his week’s tip is about making your speech, your presentation, or your television interview, relevant to your audience. It’s not enough to have a compelling story. Many people have compelling stories. And it’s not enough to just tell your story. You need to tell it in a way that captures the audience’s attention, and benefits them, tangibly.

Ask yourself: what is THEIR takeaway? Why should your audience sacrifice their time to listen to you? Everybody is busy, and inherently a bit selfish, so if you can’t offer them a reason to buy in, they’re not going to do so. And if it’s a live audience, trust me, you’ll be able to tell that they aren’t fully engaged.

A big part of figuring out how to benefit your audience is to know exactly WHO they are: demographics, socioeconomic status, etc … Luckily, that information is easy enough to get. Typically, you can ask the event organizer or the person who will be interviewing you for an audience/viewer breakdown.

And once you have that info, and you know who you are talking to, you can craft your message accordingly and deliver a presentation that is engaging and piques your audience’s interest. Always be mindful of THEM and you are off to a great start!

Of course, now that you have their interest, it’s all about performance and storytelling and delivering that message in an unforgettable way.

To chat more about messaging and storytelling, send me a message, and let’s get to work. Have a great day.

Dave