Any speaker knows that the key to delivering your message across effectively is to have your audience’s full attention. There are a few ways to do this, and the most popular way seems to be to convince them of the seriousness of your message.
This approach, however, can also fail at times. Always being serious can bore people. What could cure the audience of this boredom? There’s a simple solution to that—it’s to heed the wisdom of the age-old adage, “laughter is the best medicine.” Brad Montgomery recommends humor as it is effective in engaging people.
Be Weird. Be Them.
How do you become friends with someone? After the introductions and pleasantries, you realize you share a mutual weirdness or an activity which both of you are fond of. It could be anything—shoes, clothes, cars, favorite food and others. These are good things to start with when speaking to an audience.
Tell them an unusual story, or about that time when you laughed out loud during a funeral. You can also try to understand their feelings and turn it into a really funny story. Be creative enough because at one point you were one of them, and you wouldn’t want to sit through a really boring lecture.
Be Frank and Fluid
People often want the message delivered to them to be effective and clear. If you’re the type of speaker who loves to embellish your sentences with different metaphors, quotes and anecdotes, just be sure that your speech is moving along quickly so that you still deliver your message on time. No one likes a boring speaker, but what’s worse is someone who doesn’t even know what they’re talking about.
There are times when being that funny motivational speaker works, although there are certain occasions when you need to be more serious when delivering your message. Mixing and matching your tactics and remembering to connect with your audience can help you in making your speaking engagements more successful.