The secret to great talks: put yourself in your audience’s shoes
Works for blog posts, conferences, videos, whatever
Works for blog posts, conferences, videos, whatever
Recently I had the pleasure to attend to a colleague’s presentation. He was actually tuning the presentation before showing it to a greater audience. So he was seeking for feedbacks.
When I tried to articulate how to improve the presentation, I realized what makes great talks:
You have to put yourself in your audience’s shoes.
That may sound obvious, but it’s actually not how we work instinctively — it’s not that a natural way of thinking.
What I felt that was wrong in the talk
Let me be more specific to help making my point!
The title was not appealing
The presentation was about The Four Agreements from Toltec Wisdom. And not only was it the topic of the presentation, it was also the title of the presentation. I see this title it as a big problem:
Let’s say that you've never heard of The Four Agreements from Toltec Wisdom. Then that makes the title of the presentation quite cryptic. If that were to be the title of a conference session, I bet you wouldn’t attend this session unless you were of the very curious kind. Indeed you would have basically no idea of what the session was about.
On the other hand, if you knew what it was all about, I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t attend the session either. You already know what it is, right? And you have no clue that the speaker will elaborate the topic in any useful way for someone already knowing the topic.
(if you don’t know what it is but are curious, you can have a look at the Wikipedia page about Don Miguel Ruiz)
The introduction was very long
To make things even worse, the presentation started by a long introduction about the book that introduced the concept, about the author of the book, about how he came to write the book, about the ancestral culture where it is coming from…
All this introduction was interesting. But:
Let’s say I didn't know The Four Agreements from Toltec Wisdom and came anyway to the session, out of curiosity. The thing is that I still did not know what the fuss was all about until the end of the long introduction.
On the other hand, let’s say I already knew what it was all about and came anyway to the session, maybe hoping to find an unusual point of view on the topic. Then I was already aware of the content of the introduction. All the more reasons to leave before it becomes interesting!
What happened?
Truth is, the presentation was interesting! So what’s wrong here?
My colleague made a beginner’s mistake: he did not double-check his own assumptions.
He was so sure that the topic of his talk is interesting that he did not see necessary to choose a title that explains why it is on any interest
He as so sure that the topic of his talk is interesting that he allowed himself to make a long introduction before even introducing the actual subject of the talk
He was so happy to talk about the topic that he did not consider that the audience might not care about it
He was so happy to talk about the topic that he did not reflect on how the audience could use it
So here we are: to be successful, you have to put yourself in your audience’s shoes.
I have been there
I've done the same things as my colleague.
For instance, I remember submitting proposals to conferences and being rejected.
At that time, all I felt was frustration. I knew that my talk was amazing since I had presented it to colleagues and got really good feedback. The fact is, I had invested so much effort in it that being rejected really hurt.
Now I know better: what was they looking for?
Obviously, they were not looking for this kind of proposal. Or, at the very least, not in the form I provided it.
A few rules to satisfy your audience
Always ask yourself what your audience is looking for.
Put yourself in your audience’s shoes and check if the title is really appealing to them. Rewrite the title until it is. It’s about making sure the audience will find something useful in the session, but it’s also about awaking their curiosity. Clickbait titles are fine 😅
Always get back to what you sold to the audience. It is very possible that what you wanted to talk about in the first place and what you promised through the title are not the same. You will have to work out the talk to fit with what the audience expects.
If there is a selection process, invest yourself the bare minimum only. The more you invest yourself, the harder it will be to adjust the content after it is accepted. Plus if you get rejected it’ll hurt all the more!
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