So we’re going to continue on the theme of connecting with your audience. And I’m going to say something that might sound really strange, but just I’m encouraging you to open your heart a little bit to the idea.

Fall in Love With Your Audience

I want to encourage you, if you want to connect with your audience as well as if you want to grow your confidence, I would like to encourage you to fall in love with your audience.

What I mean by that is be curious about who they are. Use curiosity to your advantage.

Take yourself out of the picture in terms of worrying about how you feel and really put yourself in the position of understanding as much as you can and learning as much as you can about the people that you’re going to be speaking to.

And that requires you then to do some research on who these people are.

Ask as many questions as you can of the organizer.

Who are they?

What are they doing?

What are they afraid of?

What are they desiring in terms of their growth or in terms of some problem that they’re having that you can solve?

Learn What Matters To Them

All of those things are good. But even find other little things that you can connect on in terms of their interests that maybe are similar to yours.

And allow yourself to feel empathy for where they’re coming from as you learn about them.

What’s going to happen is the more you connect with them emotionally, as you learn about who they are and where they’re coming from, the more you actually start to feel confident because you’re going to know how to approach them well.

You now have a sense of who they are and that’s actually going to buoy up your confidence because now you feel like you have already connected with them. By the time you speak to them, they’re starting to feel like friends.

Develop A Sense of Respect For Them

And if the concept of falling in love sounds a bit too strange, then at least I would like to encourage you to learn as much as you can about the people you’re meeting for the sake of respecting them. That’s another way of looking at it.

Develop a sense of respect for them so that when you meet them, especially in personal meetings, if you have studied the person that you’re going to be meeting and you have discovered their achievements, their their goals, or you’ve discovered all of their accomplishments, or even just about their personal hobbies.

By the time you meet with them, there’s a sense of honor and respect that you carry when you speak to them that actually is going to again give you confidence and allow you to have a much bolder, stronger voice when you speak to them.

And people will sense that you really like and respect them.

And that’s going to endear them to you or endear you to them.

Speaking hiccups can be so fun.

Connect With Them Through Their Interests

Anyway, when you have done all of this research, this is the best time now when you do meet them in person to ask some questions about the accomplishments that you read about or the things that they volunteer for that now you can have a conversation with them about.

This is another way of now you honoring them and you feeling like you have control over this meeting as opposed to you going in “audience blind” as I always say and not having any idea who this person is. And then maybe they’re throwing questions at you and you’re not quite ready for them.

This is a way to connect immediately with them and then now they are feeling connected to you. And now they want to learn more about you and your career goals because this is the power of you honoring someone first in order to connect, build your confidence, and then have that person advocate for you because they can sense that you care for them and their goals as much as you care about your own.

This is so important ladies and so powerful if you use it. So give it a go throughout this week.

In your meetings, make sure you’ve done some research on the people that you’re going be speaking to. Ask them questions about it, like complimentary questions that is, of all of the things that you have learned and have fun conversations with them.

You’ll be amazed at how much that makes a difference in your credibility and confidence when you’re speaking.

Praying For You

Let me just pray for you. Father, I just thank you for these glorious women who are just I can feel the confidence rising even as they watch this video and I pray that throughout this whole week they are allowing themselves the time to learn a little bit about the people they’re going to be meeting or the people they’re going to be speaking to. And as they learn about them, emotionally connect and empathize with them and how much of a difference is going to make when they do speak to these people.

I thank you Father that you created us to connect with each other. And these are the opportunities that we get to do that. Not just to have an advantage but truly because it matters when we touch somebody else’s life.

So God bless them throughout this whole week as they connect with people, as they have fun engaging conversations with people, or as they speak in a presentation or a webinar, but they’re allowing themselves to really honor and love the people in front of them.

So I just thank you God for all of their voices, for all of their hearts and their minds, and also for the courage to try this out and to see how it’s going to transform their lives and the people that they’re gonna be speaking to. So bless them all God. And we love you so much for the gift of connection and the gift of our voices. In the name of Jesus.

Hallelujah!