John Zehring

Connect with Your Audience John Zehring

Whether you are speaking to six colleagues around a table or six hundred listeners in a formal setting, the speaker's first job is to connect with the audience in a way that engenders a positive, affirming bond of trust, acceptance, and even comradery among you and them. Connecting with your audience is the #1 most important part of public speaking. It makes little difference how well-worded are you sentences, the depth of your research, the organization of your points, or the strength of your arguments if you do not connect with the people listening to you. On the flip side, if you connect well with your audience and they are "with you" and have an affinity for you, you can make almost any public speaking mistake and they will remain with you, forgiving easily your imperfections. Therefore, when you prepare to make a presentation before an audience, you are well-served to devote a massive amount of attention and care to how you will connect with your audience. Today, in the midst of a global pandemic and a spectacularly massive political divide, you might be connecting with your audience over a zoom meeting, on a webinar, while wearing a mask, under a tent's canopy, or outdoors. The venues for public speaking change with the times, but the foundation never changes: connect with your audience. Relate to them, with them, and be among them. Then, all the other pieces and parts of the art and science of public speaking fall naturally into place. Connect with them, and they are with you. Fail to connect, and the greatest efforts you employ could be wasted. Perhaps the best way to start is to repeat the mantra over and again: it's not about me. It's not about me. It is about them.