience know and love? Every organization, every association, every company has someone that everybody likes, and everybody knows Joe. So it’s great to acknowledge Joe during my speech and say that I spent some time with him and had fun with him or her. But you always want to find out who are the people that everybody knows and everybody likes. Not just who they know, but who they know and like.

I also ask what are some of the industry buzzwords. This is real important. Because even though I’m an outsider, if I can start to use some of those buzzwords and some of those terms, it shows I did my homework, that I care about the audience, that I didn’t just come

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here with a canned speech. And I always get comments afterwards. "I can’t believe how much you knew about our organization, especially in such a short time.” Most of my customization is done within two weeks of the program itself.

I also ask, what’s the company mission statement? What are three current issues? What are three common frustrations that everyone in the audience has? What are three pet peeves? What’s the fantasy? What’s the Utopia that they’re looking for? That usually gives me some fodder to have some fun.

One of the most important questions that I ask is, are there any taboo topics? Because this will allow you to get off the hook. To give you an example, when I asked this question at one association for a speech in Florida they told me “Don’t do any jokes about airplanes,” because the previous year two of their board of directors died in a plane crash.

Now me, flying there to the organization, to the event, I might have had some ideas or some thoughts about something that happened to me in the airport. I would have launched into a joke or a bit of humor or just a story and completely lost the audience and I would not have known why.

So it is always an important question to ask just to find out. Usually there are none. But now you have that ‘cover your butt’ statement so you can tell the meeting planner later that I did ask earlier were there any taboo topics. Again, generally there isn’t, but it’s a great question to ask.

I also always prepare by getting company newsletters and web site addresses that I can go and check out in order to find the terms and find out what the current issues are, and the lingo that people use within the industry. I also look for overriding statements or themes that I can tie into my message.

I don’t completely write a whole new speech, but I want to be able to connect my speech to their issues, their frustrations, and their pet peeves. If you can understand what their frustrations and their pet peeves are, what really makes them emotional, it’s the quickest and easiest way to gain the audience’s confidence.

So I always get company newsletters ahead of time--any magazines, anything that common, industry magazines, literature. I always have them send that in advance and I’ll go through them with a highlighter and highlight things.

The most important thing that I do is I always ask for a list of ten audience members who will be there that I can interview ahead of time. Most of my best information and best stories comes from these interviews. Because now it’s real people doing real interviews, gathering real information. Not just from the literature which may be a little on the smoothed over side…a little on the rosy side. I want to talk to the real people and find out what the real frustrations are.

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Now, you need to double-check with the people planning the event to make sure what you delve into is okay by them. They’re the ones hiring you; they’re the ones you are responsible to.

The other side effect that these interviews cause is that they will now become a friend. When I get to the event I will meet that person ahead of time and thank them for the time. Now they have gone around telling their friends, “Well I talked to the speaker and I can’t wait to see what he’s going to do with the information I gave him.” So now I already have an anticipation created into the event that would not have been there otherwise were I not doing those interviews.

Now I realize the extent that I do this, is a lot of work. I understand. But this is how I do it. So at least you can understand how I do it, why I do it, but the result ends in more presentations. For most professional speakers, 80 percent of their speeches come as a result of other speeches. I’ve noticed this to be true for my business and I get new clients because I do my homework. And the audience knows I’m there for them.

Next is Ed Tate.

I’m reminded of the quote by Patricia Fripp. Patricia Fripp, when she was fifteen years old she relocated from England. She was a hairdresser; she went on to become the first female president of the National Speakers Association. And she’s also in the NSA Hall of Fame. She said the following with regard to connecting with your audience.

There are two ways to connect with people, intellectually with your content, and emotionally. You don’t have to connect with them emotionally, unless you want them to remember what you said.

I’m reading a book by Rudolph Guiliani, the former mayor of New York, who said connect with people first. If you have more time, then tell them your points. There’s a time to win hearts and minds, and a time to tell details. Connect with people first.

There are several things that I do before, during, and after a presentation in order to connect with my audience. How do I connect before? The first thing I use is a pre-programmed questionnaire. Darren’s talked about that in depth.

I also have a pre-session conference call. And I like to talk to 3-5 people who will be in the audience. Primarily, I like to talk about the meeting planner, the person who has hired me directly. The economic buyer, this is the individual who has actually approved the transaction. And finally, I like to talk to anywhere from 3-4 other audience members, if I can.

The other thing I do prior to the session is I do a second check-in call the week of the presentation, or the week before. I do dinner the night before a presentation, if that’s possible, if the client will meet with me. And then the day of the presentation, I do several things. I like to meet with the people who actually spoke to me on the conference

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call. I like to arrive early and introduce myself, literally, to every audience member. I like to shake hands with everyone who’s going to be in the presentation.

There’s a woman by the name of Susan RoAnn who wrote a book, How to Work a Room. And once I was in California and she was giving a presentation and she would not let anyone into the audience, anyone into the actual presentation room, until she shook their hand. She, literally, was blocking the front door.

A long line formed. And what was really interesting is that many, many more people jumped into line to find out what was going on. And there was little five-foot Susan RoAnn waiting to shake each and every individual audience member’s hand. So, another thing I try to do the day of the presentation is to shake the hands of each audience member.

Finally, my opening story. One of the things that I do very well is I tell stories in my own way. And my opening story is one that either relates to this audience directly. And if I can, if there’s enough time, I’ll actually create a story about this particular client, whoever they may be, or make a hero out of one of the audience members.

Once I gave a presentation earlier this year with a company called ARH —Appalachian Regional Healthcare. About a half an hour before I go onstage I discovered that they had laid off 180 of their friends. And I completely abandoned my opening remarks because I knew the one thing they were focusing on was that how is this change going to impact them? So I literally used an opening that I use in my Change Program, even though this was going to be a Leadership speech, and opened up with that and talked about what I call the Dead Horse.

There’s an old proverb that there’s a dead horse in the living room. And what people have a tendency to do is they step over the dead horse, they ignore the dead horse, they vacuum around the dead horse, but they don’t say anything about the dead horse. And in speaking, you cannot avoid the dead horse. You must talk about the issue at hand. So I talk about the issue head-on. In this case, “You’re probably wondering about what's going to happen to you, what’s going to happen to your friends,” etcetera. And I began my presentation talking about what I call the FUD Factor: Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt.

Later on, the president of that particular organization walked up to me and he said that was like the best opening that he had ever heard, and actually resulted in my actually coming back to this organization four additional times.

So, adjusting your presentation based on what has happened recently, again, it goes back to my original comments earlier when I said that I do an additional check-in call the week of the presentation. Has anything changed? Is there anything that I should be aware of since we spoke last? And being on top of those things I think is critical, and you make your adjustments from there.

Now, here’s Jim Key.

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On my web site I have a pre-event questionnaire. Even before I agree to speak for a company or an organization, I ask the person who has contacted me to provide me with the answers to the questions on it. The questionnaire contains specific questions about the audience.

I also try to find out what speakers have spoken to that audience before me. And if I know that previous speaker, and I know how to contact them, I will. And I’ll ask for their input about that audience. I want to know everything—from information about that group to information about how professionally the event at which they spoke was organized and run.

Having all of those answers in hand is very helpful to me in knowing what to expect. When I know what to expect I can better meet the needs of the person who has chosen me as the speaker for that group or event.

As I previously mentioned, I have a pre-event questionnaire that I ask to have filled out. In that questionnaire I ask about a variety of demographic factors about my audience. For instance, I want to know about the age, gender, and income levels of my audience. I want to know what their average educational level is, the cultural mix of the audience, and so on.

I ask about the general daily experience of my audience members, such as any sensitive issues in their industry, any frustrations they experience at work, what their day-to-day business is like, and so on. And finally, I ask about their company or organization, specifically. I want to know the purpose of their organization.

I then review my prepared speech with that information in mind. If there are any particular examples that would not work well for that audience, as I now understand them to be, I change it. If there is any particular bit of humor that I don’t believe would go over well with them, I change it. I try to remove anything that might not sit well with them and that might cause them to be distracted from my message.

Next, Mark Brown.

That process actually begins the moment I agree to address the audience. During the first contact phone call, I ask questions. I am very interested in the dynamics of the audience. I want to know the audience size, the gender break up, the ethnic composition of the audience. Will I speak to adults? Will I have teens? A mixture of both? I get answers to these kinds of questions and many others, very early in the planning process.

How do I tailor my speech as a result of my findings? I’m there for the audience. They are not there for me. Now once I determine the make-up of the audience, how it is comprised, I select material that is suitable for them.

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Recently, I addressed a group of Girl Scout leaders at a dinner event in Florida. The room was full of excited women and I deliberately selected humorous material that would appeal more to women. Am I being sexist? No. How did I do this? Well, having a college-age daughter doesn’t hurt, and being married to a wonderful woman certainly helps.

Now if I speak at a sports award event I’ll pull out all my sports stories from my years of playing high school soccer in Jamaica. And I’ll also pull out stories from my twenty-five years of coaching and officiating, because that is what a sports audience can relate to.

Now, here’s Randy Harvey:

I arrive early, prior to the appointed time to speak and spend time meeting people either at the door or walking through the audience greeting people. I try to get a sense of the people that are present, introduce myself, get personal names, take some time to interact with people. This yields a treasure trove of useable information and allows me to get a sense of the kind of people that are present in the hall.

Secondly, I research the organization. You can find information through publications, mission statements, documents on the web and newsletters they send out. I read anything they have on their web site about the structure of their organization.

I search the documents looking for individuals who are icons in the organization--perhaps the founder. If you can, find something that quotable about individuals who have made a difference in the organization, or someone who achieved a major accomplishment. Weave that information into your presentation in a way to show your know what their organization is about.

To recap, Darren explained how he sends a pre-speech questionnaire to meeting planners so that he may be able to adjust his standard presentation to be more customized for that specific audience on that specific day. He asks questions such as “What is the purpose of the meeting, and what is my role in it?” He asks “Who will be in the audience that everyone knows and loves?” so that he can bring a personal touch into his presentation. He asks about industry buzzwords, current issues, common frustrations, so that he can show a working knowledge of their daily routines at work. And he asks “What topics are off-limits?” Finally, he stressed the importance of interviewing 10 audience members in advance so that he can weave their perspectives into his program.

Ed mentioned Patricia Fripp’s philosophy about connecting with an audience intellectually and emotionally, and cited Rudy Giuliani when he said “Connect with people first.” Ed also suggested introducing yourself personally to everyone in the room as they come in, and his goal of trying to create an opening story that makes one of the attendees a hero.

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Jim Key asked “How can I meet the needs of the audience if I don’t know what they are?”

Mark Brown explained how audience demographics can affect audience dynamics, and Randy Harvey told how to do pre-speech research through printed materials such as newsletters, magazines, and websites. Randy also recommended using icons of the industry or organization to show your familiarity with who is important to the audience.

Pre-speech questionnaires and interviews can vary greatly, and we recommend you create your own. However, to give you an idea of how to construct one, on Disk 4, the DATA Disk, we have provided a sample for your review.

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Disk 1, Track 4 The First 30 Seconds

So now you’ve got the right frame of mind and you’ve done enough research to tailor your message for your specific audience. Assuming you have written and rehearsed your presentation, it’s time to take the stage.

Now let’s concentrate on that all important first impression: the moment you present yourself to your audience.

In the book You Are the Message, Roger Ailes says “Research shows that we start to make up our minds about other people within seven seconds of first meeting them. In the first seven seconds, we also trigger in each other a chain of emotional reactions, ranging from reassurance to fear.

Ailes says it’s seven seconds, others say it’s in the first minute—so let’s compromise and examine the first 30 seconds or so. In this track you will hear from Craig Valentine, Darren LaCroix, Ed Tate, Jim Key, and Randy Harvey.

Here’s Craig Valentine.

The opening of your speech is extremely important because it lets the audience know why they should listen to the rest. I remember when I went to go buy my first-ever automobile. And I really wanted the car, but the salesperson tried to sell me on features. He said, “Your car, the one that you’re looking at? It has these types of brakes, these types of windows, and this type of engine.”

Well, he didn’t move me at all with those features. You see, he should have been selling me on benefits. Benefits—what’s in it for me? “For you this means…”

And that’s the same thing we need to do in the first thirty seconds or the first minute of our presentation. We need to captivate the audience so they know, “Yeah! There’s something in this for me.”

Next is Darren LaCroix.

I love to teach people this, and talk a great deal about those first thirty seconds. This is one of those things that came glaringly clear to me when doing stand-up comedy. The audience is judging you in the first thirty seconds. And most speakers, most presenters, they work on their speech, but rarely do they work on the moment when they take the stage. And it’s being in that moment, planning for that moment that you walk up there are start your presentation that’s so incredibly important. It’s the first thirty seconds. They’re judging you as you walk up there. Is it fair? No. It’s human nature. And you and I, as

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presenters, we need to deal with human nature. That’s our job. It’s the first thirty seconds they’re judging you.

Have you ever seen a speaker start off a presentation like this? (Monotone) “Good morning. It’s really wonderful to be here.”

What? Someone forgot to tell your body that it was excited, that it was happy to be here. If a speaker starts off in a very monotone way talking about how excited they are, it sends a message to the audience that this person is not sincere. Well, if you’re not sincere, the audience questions everything else you’re going to say. That’s why the first moments are so important because people are going to judge you. They’re going to say to themselves, “Am I going to sit here and listen? Or am I just gonna take a little vacation in my mind while this presenter’s going on.”

In comedy, if you don’t get the audience in the first thirty seconds you spend the whole rest of your comedy set trying to get them back, trying to win them over. And then it’s more like work. But you need to be ready for that moment and hit the stage running. I talk about this in my program, The Path to Powerful Presentations. This is so important.

When I realized the importance of this for the championship, the World Championship of Public Speaking, I called up one of the other winners, David Brooks. David Brooks taught me to go to the meeting room beforehand and get comfortable. Get up onstage, get in front of the room, and get comfortable with that area, with that arena. Look out and see what you’ll see during the presentation. And get comfortable. Stay up there and don’t get down off that stage until you’re comfortable.

Now I’ve parlayed this into my keynote speaking where I’ll go down to the meeting room beforehand, the night before, and do the beginning of my presentation several times. Not the whole thing, but the beginning several times just to know how I’m going to start it off.

Now usually they’ll be setting up the room and there’ll be waitstaff in the room setting up beforehand while I’m doing this. But I know that I am there for the audience. And if somebody sees me doing this and thinks I’m a weirdo, that’s okay. It is preparation that will make my presentation better when it comes time to give it. So I’ve learned from him to just be up there and give the speech, especially the beginning, as many times as I can beforehand.

The other thing you can do to prepare for the moment you take the stage is what I used to do when I started stand-up comedy years ago. In 1992, when I first would drive to a club, I would listen to three of my favorite songs that would put me in the right mood just before I went up on the stage. Again, it’s mood or moment management. But I would listen to three of my favorite songs. Songs that reminded me that, ‘You know what? If this doesn’t go good, it’s not the end of the world.’ Songs that inspire me and put me in a good mood.

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Now, when I went for my world championship contest speech, the preparation for that was I’d listen to the song by Tina Turner, You Better Be Good to Me, to remind myself I’m there for the audience. Then I listened to Tina Turner, Simply the Best. And the final one, the tabernacle of testosterone, I listened to the Theme from Rocky. I’m a guy. That gets me going. Dan, dan, dan-dan-dan, dan-dan-, dan, dan, dan. Dan, dan-dan-dan-, dan-dan-dan, dan, dan. Makes you feel like you’re on top of the world! But what that does for me, puts me in a better mood right when I’m going to give me presentation. I have the attitude: You are in my house. This is my turn to take the stage. I have worked on this presentation, I’ve been doing it for years, and I can’t wait to give it to you!

That’s a much better place to give a presentation from than, ‘All right, where’s the front of the room? Where’s the microphone? Now you may be able to get the audience back from that setting, if you’re really good. But why not prepare and start off and make life easier for you and make your presentation more enjoyable.

Now, Ed Tate.

I have tried-and-true openings. I have about five or six that I know that work every single time. I’ve been able to test them out over time. And I will open up my presentation with one of those six tried, tested, and proved openings.

One thing, how I open up, typically I don’t open up with ‘Thank you for having me here…I’m glad to be here….’ Those types of things. I usually try to jump right in to the content. The reason for that is it grabs people’s attention, it gets their interest immediately. And many people appreciate the fact that you just jumped right into it.

Next, Jim Key.

During the first thirty-second period of your presentation the audience is trying to determine if you have something. If you have gravitas. And if you’re comfortable with who you are, where you are, and what you know. They want to know if you’re going to bore them or whether you will effectively hold their attention during the presentation. It is the opinion they develop of you during that crucial time that becomes the foundation upon which they build an acceptance or trust and trust in your competence. Or whether they reject and distrust you and completely reject your message. Finally, Randy Harvey.

The human ear is a neglectful lover. If you don’t get its attention immediately in the opening of your speech, you will spend the next five minutes trying to get the audience’s attention. You want to come to the audience with enough presentation either through vocal variety, interesting word use, or unique facial expression to capture the audience’s interest and have them say to themselves, ‘I’m going to learn something.’ Or ‘This guy’s so crazy I better pay attention. Who knows what he’s going to do.’

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Let’s recap:Craig reminded us of the difference between features and benefits, and then illustrated why you should bring the benefits of listening to you to the opening of your presentation.

Darren discussed planning for “the moment” you take the stage by getting comfortable with the setting hours in advance of the live performance. He also suggested listening to music to create the right mood for the moment. And he reminded us that if you don’t get the audience’s interest in the first 30 seconds, you’ll spend the rest of your speech trying to get it back.

Ed Tate explained how he has five or six dependable openings that he knows will work, so he uses them to measure this audience’s response against previous audience responses.

Jim Key said the audience wants to know right up front if you have something worth the investment of their time and attention.

And Randy Harvey suggested that you bring enough physical or vocal presence to the stage to make even casual listeners sit up and take notice.

And all of these things, we remind you, could—and probably should-- begin in 30 seconds or less.

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Disk 1, Track 5 The first five minutes

With a good first impression now working to our advantage, let’s examine what you can learn from the audience in the first five minutes. Now, five minutes is an average—you may be able to make the same assessment in less time, and occasionally it takes longer. But generally, most speakers have formed an opinion about the audience as a whole within five minutes.

That is, you can tell if the audience is lively or lifeless. Are they cooperative or combative? Are they hospitable or hostile?

Like most speakers, I have a standard opening. I rarely vary it because it is a yardstick. I know how most people react and respond to it, so I use it as a benchmark. Therefore, if on any given day the audience exceeds the typical response—that fires me up because I know I’ll have a lot of fun with a responsive group.

On the other hand, if on a particular day the audience response doesn’t measure up to my average, then that tells me I will have to work harder to get them on my side. It doesn’t mean it’s going to be a bad day, just a harder one.

In this track, you’ll hear from Darren, Jim, Mark, Randy, and then Craig. Then, Darren and Mark will return share their thoughts on how to make adjustments when the early responses aren’t what you hoped for.

Let’s hear first from Darren LaCroix.

This is where I actually use my introduction as a tool. You’re going to hear a clip now from one of my professional presentations I gave recently. Now I want you to hear the introduction that I gave them, word for word. He took a little creative liberty in there, but you’ll hear a joke that gets a laugh.

(Speech)(Introducer) …on August the 25th, out of 25,000 other contestants, from fourteen countries, Darren LaCroix was crowned the 2001 World Champion of Public Speaking. Darren is the first person from any New England state, that means s he’s a Yankee, to win the championship since the contest began in 1938. As a result of winning, Darren has presented to Toastmasters in Malaysia, Taiwan, and Oman. He left his day job of eleven years to pursue a speaking and comedy career full time. As far as late night comics go—Letterman, Leno, Carson—Darren has listened to them all. (Audience laughter) Please welcome, the 2001 World’s Speaking Champion, Darren LaCroix.(End)(LaCroix) Now the joke is in there for several reasons. Number one, just to help lighten up the audience just before I hit the stage. Now they’ve been somewhat entertained. But I

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do it to poke fun at myself intentionally so I don’t look like I have a huge ego. In an introduction, typically you’re giving a list of your credentials as to why they should listen to you. So at the end of my introduction I like to poke fun at myself.

The other reason that I do it, and I think even more importantly, is I want to know where the audience is at based on how they respond to that joke. If they respond to that joke and laugh wholeheartedly I know I’m going to have fun. I know I can just come back, relax, and go with the flow. If they don’t laugh, or they laugh on a very subdued level, I know I need to come right at them. And I come right more into their face to grab their attention and help wake them up. So I approach my speech differently. And I am waiting to hear that laugh and how they respond. I want to know if they’re with me right away or if I need to get them on my side. I will tend to be much more aggressive if I don’t get that laugh up front. Not as much fun, but I need to gain the audience’s confidence and attention before I launch in to my important powerful material.

Next, Jim Key.

I think that the reading of your audience begins, actually, before the first five minutes of your presentation. It begins before you even take the stage and is done by either observation, interaction, or both. By observation I mean that if you can observe the audience members before you speak to them, possibly as they attend other parts of an event at which you’re speaking, or by spending time with their company or organization before the event, you’ll have a good idea of what generally type of demeanor they have and how they are like to respond to your presentation style.

You can also observe the audience as previous speakers, or as your introducer is speaking, and get a good idea of how well the audience will respond to humor and how well they will listen.

By interaction, I mean that if you have the opportunity to greet audience members as they file into the venue where you’re speaking, you can gain a sense of their warmth and openness and begin to establish both your presence and a connection with your audience before you even hit the stage to begin speaking. Now, Mark Brown.

Within the first five minutes I can get a pretty clear idea of how the talk with go, depending on the audience’s response to my humor and my opening remarks. I look for eye contact, verbal responses, body language. However, I try to read the audience even before that. Here’s how I do it.

As the audience is coming into the meeting place I listen carefully to the comments they are sharing with each other. It is particularly helpful when you are dealing with a junior high school or high school audience, or any teen group. On any given day I may hear comments like, “Oh, man. I am glad to be out of the classroom for a whole period. Yes!” Or, “Oh, boy, here we go again. Another boring assembly. Geez!” Or, “Hey, I hear this

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guy is good. My cousin heard him last year and said he was really funny. I can’t wait to hear what he has to say.”

Comments like those give me insight into the mindset of the group. Now, let me take that one step further. It’s also important to watch their response to the school administrator, or the person who makes introductions. Why? Let’s face it. It can be really difficult to gain control of 800 excited teenagers, especially when it seems that their administrator, someone for whom they usually have great respect, has a hard time calling the group to order.

In a corporate setting you can tell fairly early on which of the attendees didn’t want to be there, couldn’t get a dispensation, and they want you to know about it. You see, body language tells the tale. If you see closed posture, frowning, arms locked, you’re pretty sure this person doesn’t want to be there.

Now conversely, there are those glorious times when you see eager faces, people leaning forward, hanging on your every word, then, oh man! You are in Speaker’s Paradise. The audience’s energy and enthusiasm is a clear indication that they want to hear from you.

Next, Randy Harvey.

I generally start my presentations with a humorous story, personal anecdote, or a folksy tale. During the course of that I weave in a number of pauses so that I can take the opportunity to look the audience in the eye and pick out those friendly faces that exist in every audience, generally, and use them as the barometer of how well my speech is going across. I’ll also use those individuals that are identified in the audience as I continue my presentation when I want to make a point I have a face to make eye contact with.

One common mistake that people make is starting their presentation by recognizing Jim Smith or Sarah Jones. It’s far more powerful to bring up those points of personal recognition in the body of your speech rather than at the introduction. Primarily because people expect that recognition in the beginning. It’s far more powerful to take one of your examples, one of your stories, and say, “Much like John Smith, your founder, my father knew how to make a sale.”

By making those kinds of comparisons the audience is brought in to your message and they accept it. Because now the message is about them as much as it is about whatever example you are using.

And now, Craig Valentine.

Personally, I speak or train by the energy level. The first thing I look for in an audience is the energy. If an audience is down I won’t start off with GREAT ENERGY because we’ll be like two ships passing in the night. Instead, I will merely match their energy level, connect on that level, and then lead them to the energy level I desire. Oh, I’ve tried in the

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past to jump in with incredible energy, “Good morning! How is everybody! It’s a great day to be alive!!!” And they’re looking at me like, ‘Who is this spaz?’

Now, from that experience, I find their energy level, match them at that level, loosen them up, build rapport, and do everything I need to do at that energy level. And the funny thing is, when you match and build rapport at their energy level, they will follow you to your normal energy level. And that usually happens in the first five minutes.

(David Brooks) Now, to discuss how and when to make adjustments to your presentation when things aren’t going as you planned, here are Darren LaCroix, and Mark Brown once again.

LaCroix: Especially in the comedy world I need to adjust my presentation or my comedy when it’s not going well. Even though I’m a professional, I do this all the time, I love to do this, there are times where something’s off. The audience isn’t focused, I’m having a bad day, something is just not right.

So in the first five minutes you can tell—probably in the first two minutes—you can tell where it’s going and how it’s going. Typically what I will do is to stop right where I am ‘because everyone knows something’s not right. So I believe you should change gears at that point. So what I’ll do is I’ll stop at that point and I’ll start taking directly to the audience and asking them some questions.

See, asking questions helps get their brain on track with what you’re doing and what you’re saying. When you ask a question people, in their minds, have to answer, whether it’s good or bad. But if you can get their brain answering either way you’ve got their attention.

I try to look around and figure out what is the distraction? What is the problem? I’ll even also at that point walk out into the audience because that tends to wake them right up. Personally, I believe you need to change gears if it’s not working. I will launch into one of my stronger stories after the question session.

I also have as my back up; I will go to some audience involvement exercises. Meaning, I have a couple improv games that I use. Now, bringing them directly into the presentation almost always creates more attention and brings them in.

Brown: If I’m in a school and it takes the administrator a long time to get the crowd quiet, I begin to think about limiting the humor in my presentation. I know it will take a long time to get the kids back and they’ll miss the more important points, the meat of my message. If the audience responds as I expect, I won’t change a thing.

Let’s recap Track 5, what should and could happen in the first five minutes:

I suggested, as Ed Tate mentioned in Track 4, using a standard opening as a benchmark. That is, having done the same opening hundreds of times, I know how a good audience

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responds to it. Therefore, if the response is not typical, I know I will have to work harder to gain their confidence, trust, or acceptance.Darren recommended using the introduction—that is, the script that your introducer uses to bring you to the stage—as more than just a recitation of your accomplishments. Instead, it should set your program in motion with a laugh, or an intriguing statement or question that you can build upon immediately in your first five minutes.

Jim Key suggested reading your audience even before the program begins by observing how well the audience responds to speakers before you. He said you can get an idea of how they will respond to humor and how well they listen just by observing them as your introducer speaks.

Mark Brown said he also listens to comments as the audience files in to determine their mood and frame of mind.

Randy Harvey discussed making early eye contact to identify friendly faces in the crowd, so that you can return to them anytime you need a moment of acceptance or reassurance. He also suggested that you bring up points of personal recognition in the body of your speech instead of at the beginning.

And Craig Valentine said in the first five minutes he determines the audience’s energy level, and then strives to match it, and then gradually lead them to the energy level he desires.

And finally, Darren LaCroix and Mark Brown returned to discuss how and when to make adjustments when things aren’t going as you prefer. Mark makes adjustments based on how long it takes the introducer to get the audience to settle into a listening mode. Darren said if the first five minutes are misfiring, he’ll bring audience participation to the forefront, asking questions for example, to help get their buy-in to his message.

One final thought on the words that your introducer will use to bring you to the stage: I recommend you write your introduction word for word. And, explain to your introducer that it is critically important that he or she not vary from that script. Explain that what he or she says sets your message in motion, so the words they say are an integral part of the program. If you aren’t insistent, the introducer can put you into a hole that could take you a long time to climb back out of.

(end of Disk 1)

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