Roland Millward

Posts Tagged ‘audience’

Enthusiasm really is the life of a talk.

If you are not enthusiastic about your talk you have to ask ‘why should your audience be?’ How can you be enthusiastic? The first thing  is that you must be convinced that the subject you are speaking on is of value to your audience. If you aren’t then do not give the talk. When you prepare the talk select points that you will know are going to be appreciated by those to whom you are speaking. This quite often means that you may deliver a talk on the same subject in different ways to suit various audiences.

Showing Enthusiasm

How can you demonstrate your enthusiasm? One way is by being animated. You need to be alive in your facial expressions and your voice. Let your face do the talking with smiles, scowls and other expressions that will show that you are enthusiastic about your subject.

Your voice too should reflect your enthusiasm. Use pitch, power and pace to reflect that enthusiasm and keep in mind that enthusiasm is not simply about jumping around like a mad man! You will express yourself with words and feelings that give conviction, which can be serious, humourous, even sad.

With gestures and body movements you will also display your enthusiasm. A speaker standing still with his or her arms stuck by their side does little to generate enthusiasm even if their voice and face are animated. In a larger auditorium you may have to over emphasize your gestures a little so that they carry to the back row of the audience.

Appropriate Enthusiasm

Your level of enthusiasm needs to reflect your subject and audience. Some speakers go ‘over the top’ and appear to be full of themselves and hype. You want your enthusiasm to be both genuine and appear genuine and not like an actor fulfilling a role as a TV evangelist! Make sure that your talk contains peaks and troughs so that the audience can identify which points you are delivering and are most important. Your enthusiastic rises and falls in tempo will help them to listen to and retain what you are telling them.