How To Engage Your Audience

Passion to Engage Your Audience

Passion is the key to really being able to engage your audience!

There is no shortage of rules that relate to public speaking. Stand up straight. Speak clearly and with enough volume. Make eye contact if you want to engage the room and on and on and on. All of these areas are important to be effective as a public speaker, but they seem to miss the mark on the most important of all presentation tips.

If you really want to engage your audience, stick to the topics that you are deeply passionate about. The greatest thrill for an audience is to buy in to a speaker’s enthusiasm.  If you are simply delivering a book report and don’t feel passion for the topic, you can forget about engaging your audience.

Importance of Subject Matter

There is a certain sparkle that shows up on a speaker’s face when they are presenting on a subject that is near and dear to their heart. Don’t settle on just any topic. Choose something that gets you excited.

What exactly is it that you believe in so strongly that nothing can keep you from sharing it? When you find that type of unbridled focus, you’ll feel like shouting to others, “You have got to check this out! You don’t want to miss this!” Then and only then will you really engage with an audience.

When you have this type of conviction and passion as a speaker, your hour-long presentation will feel like fifteen minutes.  Great public speakers don’t just present; they change people’s lives!

Of two great orators in Ancient Greece, it was said, “When Demosthenes speaks people say what a great speaker he is. But, when Pericles speaks, people say ‘Let us March!’”  The next time you’re asked to deliver a presentation, find your passion and engage your audience with your enthusiasm and conviction. Let’s march!