Welcome back to the Presenting, Pitching & Public Speaking Podcast. In this episode, Toni takes a deeper dive into audience interaction and shares with you how to litter your presentation with interactions to keep your audience engaged and elicit a response. Toni looks are the different methods of interaction and gives you her top tips to interacting both verbally and non-verbally.

Listen to the previous episode here: #010 Speaker Interaction

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Use sporadically throughout your delivery - Don’t allow interaction to become the focal point of your delivery. Simply allow yourself to litter interaction with your audience throughout your speech. Don’t make it too top or end heavy.
It’s got to be relevant - Always consider the context of your interactions during your delivery and how that impacts on your content. Keep it relevant.
Vary your responsiveness - Bring in and engage every type of listener with varied responses when interacting. Incorporate all of the different learner types by varying your responses.
Lead by example - If you are asking people to raise their hand you need to lead by example. This will help to elicit a response and allow you to keep them engaged.
Eye contact, smiling and your body language - These are all fabulous, non-verbal ways to interact with your audience and break down barriers.

How To Interact With Questions

Questioning within the room. - This can be one-to-one or one-many.
Ask questions to groups within the room - Crowdsource your answers, get hand-raisers or ask them to shout out the answer.
Ask your audience to write down their answers on a piece of paper - This is a non-verbal interaction but gets your audience thinkings and keeps them engaged.

- There are two different forms of questions. Open and closed and you can use the T.E.D model to ask them. T: - Tell me. E: - Explain. D: - Describe

- A great way to ask closed questions and gain audience interaction is to ‘Tag’ the answer on to the end of your statement. For example, Public speaking is a great way to grow your business, yes or no? the audience will answer yes or no.

There’s verbal and non-verbal interaction you can employ to keep your audience engaged. It’s your responsibility as the speaker to identify how much of each type of interaction to deliver. It’s also your responsibility to ensure the environment is right within the room. Along with everything else you need to monitor the room to ensure it doesn’t detract away from the delivery of your presentation.

BEST MOMENTS

“If you’re doing a 30-second elevator pitch you might not use or need any interaction in your delivery. But if you’re delivering a half-day training session or an hour and a half presentation you’ll want to include interaction in your delivery.”
“Always ensure your delivery is consistent but tailored to your specific audience.”

“The amount of interaction you’ll look to use will depend upon the duration of your speech or presentation”

“Bear in mind the context and content of your interactions”

VALUABLE RESOURCES

#010 Speaker Interaction

ABOUT THE HOST
Toni Gargan is a Double World Record-holding Public Speaker, Mentor, Entrepreneur, and Professional Property Investor. She acts as the Director at Owen Oliver Property, a family-run property investment company helping others gain passive income through investing.

Aside from building her amazing property portfolio, she’s also a full-time mentor for property investors through Progress Property and Unlimited Success. Toni has since then discovered her true passion – helping others by training and mentoring through public speaking.

She now hosts her own show, Presenting, Pitching & Public Speaking Podcast, which aims to help you be confident, improve your speaking & communication skills and present better for you, your team, and your business.

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