Here are 5 Reasons Why Audience Connection Is Powerful In Overcoming Public Speaking Anxiety!

One the most overlooked tools to overcoming your public speaking jitters & building confidence, is putting less focus on yourself & focusing more on audience connection. 

Specifically,  creating meaningful connections with them.

If you’ve been focused on just getting through your talk (which is perfectly understandable if you’re nervous) and avoiding your audience, why not do what’s counter intuitive? 

Focus on intentionally connecting with the people you’ll be speaking to and see how much more confident you’ll feel.

Here’s what intentionally connecting with your audience will do:

1. Focusing on Audience Connection: Humanizes Them.

Firstly, if you’ve been feeling exposed or scared of being judged by your listeners, one the best ways to counteract that is to get to know them as human beings, instead of people who are judging you, (which they’re not, by the way). 

Most of the time, they’re eager for the solutions to their problems, your talk will bring.

So, if you’re nervous about someone you’re meeting this week perhaps, do some research on them.

Definitely, learn about their professional background but take the time to learn about their personal hobbies as well.

They become less of this large figure you’re trying to impress & more someone you can relate to.

Then, bring them up in conversation when you meet them & your nervousness will start dissipating.

2. Connecting With Your Audience: Creates Resonance.

As you learn more about them, you’ll discover common values, fears, desires & aspirations, between you & them, that’ll bond you together. Build trust between you & allow yourself to be more at ease as you speak to them.

Therefore, if you followed the suggestion above, go a step further & find commonalities between their journey & yours, that you can use to your advantage as you speak to them.

Use those common interests you might’ve discovered to build true rapport with them.

In fact, watch this brilliant training by John C, Maxwell where he talks about audience connection in excellent detail.

For example, if I were invited to speak to businesswomen whom I’ve discovered love gardening, I might share a story from my garden that became an important business lesson, that they could relate to.

3. Audience Connection: Builds Your Confidence.

The more you know someone, the more comfortable & sure of yourself you are around them.

The same thing happens when you focus on understanding your audience & building audience connection.

The worst thing we can do whether we’re entering a meeting, leading a town hall or giving keynote speech is walking in “Audience Blind” as I call it.

This is when we assume our expertise are enough to give us credibility and we slot our knowledge into their lives without understanding them at all.

What happens is they’re left feeling like we didn’t really care about them. We were more focused on giving them general information instead actually meeting them at their point of need, with relevant information.

Normally, when we get polite “thank you” after our talks, it’s because our audience didn’t get the chance to connect with us & our message.

So, How Do You Become Audience Savvy?

If I’ve been invited to give a talk, my first question to the organizer is:

1. Who am I am going to be speaking to?  Age. Gender. Industry they’re in.

2. What is their stage of life/career?  – Are they at the beginning stage or well-experienced?  That’s going to inform the type of talk you give.

3. What are their current struggles? – Give a extremely relevant talk that solves their current problem, instead of general information that has little value.

4. Where are their aspirations? – Speak into their specific desires & give them the roadmap to get there.

5. What would your audience love to learn from me? – This is powerful question that allows them to paint a full picture of what they want & gives you great direction to your talk.

Now, when you meet them with this insightful knowledge of who they are & what they want, you feel so empowered to give a truly compelling presentation because you now have full assurance that what you’re saying has loads of value for them.

4. Connecting With Your Audience: Elevates Your Leadership.

When you understand your audience better, you’re more invested in them.

You’ll feel a natural sense of responsibility for delivering the most helpful talk to the people you’re presenting to.

It becomes less about impressing  & more about serving them well.

You’ll be inspired with creative ideas to give your listeners the best experience throughout your talk. That excitement & enthusiasm will also boost your public speaking confidence while increasing your credibility!

Isn’t that great!

5. Connecting With Your Audience:

Makes You a Captivating 

& Memorable Speaker.

When people feel that you care, understand them, relate to them, and are excited to give them an enjoyable experience through your talk, they cannot help but respond enthusiastically to you.

So don’t be afraid to get excited about your talk & tell them so! People want to hear that you care about them & rearing to go to help them.

When they feel your love for them. Yes, I said love:), you become memorable in their hearts & minds, not only as the knowledgeable expert, but the one who inspired  & moved them.

In other words, make them FEEL SPECIAL.

Remember that Maya Angelou quote:

Well, making your audience feel understood & cared for, will leave a deeply positive impression that’ll stay with them forever.

This is the power of audience connection on you & your audience.

Use it to speak confidently in meetings & overcome your public speaking anxiety.

The rewards in your life will be enormous!

I am truly cheering for you!