Nine Steps to Excite Your Audience

Presenting is never about you and your content, it is about your audience and what they need to hear. Nobody likes to be ‘sold’ to. Everybody wants to feel part of something. I want you to be so good at telling your business story and people will want to know more. Here is how you do it.

As you read this, think about a presentation or conversation you are about to have. As long as you need to open your mouth and communicate, these steps will help you.

01. Ask the Five Questions

You have the text of your presentation. It’s time to turn this into a compelling story with a beginning, middle and end, because a story told well is 22 times more memorable than a fact. So how do you do that? Ask and answer the following five questions, remembering that in this exercise you are the wise mentor of every Hollywood movie you have ever seen and you are helping the hero to succeed.

1. Who is the hero (your boss? The end user?)
2. What is the dragon they need to slay,  the problem that is so bad that it will eat them alive? Why do they need to listen to you? They won’t listen if they don’t really see there is a problem.
3. What is the weapon you are going to give them? A new piece of tech, a new tool/system for HR, a new way of doing meetings, a new product? Is it a mindset shift?
4. What is the treasure? The dragon has been slain, what is the treasure your hero gets?
5. What is the future? What does it look like to bring back the treasure to a wider audience?

If you don’t feel there is a dragon, just be playful and do this exercise. You will come up with creative content and short sentences that will grab your audience.

02. Present for One Minute

Mark Twain is often rumoured to have said, ‘If I’d had time, I would have written you a shorter letter.’ I love that. We can all waffle for 20 minutes but we need to be able to present well for one minute. Get your phone out and get ready to record. You can start with ‘What is the future?’ (question 5) or ‘Who is the hero?’ (question 1), but you must use the text you have just created as a launchpad. All the extras you need to add, the data points will fit around this. When you present, don’t mention the Hollywood words of dragon, hero, treasure, promised land. The goal here is to present for one minute and record it.

03. Play Line Five to Line One

Listen back to your presentation and you will find that around the fifth line you have delivered a short, sharp, powerful headline. That is because it takes time to warm up. It may even be your second line. Move that line up to the top, keep the other lines in, but just move them all down. It will take boldness and courage to do this—please do it. It works!

04. Say it Faster

Pick up the pace by five percent. As long as you speak in short sentences, people will follow you. People often get told to slow down. What they are asking for is shorter sentences with space to breathe at the end of them. 

Now you know how to pitch well in one minute, you can take that out to 20 minutes. I have seen it done time and time again. If, however, your pitch is part of a conversation, here is what I would love you to do.

Force yourself not to pitch the whole thing, but instead introduce yourself, pitch for a minute and then say, ‘But I would like to hear what your needs are. What are the the problems you are facing at the moment with your business/approving this/your team/your current sales?’ You pick the topic, you know your audience. Now listen. Listening is what transformed my marriage and bought me my house.

05. Time

Make sure you’re giving your audience time. You can say in a meeting, ‘I am simply going to listen for the first 10 minutes,’ and do just that, allowing the other party to have their say. Or by asking that open question you are giving them time.

06. Air

Let them speak, remain silent, keep giving them eye contact (not too stalker-ish) and responsive body language. If you fold your arms and don’t smile you look impatient and are sucking air out of the room. Encourage them to speak with phrases like ‘Go on’, and ‘Because...’.

07. Play Back

Playing back isn’t commenting, interpreting or repeating like a parrot—it’s replaying what you think you heard them say. After the initial playback you will be tempted to fix the problem, or ask a direct question. Let them speak again and playback again—like unpeeling an onion. The best way is to ask as few questions as possible. They will lead you to what they are thinking and feeling.

08. Empathy

After you have played back, respond with empathy and understanding. Try something like, ‘That sounds great,’ or ‘That sounds really difficult.‘ In conflict don’t be defensive, just recognise their emotions. Then you can share your thoughts.

09. Summarise

Personal and business relationships differ here. But in a business relationship, summarising is crucial. It allows people to say what they actually want to say. Summarise everything that has been said in the meeting and ask, ‘Is there anything else you’d like to add?’ It could be a game-changer.

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That’s it. Nine steps to excite your audience. If you put into practise listening and speaking in the way I have laid out here, a whole new world will open up to you. You will find connection, you will find what steps really work for you and you will find yourself gaining influence and partnerships you didn’t think were possible!