Whether we like it or not, we communicate with each other through emotions. What we feel during communication is conveyed to our interlocutors in various non-verbal ways and, to some extent, affects their decisions and conclusions. Often, this happens at a subconscious level.
What does this mean? That’s right! A speaker who can consciously manage their emotions can tune the audience to the emotion they need. This, in turn, allows such a speaker to make their speech more convincing. Perhaps the psychologist Daniel Goleman, who coined the popular concept of “emotional intelligence,” has studied this question most fully. Familiarizing oneself with his works will be useful for anyone who has to work with an audience – from elementary school teachers to heads of state. We will focus on a few points that can help put emotions in the service of the presenter.
Be sincere
The audience can easily sense the style of a “cheap actor.” Don’t try to play emotions. The presenter should be themselves. “Feel, not portray feelings” is the motto that a good speaker should follow. Share your ideas and thoughts with the audience. “Yours” not only in the sense that they belong to you. They can be the ideas and thoughts of other people, but they must evoke sincere emotions in you. Only in this way can you convey the emotion of your audience with their help. Each of us has experienced the full range of emotions in our lives, so we are quite sincere, not fake, in our ability to transmit them to listeners and viewers. The question is how to get the right mood at the moment of the presentation? In fact, it’s not as difficult as it may seem at first glance.
Charge yourself with the right emotion
First, decide what mood you want to present in and, accordingly, what emotions to convey to the audience. Suppose you have decided that it would be ideal to tune yourself and the audience to an ironic-funny mood. Or, say, solemnly-pompous. Okay. Now remember the “key” to the “box” of your memory where the corresponding mood is stored. This “key” can be a life event, a musical composition, or, say, an episode from a movie. Note that from our point of view, music is the perfect option, since it is always at hand thanks to modern technology. You can even embed it in the presentation itself. Do a couple of rehearsals to make sure the “key” you found works as it should. Now all that’s left is to use it immediately before the event and start the presentation in the right mood.
Encourage and praise your audience
One of the necessary conditions for conveying emotions is direct communication with the audience. Forget about events where the active role belongs exclusively to the speakers. Moreover, thanks to advanced feedback systems, such as those built into Pitch Avatar, you can communicate with viewers in real-time even when they are viewing a recorded presentation. Ask viewers questions, ask them to express their opinions, share their experiences, and so on. And, at the same time, be sure to praise them for correct answers and thank them for any performance. Try to do this not abstractly, but to find something in each statement that is truly valuable to you and thank them for it. For example: “Thank you for your comment. I think the ways in which you and your colleagues solved problems before our product appeared will give our team a lot of food for thought.” Praise and support are pleasant to everyone and help the audience become more receptive to your emotions.
By tuning the audience to the same mood as yours, you essentially turn them into one team with you at the helm. And, as you can easily guess, this is a direct path to concluding deals, signing contracts, and increasing sales in both the literal and figurative sense of the word.
Good luck to everyone, successful presentations, and high income!
