an amateur public speaker will continue doing what they're doing even when all
signs point to SOS let me let you in on a little secret you're gonna need a
pattern disrupt sometimes the audience just disengages for a number of reasons
some of which are beyond our control some of which are within our control now
a seasoned public speaker will be able to read the audience by making eye
contact with them by looking at their body language and sensing the energy
levels in the room and be able to recalibrate their style their delivery
and sometimes even their message that's right that is why we don't stick to our
script we have a framework we have an outline a skeleton framework in our mind
and we're able to deviate from it when we need to such as when your audience
disengages now a not so seasoned public speaker an amateur public speaker will
see what's going on in the room but not even do anything about it so I'm going
to give you four strategies today that are going to help you recalibrate your
communication and your style under delivery so that you can re-engage your
audience when your audience is blesse today I'm giving you four strategies
that will help you when you see that your audience has lost focus and
disengaged and what's great is that these are easily implementable
strategies so that you can use them in your office space in a meeting room on
stage in any type of speech event so that's what's really cool about this
because whenever we communicate with people we have an audience be it one
person a thousand people whatever it is bottom line we got to shake things up
when we see boredom on their faces when there is that SOS signal you know what
I'm talking about right the first thing to do is to ask a question to the
audience now this would be great if it's something that is a little bit startling
little bit jarring so that they wake up and they're like whoa it was just what
just happened and it's really important that it relates to the topic so if it
doesn't relate then you have to find a creative way of linking the question
that you asked or the statement that you made if it's a statement sometimes it is
to the overall main message it could also be a series of rhetorical questions
that remain unanswered but you just put them out there or you can actually field
questions from the audience you might say something like imagine something
something something what if that'd it up what would you do
what if I asked you about that that's its desire why is it that so you're
posing these questions to the audience and you can actually field questions
from them as well and get their responses that way they're interacting
right so this is a pattern disrupt because you're not just talking talking
talking at the audience you're talking with the audience another part of this
ask the audience the question is that you can also call out audience members
individually by name if you are in a setting such as a meeting such as having
a small group interaction with your teammates a situation where you know the
people in the audience by a first name basis then it's not a bad idea to call
out people in the room of course you do it in a nice way right so it might be
something like Jim and I were chatting the other day and something something or
Sandra you made a really interesting insightful point earlier this day do you
mind sharing that with the group something like that where you're putting
somebody else on the spot and suddenly the audience is like oh okay I wonder if
they're gonna call on me are they gonna call my name out so that also re-engages
them and they are alerted to something more than just the droning on and on
right but this calling out really only is effective I would argue when you have
that camaraderie and you actually know the people
in the audience and you're on a first-name basis with them this would be
a bit contrived in a bit strange if you were to do it to a brand new audience
that you had never met before then it would just kind of seem a little bit
presumptuous but I'm sure there's ways of doing it to where your authentic self
comes out and you do it in a polite and kind and thoughtful way but I would
personally stick to a situation where you actually know the people new in the
room another pattern disrupt number two startle the audience with sound a lot of
times people phase out and they're off to lala land when you just drone on and
on and it's this monotonous quite boring frankly this kind of thing right and and
and it happens but we want to change that so what do we do we vary our pitch
so our volume right will go up in certain places and fall in certain
places and that shakes things up the other thing you can do is alternate the
speed at which you speak speed up put it up right seasonally
really really quickly and then maybe not that fast but alter your pacing because
that will shock the audience and they're gonna want to say well what's what's
going on here and that's a good thing the other thing you can do is make an
interjection so exclaim and then pause that pause can be super powerful the
audience will pay attention to it because suddenly it's this just you to
do if you were monotonous and all of a sudden there's silence and that is
powerful so by putting a gap there they actually are awakening and they're
calling attention to that silence it'll wake them up in other words so the point
is you want to break the monotony you want to be creatively using your voice
make sure that you are adding in some different tones and pitches and also the
speed at which you share a message these are all really great ways of pattern
disrupt the third thing is to get them moving
get them to do something a little bit more interactive than just sitting there
so this can be something where you actually have them physically get up and
move around you might ask them to mingle with the
other people in the room this can be particularly of interest to somebody who
is introducing the group to each other so a scenario might be a first day of a
course a classroom a new class first day or second day it could be a new
department meeting and the team members are all meeting for the first time or
are starting to get to know each other better so you give them an opportunity
to interact you can also task them with something
now it can be something as simple as please consider this point or ruminate
over this question that we just posed or what do you think about X Y Z case study
something that they can ponder and share and discuss with the person or people
sitting next to them so you have them do something so either you have them get up
and move around shake it all off or you ask them a question that they can then
discuss with the people close to them now the last one is really only
appropriate in a smaller group setting I would not advise you to use this if you
are giving a TED talk or a talk of a similar caliber and you'll see why so
this one is about taking a break excusing yourself you don't have to
explain just excuse yourself and that is completely fine it's totally normal look
we're all human and the reality is that we have our off days so some days you'll
just not be on your game and that is not expected of you even the super humans
like LeBron James and Oprah and JLo and Tony Robbins they all have their off
days as well so it's okay to say all right we're going to take five
but be mindful of you know their time as well so if it's something where you
actually really do need to call it at that then do so if appropriate again
it's your call and that's okay right the ball is in your court but the thing is
is that it's better if it's small group such as a meeting or a small
group situation it's not a TED talk we're talking here can you imagine you
just said to the audience alright everyone we're gonna take 10 I'll be
right back this is intermission that would not really bode so well but small
settings okay you know don't be hard on yourself these things happen again it's
not always you but these strategies will help you recalibrate your communication
style delivery and message so that you know if it is within your control and a
lot of times it is Explearners really is then what you can do is you know try
those four strategies out and see how it works for you and I would always
recommend trying it out first and then making your own so appropriating it
tweaking it as you see fit because every situation every audience calls for a
little bit of a different take right so we have to tweak it but try out these
strategies and let me know how it goes in the comments below I always love
hearing from you thank you for choosing to spend time with me today I always
love seeing you here and be sure to subscribe if you haven't done so already
so that you can learn how to communicate with confidence authenticity and poise I
will see you in my next video right here on Explearning communication coaching
until next time Happy Explearning!