Passion to Engage Your Audience

Passion is the key to really being able to engage your audience!

There is no shortage of rules that relate to public speaking. Stand up straight. Speak clearly and with enough volume. Make eye contact if you want to engage the room and on and on and on. All of these areas are important to be effective as a public speaker, but they seem to miss the mark on the most important of all presentation tips.

If you really want to engage your audience, stick to the topics that you are deeply passionate about. The greatest thrill for an audience is to buy in to a speaker’s enthusiasm.  If you are simply delivering a book report and don’t feel passion for the topic, you can forget about engaging your audience.

Importance of Subject Matter

There is a certain sparkle that shows up on a speaker’s face when they are presenting on a subject that is near and dear to their heart. Don’t settle on just any topic. Choose something that gets you excited.

What exactly is it that you believe in so strongly that nothing can keep you from sharing it? When you find that type of unbridled focus, you’ll feel like shouting to others, “You have got to check this out! You don’t want to miss this!” Then and only then will you really engage with an audience.

When you have this type of conviction and passion as a speaker, your hour-long presentation will feel like fifteen minutes.  Great public speakers don’t just present; they change people’s lives!

Of two great orators in Ancient Greece, it was said, “When Demosthenes speaks people say what a great speaker he is. But, when Pericles speaks, people say ‘Let us March!’”  The next time you’re asked to deliver a presentation, find your passion and engage your audience with your enthusiasm and conviction. Let’s march!

29 Comments

  1. Audie Matteson says:

    I hope that I can engage my audience sooner as well – this will make for a more successful outcome.

  2. Audie Matteson says:

    I hope that I can engage my audience sooner as well – this will make for a more successful outcome.

  3. Mary Bryson says:

    Engage your audience and do it in the first few moments of your delivery-

  4. Mary Bryson says:

    Engage your audience and do it in the first few moments of your delivery-

  5. Gene Westerfield says:

    Engaging your Audience is pivotal and sadly, most people don’t.

  6. Gene Westerfield says:

    Engaging your Audience is pivotal and sadly, most people don’t.

  7. Esther Demone says:

    This is very good – I will look for more topics here

  8. Esther Demone says:

    This is very good – I will look for more topics here

  9. Tomas Melez says:

    So Right!

  10. Tomas Melez says:

    So Right!

  11. Chris Betonfeld says:

    If more people would care about their audiences and use tips like these then we would see fewer boring presenters.

  12. Chris Betonfeld says:

    If more people would care about their audiences and use tips like these then we would see fewer boring presenters.

  13. mike rodgers says:

    how often have we seen this done wrong!

  14. mike rodgers says:

    how often have we seen this done wrong!

  15. Nick Carson says:

    Engage your audience – this topic hit home for me- thank you!

  16. Nick Carson says:

    Engage your audience – this topic hit home for me- thank you!

  17. Urmine Kwal says:

    This is a very important topic. I attended a presentation last week; the speaker was quick to lay a scenario out there and ask for our participation. Suddenly the room was paying attention as we could be called on to join in and we had better be prepared.

  18. Urmine Kwal says:

    This is a very important topic. I attended a presentation last week; the speaker was quick to lay a scenario out there and ask for our participation. Suddenly the room was paying attention as we could be called on to join in and we had better be prepared.

  19. Joe Skakell says:

    Asking questions of your audience and getting them invlved helps keep everyone interested. Do this the sooner the better in my opinion.

  20. Joe Skakell says:

    Asking questions of your audience and getting them invlved helps keep everyone interested. Do this the sooner the better in my opinion.

  21. Frank Tellstone says:

    If you can engage your audience from the start, then you speech will be memorable, and in a good way!

  22. Frank Tellstone says:

    If you can engage your audience from the start, then you speech will be memorable, and in a good way!

  23. Kevin Farner says:

    It really helps to know your audience and actually cater to them but I do admit needing help so I will visit your site again.

  24. Kevin Farner says:

    It really helps to know your audience and actually cater to them but I do admit needing help so I will visit your site again.

  25. Amazing post. These are some awesome tips that I will definitely reference in the future. When I give presentations and the audience isn’t engaged I like to think that it’s because they don’t understand my point, (how pretentious!) but the truth is that in those cases I’m more than likely not giving off enough passion and that’s why the audience doesn’t seem to care much. While I would like to think that I’m a good presenter, everyone can brush up on their skills, no matter how good they are at presenting.

  26. Amazing post. These are some awesome tips that I will definitely reference in the future. When I give presentations and the audience isn’t engaged I like to think that it’s because they don’t understand my point, (how pretentious!) but the truth is that in those cases I’m more than likely not giving off enough passion and that’s why the audience doesn’t seem to care much. While I would like to think that I’m a good presenter, everyone can brush up on their skills, no matter how good they are at presenting.

  27. Wendy Wilson says:

    If you can’t grab them right at the start, you’ll have a hard time engaging them further into the presentation for sure. Great read!

  28. Sam Anson says:

    Great blog!

  29. L. Lincoln says:

    Yes! Engagement is important. A lot of presenters fail to find ways to engage people and it’s so boring.

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