Chapter 3 Really understanding your audience

You may have all the talent in the world, have practised thoroughly, have a solid story and great slides and, what is more, be feeling good and confident but things can still go wrong. You have to do even more – you have to really understand your audience.

The audience usually wants you to succeed

Provided you haven’t stood up in front of a bunch of sadists or hardened cynics, your audience would prefer you to be informative, interesting or entertaining. Even if they are pessimists they’d almost certainly like you to surprise them with your brilliance. Give them the benefit of the doubt and try to start by loving them and see if they’ll ...

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