Avoiding The Initial Wrong Turn Most Speakers and Presenters Make

What do you want your audience to do before you start with the first slide before you drink a whole bunch of coffee so you can stay up late typing away at this 30 minute speech.

Take a breath calm down sit back and just ask yourself what is it.

I want my audience to do now.

If you’re going on a job interview and you’re presenting to one prospective employer the one thing you want that person to do is give you the job.

Hire you if you are running for office.

You want the audience to give you a vote or give you money.

If you’re speaking to a new business prospect you want them to hire you or sign a cut.

What is it you want your audience to do now.

This sounds basic and yet I see countless times with people of all varying degrees of success skill seniority within the private sector businesses corporations governments all making the same mistake.

Their first inclination is to just start gathering information.

They get this big wheelbarrow.

They go around to all the office gathering information.

Smithers give me all the files you have on the such and such project.

Jane give me all your slides that you on this subject last week.

I want to build that and they’re going around the room with this wheelbarrow and the data is gathering and it’s stacking higher and higher and higher.

And before you know it you’re just swimming in this sea of data time out.

First thing you have to do is figure out in one sentence what is it you want your audience to do.

I want you to write it down.

I want you to post it here in the Discussion section the Q and A section of this course.

You need clarity on that because if you don’t know what it is you want them to do.

There’s no way you can convince them of that it’s the old joke if you don’t care where you’re going.

It doesn’t matter what road you take.

Write down the exact specific thing you want your audience to do.

That’s the starting point for every speech.

It’s the starting point for every presentation.