Public Speaking Tip- Transporting the Audience

[quote="kendell5"]With you being the orator, you have a slew of attention grabbing strategies at your disposal. It would be advantageous of you to utilize this strategy in order to capture the audience’s intrigue, curiosity, and foremost ATTENTION. Try transporting your listeners to a place unlike any other. Somewhere otherworldly. Relate an experience or describe an event that few if none have even heard of. Put them in the mind of Aron Ralston; a hiker living in Utah who was forced to amputate his own arm off with a pocket knife in order to extricate himself from a dislodged boulder for 127 hours.

It can be a personal, life altering event that has happened in your time. Speeches can be a form of escapism, and it is your job as the conductor to take the audience to whatever destination YOU desire. No matter how fantastical, quirky, disturbing, or scary; do not be afraid to transfer the crowd.

However, when you use this strategy, make sure you are bringing out a point that will be of some benefit to the listeners. Take for instance the above illustration. When you are floating aimlessly in outer space or forced with the horrifying prospect of amputating off a vital body part; your initial outlook on the situation may be a grim one. However, what is the point? Despite the issue, no matter how dire; there is always a way out. What is your resolve? Are you going to allow the ensuing pressures of life to pound you until stress causes your body to give out and die? Will you look for effective solutions to cope with the situation? YOUR ILLUSTRATION NEEDS TO BE RELEVANT AND BENEFICIAL.[1orator]

What do you think would be a better opener. Relating a life experience that resonates with the crowd? Or using shock and awe method as you've outlined above to, like you say, transport the audience to another place?

Which do you think is the most attention grabbing?

From my experience with public speaking, you want to separate you, yourself, from what you are speaking on unless it is directly about you. This causes everyone to focus on the message and not so much what you are doing. I have had trouble in the past and the easiest and most effective way i over come it is pretending I am talking to myself in a mirror. You don't want to go up there expecting to please everyone either. Be yourself and focus on the message.