Back to the Stage: Building a Connection With Your Live Audience

by Jenna Lange

Your content and delivery are important for the stage. But remember why you’re doing this in the first place: you want your audience to feel connected to you and your message.  You want them to walk away feeling something.  

If your audience feels connected to you and what you're saying, they just might be motivated to act. To think differently than they did before you spoke. Or even to tell others about what they heard. You want to leave them curious – and you want your key messages to stick.

Your ability to connect with your audience is the ultimate scorecard of whether you've succeeded or not. Presentations, keynotes, breakouts, board meetings, speeches, and even team meetings – are meant to get business done. But that is best accomplished when your audience connects to your agenda. This is where emotion comes into play, where storytelling is paramount, and where humility and reflection reign. (Hint: Sometimes the greatest, most memorable moments are the seemingly smallest moments – that very relatable, everyday thing that happened to you! Share those).

Know Your Desired Outcome

You want to set your desired outcome early in your planning process. Your presentation goal will impact how you prepare. 

Play with answering these questions:

• What do you want your audience to do?

• What do you want your audience to think?

• What do you want your audience to feel?

Imagine you overhear a conversation between two people who just listened to your talk. What would you hope they say?

“I just saw <FILL IN YOUR NAME> give a talk on ____.  

They really made me feel ___ .”

If you feel stuck in how to answer the do/think/feel questions above, consider how you might complete the following sentences:

• “When I’m finished, I’m going to ask you to think about ____.”

• “My goal today is to have you do ____ in the next week.”

• “I’m here today to show you____ and at the end I want you to feel ____.”

Underscore Your Message With Stories 

The right stories create powerful, memorable impressions. This is how humans connect and share experiences.  Stories – even short stories – should have an arc. First, there’s the introduction where you set the scene.

“I was preparing for a sales meeting last month with…”

There’s a moment of conflict or a scene of complication:

“The client told me they weren’t interested in renewing their contract…” 

And then there’s a resolution: 

“Not only did they renew, but they invested five times more than expected!”

Stories also clarify and reinforce. Consider the power of these sentences: 

“Let me share an example.” 

“Here’s how this works.” 

These simple sentences drive a sense of anticipation. In fact, when audiences hear these words, they typically lean forward and they look up from their phones. 

Why? Because they know a story is coming, because they want an answer; because you’ve created an air of anticipation. 

And here’s a pro tip: When you’re thinking about the right story to tell, think first about the point you want to make. What do you want the audience to think, do, or feel? What is a key message you want them to walk away with? Then you can begin to craft your story with that end goal in mind. A story without a point is not a story worth telling!

Pick the Most Relatable Story

As you share your message with your audience, think about how you can make your story relatable. How can your audience picture themselves in your story? Have they felt a similar emotion to one of the characters in your story? I have two tips for this: audience analysis and relatable language.

First, think about who is listening.  For example, if you are a Gen X person talking to Millennials or a Gen Y crowd, you could have some generational disconnects! I used to talk about the Teacher in the Peanuts cartoons but now there are folks in my classes who have never seen a Peanuts cartoon. You could have the same experience telling a sports story to a crowd of non-sports enthusiasts. Your story may not be relatable for any number of reasons due to differences in gender, socioeconomic status and more.  Maybe you spent a lovely summer in Greece and have a story about that - but can all of your employees travel to Greece right now? Or does that make you and your stories unrelatable?  

Second, when you do tell your stories, keep them simple. Use language you’d use in a regular conversation. And don’t be afraid to be human. Saying things like…

“I felt defeated…”

“Sadly, this happened….”

“The team and I felt nervous…”

Keep your stories concise and conversational. The goal isn’t to fake it on stage but to share openly with your audience. Imagine you are telling this story to friends on a weekend - an easy, accessible conversation.

Check out my LinkedIn Live where I give my TOP TIPS for preparing for your next high stakes event!