You will need to think about your audience as people you want to make an  emotional connection with.

You’re really asking yourself:

• How do I FEEL about my message?

• How do I want my audience to FEEL about my words, my ideas?

I stress the word FEEL, as opposed to think.

People need to get out of their heads and into their hearts, and this can feel like a vulnerable place especially if you are communicating in a corporate environment.  

So as you move through the different parts of your message or presentation, you need to consider how you feel and how you want your audience to feel. 

Is it excited?

Curious?

Frustrated or angry?

It’s so important to define this feeling, because this will be automatically reflected in your vocal delivery.

I’ve learned that people will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel.
- Maya Angelou

How to Connect With Your Words

To connect with your audience a good starting point is to soften your language, use a more conversational, natural approach. 

Using formal corporate-speak can alienate the listener. There is a tendency to over complicate, or hide behind complex jargon.

We have all experienced it. In fact we have come to expect it in business communication.  

But I urge you: respect your audience.

Step away from the corporate jargon and simply speak TO us, not AT us. Speak to us as if we were your friend.

I encourage my clients to  reduce the “formal speak”, and start talking to audiences like they are having a conversation with them.

Think of yourself as a PERSON sharing as opposed to the PRESENTER. 

“business presentations tend to be stripped of all humanness, despite the fact that humans make up the audience” Nancy Duarte 

Your aim is to make life easy for your audience to follow up and listen to you so keep your language simple and clear. Sharing real examples, real stories, personal insights.

Talk to your audience like you are having a conversation with them. Show the real "you" and people will remember. 

We need to see emotion in your eyes and face.

Be sure you taste your words before you spit them out
- Rehearsal

Whilst this quote by Oscar Auliq-Ice, refers to "thinking before you speak", I also take this to mean rehearsing your words before you speak them.

I’m not saying that you "learn off" your script (or indeed that you need to have a script) but you do need to build up a sense of confidence and a flow with the words which you are speaking.

You need to allow your words into the world and breathe them before you give them to our listeners.

The Importance of Rehearsal

Rehearsing is not an optional luxury; it is compulsory if you wish to build vocal gravitas and be more vocally engaging.   There is no way around that, I’m afraid.

You will need to make a decision to give yourself the time to do this and often people are either too self conscious or too focused on slide decks to give over this vital time and this, I'm afraid, is to their detriment.

So make rehearsing part of your preparation for any meeting or presentation.

You need to remember: It’s a skill. 

Communicating to a group of people, no matter how big or small, is a skill.

And it’s a skill which requires learning and then practicing. That is what makes people good. 

You need to trust your own abilities, but you need to rehearse and prepare properly so you are comfortable with your message.