by Darren Fleming
The audience does not care about you.
They don’t care how long it took you to get your qualifications, how long you have been working in your position or how many awards you have won.
They have no reason to care. They don’t wish you malice – they just don’t care what you have done. The audience only cares about themselves.
They care how they will be better off after listening to you, how they will be able to use what you tell them to make better decisions in the future and to take better actions. They care about what is important to them.
We know this is true. Just look at the biggest community in history – Facebook. Facebook is primarily a platform to tell other people what you are doing. (The secondary benefit is that you can see what others are up to as well.)
If you have ever had to employ someone you know how tedious it is to read resumes. No one likes doing it and applicants know it is hard to stand out.
So the next time you need to write your introduction, write it from the audience’s perspective. Don’t tell them how long you have been in Toastmasters; share with them what you know. Don’t tell them why you are speaking on this topic; tell the audience what they will get by listening.
When you do this, the audience has a reason to listen. This is the first step to engaging them.
Darren Fleming, ACG, CL
Adelaide Toastmasters
[This is the first in a series of articles by Darren Fleming on the art of engaging audiences.]