How to Engage Your Audience

By Lory Nunez

Club Speech Contest Winner Juliet Foster Engages Audience with her winning speech

 

It wasn’t that long ago when information was hard to get. Now, everything you want to know is just a few keystrokes away. Writers and speakers are now facing a different challenge — Information Overload!

Multitasking and the era of instant communication are slowly rewiring our brain causing the attention span of the audience to shrink!

So you have too much information and an audience that will get bored quickly. How do you keep them engaged while at the same time get your message across?

I use 3 general guidelines: 1) Know what you want to say 2) Limit what you are saying 3) Organize how you say it

Toastmasters Basic Speech Projects give sound advice on how to tackle this problem. The speeches below in particular focus more on content and organization.

Speech 2: Organize Your Speech — Introduces the basic concepts of organizing a speech around a speech outline.
Speech 3: Get to the Point — Clearly state your speech goal, and make sure that every element of your speech focuses on that goal.
Speech 7: Research Your Topic — Addresses the importance of backing up your arguments with evidence, and touches on the types of evidence to use.

The Advance Toastmaster Manual – Speaking to Inform will give you more opportunities to practice the skills you’ve accumulated in the Basic Speech Projects.

You can learn more and see some of the speeches presented by attending a Toastmasters meeting near you.

Moving Forward

Jersey Toastmasters club officers meet up to review the 2014-2015 club goals

 

“Know what you want“, stated by the famous martial artist Bruce Lee in his book ” Striking Thoughts”.  He opined to never worry about the reward instead  set something in motion to achieve it. He compared achieving goals with a drop of a pebble into a pool of water. Once the pebble is dropped, this creates a series of ripples where it gradually expands until it eventually covers the whole pool.

You have got to be specific with your goal before you attempt to act on anything. And when you do, it is important to at least do one thing daily to get you closer to your goal.

If you want to get somewhere, you better know where you want to go. Spend time to make your bucket list then create a plan on how you want to achieve it.

The same way if you aim to help yourself overcome your fear of speaking in front of an audience, joining Jersey Toastmasters Club is just one step! It is up to you to take that step!

The courage to listen!

Distinguished Toastmaster Tony Figueroa evaluates a speaker

Dubbed “Lady of the World” by President Truman, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt said “Nobody ever really does anything alone.” America’s Biggest Loser Trainer supported this when she wrote “In almost everything you could want to do, there’s a way to get feedback from somebody who knows more than you do-all you have to do is toughen up and have the courage to listen” in her latest book entitled ” Unlimited”.

In all aspects of our lives, the roles of mentors are invaluable. We all need to receive critiques and feedback from a person who has gone through similar difficult situations. Their proper guidance will lead us to a path with less confusion and redirect our focus on appropriate goals. It is similar to learning the ropes of a job after college graduation. A fresh graduate would be very fortunate if a wise leader would make time to give her sufficient and appropriate support to shove her in the right direction.

This is exactly the kind of environment in a Toastmasters Club Meeting. Speaking in public may be a terrifying experience to some however Jersey Toastmasters is a place where mistakes can be made and learned from through an objective evaluation by peers or a mentor.

Never Lose Sight of the Goal!

Lina Boye (front left) and Juliet Foster (middle front) winning first place in the Area 14’s Table Topics Contest and Humorous Speech Contest respectively, along with supportive fellow Jersey Toastmaster Members

 

Whenever we start a project, it is always best to remind ourselves constantly why we are doing it. Because as we go along, we may lose our motivation and forget the very goal we try to aim for.

There are several occasions where I have witnessed a few people who head a specific department or organization who have fallen lax to their responsibilities and become more consumed with their egoistic ambitions or have succumbed to the routine of the daily grind. Thus, neglecting their core values and foremost responsibilities for the people who work with them and for the clients that they provide service to.

Setting our goals is always important. However, following through and executing a plan to achieve the goal is just as significant.

Unfortunately, there are toastmaster members who have come and had gone for some varying reasons. But we cannot deny the fact that some have gone because they have lost sight of their primary goal of why they have joined it in the first place or simply they have re-arranged their priorities.

But the gist of this is to constantly remind ourselves of the very reason WHY we pursued such an endeavor and most likely the HOW or the plan will follow.

German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said “Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do.”

Overcome Fear!

“There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.“– The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho

New Members Ilene Eng (left) and Harsha Dommaraju (right) received awards from Jersey Toastmasters Club President Lory Nunez for giving their first speeches.

If you meet members of Jersey Toastmasters, they will usually say it took them awhile to finally have the courage to join Jersey Toastmasters Club or to even just attend a regular meeting as a guest.  Some would even admit that it took them months to a year to overcome that fear of stepping into a room of strangers.I believe in every new task that we undertake most especially at work and life, there will always be that fear of failing.  Questions like these would come to mind: “What if I can’t do what is expected of me? What if I can’t finish a project on time? What If I fail my parents? What If  nothing happens to me if I give up my job and start a business that I love? What if I fail after leaving all my family for better opportunities in a different country? What if I fail my wife?”

Whoever said that fulfilling one’s dreams would be easy. But then again if we didn’t have all the obstacles that we had to go through, there probably wouldn’t be a Steve Jobs,  Suze Orman or Oprah Winfrey. Most successful people would admit that in the beginning they all have these questions  in their mind of whether to go ahead and take that risk or they could also opt to just merely be content in staying in their comfort zone.  But in the end, they all had to take that first stroke in treading through the waters despite of fear.

Just like in speaking in front of an audience, questions of self-doubt will be thrown away one by one if you allow yourself to take that first step in conquering that inner fear with the assistance of Jersey Toastmasters Club.