How do you get and keep your audience attention?
Category:Preparation,StructuringYou’ve only got 30 seconds to grab the attention of your audience. That’s a very short time. It means you have to do it right!
In the first 30 seconds, the audience is going to decide whether or not they will trust you. They will make up their minds in regards of like-ability, trustworthiness and whether or not you are worth their time.
This means you have to pay attention to the first 30 seconds!
The World Champion Public Speaking 2015, Mohammed Qathani, uses some smart techniques that help him capture the attention of the audience early.
In this video, we break down three steps Qathani used in his winning talk. You can use these steps to right away capture the attention of your audience.
You can watch the entire talk of Qathani below, after I’ve explained the three things Qathani uses.
The three techniques
The three techniques Qathani uses are:
The surprise element that Qathani brings in at the start of his presentation makes that the audience will feel they need to pay attention. The audience wants to know ‘what happens next?’.
The second technique Qathani uses that you want to try is the uses of humor. He uses it by using his face: his eyes, his facial expressions and verbal. Qhatani manages to really use humor in a very sophisticated way, because he pays a lot of attention to timing. Almost like a comedian. Bringing in humor is not easy, but well worth it!
The third thing is that he makes his point really early on in the presentation. By getting to the point very early on, you are able to take people onto a journey to the ‘why’ of your point. They know where you are going and are curious about how you will get there.
These three techniques can help at the beginning of a talk. It’s something every speaker should at least pay attention to. Find your own way of adding one or more of these techniques to your presentation. Make sure you make it your own though. Don’t overdo it!
If you would like to know more about structuring your talk, we have more articles on that here.
We also pay attention to these topics in our workshops and our tips newsletter. If you can’t wait for those, make sure you buy the book!
Watch the entire talk of Mohammed Qathani below:
