Method 3 – Know Your Audience
and Your Environment
Welcome to the third step in conquering your
fear of public speaking –
knowing your audience and your environment. In this section, we
will be exploring
the ways in which you can use just a little bit of preparation
time to become
familiar with your speaking environment, so you can be more
comfortable and
calm when you give your speech.
You may be wondering, “Won’t my speech
work regardless of whom I’m
speaking to or where I’m speaking?” Well, the short answer to
that is, “Maybe.”
You could give the exact same speech in the exact same manner to
a dozen
different audiences in a dozen different settings, and it could
go just fine.
However, you could also find that one audience is too young for
your speech
content, and another audience too mature; or you could find that
one speaking
environment gives you a presentation space that is so large that
you don’t have
enough visual aids to make it look “filled”, while another
presentation space may
be so cramped that you don’t have room to put up the visual aids
that you need,
or to interact with your audience.
The truth is, you never really know. Therefore, it is always a
good idea to
do as much research as possible about your audience and your
environment, so
that you will be able to make necessary adjustments to your
speech beforehand.
There are a few things that will set a public speaker
off-balance, and make room
for the ever-lurking public speaking fears to greet them and
take over, like
walking into a room and seeing an audience for an environment
that is far
different than what the speaker expected.
Of course, it’s not always going to be possible for you to
physically visit the
environment in which you will be speaking before you get on
stage to give your
speech. Likewise, it’s not always going to be possible for you
to meet the
members of your audience beforehand to find out how old they
are, whether they
are mostly male or female, or whether they are mostly liberal or
conservative.
However, often times, you will have at least the few minutes
before your speech
available to survey your speaking environment, and to observe
the people in your
audience as they filter into the room.
The space that you have available on your stage will affect the
number and
types of visual aids that you will be able to use during your
presentation, so any
information that you can gather beforehand about the size and
shape of the space
will be valuable to you as you are planning a particular speech.
If you are unsure
of whether or not you’ll be able to use a visual aid because of
space limitations,
it’s a good idea to have a backup plan ready – you may be able
to give a verbal
description that will adequately replace the visual aid, or you
may have a
transitional phrase or two ready to bridge the gap caused by
omitting that part of
your speech.
Another element of your presentation space that is just as
important as the
actual amount of space available is the number and types of
resources that you
will have available to present visual aids. Don’t just assume
that you will have a
projector available to show PowerPoint slides, or even
electrical outlets to plug in a
laptop or projector. These are the types of surprises that can
throw you off and
frustrate you in the moments before you begin your speech – for
many speakers,
they can even be enough to set off a wave of panic that can
trigger many of the
emotional and physical symptoms of public speaking fear.
Likewise, any information that you can find out about your
audience before
you take the stage is extremely valuable. Now, I’m not
suggesting that you
stereotype your audience, but it is good to know certain
characteristics of the
makeup of your audience, so that you can adjust the flavor of
your speech a bit.
For example, if your audience is primarily made up of people
over the age of
50, you may want to do a quick review of your speech material to
see how many
pop-culture references are there. This is not to suggest that no
one in your
audience will understand a pop-culture reference, but in the
vast majority of
cases, you will find that it is easy to lose an audience on a
point illustrated by a
reference that they aren’t familiar with.
To read more about this topic
click here!
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Speaking Course could be for you, then I strongly suggest you
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