How to Be Brilliant at Public Speaking 2e, 2nd Edition

Chapter 5

Preparing with empathy

Key wisdom from this chapter

• Public speaking is about the audience, not you: although it may seem as though everyone’s judging you, the audience is most interested in how they will benefit from your talk. Focus on this and you’ll be more confident and more effective as a speaker.
• Prepare by getting into the audience’s heads: the best speakers think from the perspective of the audience and design their talk from there.
• The audience want to be in your talk: spot the ways they want to be recognised and include these in your talk.
• Set up your room to meet the audience’s needs: it’s your responsibility to make sure the room is set up to give the audience the best chance of understanding and remembering what you have ...