Your Audience is Rooting For You

You may assume otherwise, but I want to make you aware of an important reality. Your audience WANTS you to succeed in your presentation, talk, or sermon.

At least, I can confidently say that 95% of your audience will want you to succeed. That other five percent? I’ll discuss them more in a minute.

I recognize that may seem like a bold claim, but I stand by it. And my reasoning is likely so obvious you simply have not considered it. No one WANTS to sit through a poorly-given, boring, or irrelevant presentation.

Consider your own motivations for a moment. Imagine you have to pick between one of three talks. Each speaker will be knowledgeable in their field and all the talks will be exactly the same length.

Speaker A‘s talk will be bursting with information but the presenter will speak in highly technical language that you cannot understand.Speaker B will be totally understandable but they will read from their slides in a monotone fashion without engaging or even acknowledging the audience.Speaker C‘s presentation will be simpler, with language not as technical as Speaker A’s and not have as smooth a delivery as Speaker B, but you will leave informed and motivated to act.

I recognize that subject matter, your knowledge of the presenter, and more might impact your decision. However, presented in a vacuum, which would you choose?

Your audience values their time. Your audience wants to feel like the minutes they spend hearing your voice are minutes that inform or inspire them. Your audience wants to leave with something to talk about.

And I want that to encourage you.

I want you to recognize that it’s ok if you stumble over your words a bit and admit to your audience that you’re nervous. Your audience is likely to forgive you because they are rooting for you to do well. It’s ok if the slide does not appear at the *precise* moment you asked for it. Your audience is pulling for you and wants you to do well.

Yes, I recognize there are specific examples when you are speaking to a primarily unfriendly audience. However, if you present with any frequency, you will quickly learn that most audiences are likely to give a lot of grace if they know you are prepared, know you are trying to do your best, and know you stand by what you present.

BUT WHAT ABOUT THAT OTHER FIVE PERCENT?

While a vast majority of the audience will be pulling for you, there may be those who will be rooting for you to fail. Typically, these are people who have vendettas against you, your organization, or the topic you are speaking about.

For example, I’m a pastor. On a weekly basis, I have the opportunity to preach to hundreds from the Bible. Yet I recognize that there may be some in the audience who are antagonistic toward my faith. Perhaps they were unwillingly brought by their family, or perhaps they came hoping to catch me slip up somehow.

How do we respond when some of our audience is hoping we fail?

The answer is straightforward, but sometimes not simple. Focus on those who want you to succeed, not on those who want you to fail.

Those who want you to fail likely will be unconvinced by anything you say or do. Those who want you to fail will likely take any minor verbal slip and print it on a billboard. You are highly unlikely to change their minds and hearts toward you. So don’t waste energy trying to do so.

Instead, recognize those in your audience who want you to succeed. Recognize those who are pulling and rooting for you. Recognize those who sat down hoping to be informed or inspired and speak to them.