Top Tips for Engaging an Audience

Transcript

Jo Caulfield: I'm Jo Caulfield and I speak to people for a living.

Most important thing if you're gonna deliver any kind of talk to anybody, if it's comedy or in the corporate world, is prepare. Like I will always prepare what I'm going to say, so I know what I'm going to say, and by knowing it really well, that's when you also have the freedom to go off. You can go off and maybe go, "All this has occurred to me." And you might even improvise, 'cause you know exactly what you're going to say.

Prepare, prepare, prepare what you're going to say, what you're going to wear. Are you comfortable in it? Will you get too hot? All sorts of small things like that, so that you feel you've got as much on side as possible.

And I think it's quite odd often in the corporate world that people will just go, "Oh yeah, I'm going to go out "and speak in front of a load of people." But you don't do that for a living generally. So, I say, practice, do it in front of your bedroom mirror at home, say it often. I would say record yourself. Now, it's quite painful to listen to yourself, but do it, because you won't realize certain ticks that you have. And I've done it myself. I used to see some people smack [With lips] like that. There's all kind of little things that you might do, and when you hear it, you'll hate yourself so much that you will never do it again.

I think one of the things is often to think what is it that you don't like in people? Like even if you've ever done one of those ghost tours, visiting a city and somebody takes you around, you do a tour, think, "What do I like or not like about that guide?" And it's quite good for you then to notice, because if somebody tells you, "You should be like this, "be like that." But if you notice things about someone and go, "Oh, I like the way they said that, I like their manner." And think what it is that engaged you, is quite a good way to think about it.

If you're giving a talk, and, I can't believe that people don't do this, like I talk for a living and I will always go in the room that I'm going to talk in. I will go in before, even if I have to go in three hours before. What are the stairs like to get to the stage? Is it a lectern? Is it a clip mic? What does it look like when I stand on the stage? How comfortable do I feel? There could be all sorts of little things that will throw you, and I am always amazed that people don't just do that little preparation of groundwork, so that you know where you're going to be. All that is already sorted, you're not gonna be tripped up by anything, then, you've only got the actual speaking part to worry about.

I would change my tone if I'm engaging in a smaller group to be a little bit more conversational. Also, if I've only got five people, I should get to know them. So a hello, individual hellos, introducing everybody else, just so that we're all a little bit more relaxed.

I think it's really important that everybody can do it immediately, and I say it to myself all the time, slow down. Everybody should slow down, you're always speaking far too fast, because you've heard it, they haven't heard it. And, as you slow down, you find you have more expression, because you're thinking about it more.