“Speakers who talk about what life has taught them never fail to keep the attention of their listeners.”
-Dale Carnegie
Losing the attention of your audience is something that can completely undermine and destroy the focus and intent of a presentation. Any information you want or need the audience to process and decipher could potentially be lost due to lack of attention
As portrayed above we see that the foundation of a successful presentation is in capturing the audience’s attention, captivating them and mesmerizing them. In order to grab your audience it has been proven that you must do this within the first 30 to 60 seconds. If you don’t capture your audience’s attention in the first 30 to 60 seconds you could have potentially lost their attention for the entirety of the presentation.
I will now give you a few quick and easy tips on how to take control of your audience, captivate them, mesmerize them, as well as getting them actively engaged in the presentation. I will guarantee you that they will leave your presentation well cognizant of the information you put out and thirsting for more.
8 WAYS TO CAPTIVATE AND MESMERIZE YOUR AUDIENCE DURING A PRESENTATION.
v Ask a question
By asking a question you are directly engaging your audience. It can also keep the audience actively engaged by keeping them on their toes. The audience could potentially pay more attention because of the possible chance of being asked a question.
v Tell a story
When you tell a story in order to captivate the audience you want to be able to make the story relevant to the audience and the presentation. This will trigger the audience’s interest in the topic and presentation. Proverbs or aphorisms are great historical and time proven tales that could work out for your purpose.
v Crack a joke
Be wary of this one, if you can pull it off this is a great way to break the ice and grab the audience’s immediate attention. By preforming this and pulling it off it will also put the audience in a good mood. Just be sure to take into consideration that with this tip you either pull it off and it’s great, or you encounter an epic fail and all is lost.
v Use a quote
Quotes are a great way to capture the audience. Be sure when you use a quote to state who said the quote out of respect. Also you want to make sure the quote relates to your presentation.
v Unveil a dramatic statistic
This is an awesome and powerful way of capturing your audience. You want to make sure the statistics you use are verifiable and solid, and can relate to your presentations information. The more staggering of a statistic you make the more captivating your presentation becomes.
v Use media, audio, video
Utilizing media, audio, and video is a great way to capture your audience. It’s something loud and different from the typical boring standard presentation. You want to make sure your media relates to your topic and is appropriate for the type of audience taking everything into consideration.
v Build credibility
This can be a great tool within a presentation. When you start building your credibility be sure not to overdo it or get out of hand. I’m sure we’ve all had those professors that talk about themselves for ¾ of the class and we all can’t stand it. So when you do this be sure to talk about your personal experiences relating to your topic in order to build credibility and don’t overdo it.
v Introduce an analogy or metaphor
Analogies and metaphors are great to gain the audience’s attention and get those creative juices flowing, it really gets them thinking. These tools are especially helpful when presenting tough or challenging information.
Below is a great example of a piece of public speaking by Craig Valentine that reaches out and grabs you in the first 30 to 60 seconds.
Video is from YouTube.com and is not mine. Video can be found at http://www.youtube.com/user/makelovecool#p/a/u/0/h3_g876l4EA
All of these tips are great tips for really adding that opening bang to your presentation, speech or what have you. However there are many more tips and tricks out there listed below are a few websites that have some great information regarding tips and tricks for spicing up your presentation.
Hopefully these tips will aid you in the pursuit of an engaging, captivating, and mesmerizing presentation. Best of Luck in all future endeavors.
Sincerely,
Cedric K Jones
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