Crowd Control 101: How to Present to an Audience
Public speaking tip:
- The day that you realize that you’re not ‘speaking to a crowd’…
- Instead, you are having ‘1 on 1 conversations with people in a crowd’…
That’s the day your entire public speaking mentality changes
Now you ENJOY speeches
Public speaking is a game of going from general -> specific
If you can internalize this, you’ll learn to deal with speech anxiety
AND social anxiety
2 in 1
Your ego fools you into thinking that you should be speaking to a crowd
It scoffs at having 1 on 1 conversations
‘Why?’
Fear of missing out
The untamed ego is always afraid of something
And in this case, it thinks:
‘Yo, if you’re looking at a person & talking to them, what will others think??’
Here’s the thing
Others can’t tell
The person that you’re looking at thinks you’re looking at them
AND all the people around the person you’re looking at thinks you’re looking at them!
So, imagine the left segment of the audience has:
☆Johnny, Susie, Pablo, Mikey, Paul & Mary
They are all sitting by each other
Well…if you just look at Susie
Then Johnny, Pablo, Mikey, Paul & Mary will think that you’re looking at them
That’s the beauty
It’s because your eyes are very small
And when you add distance between the audience & you… it makes the eyes vague to the audience
Therefore, just looking at one person gives the illusion you’re looking at many
The reason that you have speech anxiety is because of the crowd complex
It seems scary when you think about it
A big group observing all your moves
Fear causes you to generalize them
Rather than viewing them as individuals, you put them in a box
This is your ego’s way of coping with the fear
And if you break it down, that’s the same reason you have social anxiety
You feel like there is going to be this ‘crowd’ at the networking event evaluating your moves
This causes you to overthink
Making peace with the crowd complex comes down to seeing individuals, not a group
When you make this mentality shift…
It doesn’t matter if the audience is 5 or 500
Same principles still apply
Also, the audience gets a better you
When you’re speaking to a crowd, you’re more stiff
Your voice is very thin too
You sound like an announcer at a lecture hall
Seems inauthentic
When you see individuals, your body language automatically adjusts
Your moves slow down in a graceful way
And the voice becomes more authentic
If you’re a beginner public speaker, then you really need just 3 people to talk to
1 from the left side of the audience
1 from the middle
And 1 from the right side
☆Choose the most engaged members
Transition among those 3 members as needed
And as you advance, you can add more members to your arsenal
Anyone who picks up public speaking & does it for a while eventually ends up having fun
That’s because they were able to make the general-> specific transition
If you have a message to share, then it’s your responsibility to get it out there
Others won’t do it for you bud
So, take action
See Individuals, not a crowd
And you’ll realize the #1 fear on the planet was 1 big illusion all along
For more public speaking strategies, be sure to check out the Speaking Wizard eBook!
