70 Resonate
Why do you have to go through all these questions about the audience
and yourself? Connecting empathetically with an audience requires devel-
oping understanding and sensitivity to their feelings and thoughts.
People come to a presentation with their own facts and emotions stored
neatly in their heads and hearts. People are wired to absorb information
and transform it into personal meaning that shapes their perspectives.
It’s the presenter’s job to know and tune into the audience’s frequency.
Your message should resonate with what’s already inside them. As a
presenter, if you send a message that is tuned to the “frequency” of
their needs and desires—they will change. They might even quiver with
enthusiasm and move together to create beautiful results (page 4).
When you know someone well, your common experiences create shared
meaning. My husband, Mark, can say just one word that is packed with
enough meaning, and I’m howling with laughter on the ground. Granted,
you probably haven’t been married to your audience for thirty years—but
if you do your homework, they will feel like a good friend. And friends
know how to persuade one another. They have a natural way of swaying
each other toward their perspective.
Establishing how you’re alike also clarifies how you’re different. Once
you’ve identified the overlap, you’ll have a clearer understanding of
what’s outside the overlap that needs to be embraced by the audience.
Your objective is to find the most relevant and believable way to link
your issue to your audience’s top values and concerns.
Communicate from the Overlap
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Get to Know the Hero 71
SOURCE
(PRESENTER)
= Fact
= Emotion
= Overlap
“If any man were to ask me what I would suppose to be the perfect style
of language, I would answer, that in which a man speaking to five hundred
people, of all common and various capacities, idiots or lunatics excepted,
should be understood by them all, and in the same sense which the speaker
intended to be understood.”
Daniel Defoe
7
RECEIVER
(AUDIENCE)
GOAL
Increase
the amount
of common
ground they
have with you
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72 Resonate
When you know someone, really know them, it’s easy to persuade them.
Investing time into familiarizing yourself with the audience solidifies your
ability to persuade.
Meet the Hero: The audience is the hero who will determine the outcome
of your idea, so it’s important to know them fully. Jump into the shoes of
your audience and look carefully at their lives. Picture them as individuals
with complex lives. Identify with their feelings, thoughts, and attitudes.
Discover their lifestyles, knowledge, desires, and values. Painting a picture
of who they are in their ordinary world helps you connect with them and
communicate from a place of empathy.
Meet the Mentor: Embracing the stance of mentor clothes you in humility.
It moves you from forcing information on “an ignorant audience” to giving
them valuable tools to guide them on their journey or help them get unstuck.
They should leave with valuable insights they didn’t have before they met
with you.
When an audience gathers, they have given you their time, which is a pre-
cious slice of their lives. It’s your job to have them feel that the time they
spent with you brought value to their lives.
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