Engage Your Audience So Everyone Wins
By Tony Jeary

When you engage your audience, you create an atmosphere that allows them to enjoy the experience and benefit from it. When people feel good about what they are experiencing, when they are complimented for their contributions, when they are touched by whatever you are sharing—they win! Look for ways to engage your audience so that people win, and connection will happen!

Engaging your audience is one of the best ways to keep their attention. I have found that most audiences today prefer to be talked “with,” not “at.” Consider leading your audience about half of the time and facilitating the other half by asking others to participate. Designing much of your presentation as a conversation with your audience is a great practice that keeps them involved and connected. The more you engage your audience, the more “takeaways” they will have.

The tone, or atmosphere, of your presentation affects the way your audience perceives your message. By engaging your audience and creating an atmosphere that is enjoyable, inviting, and user-friendly, your audience is more likely to feel welcome, interested, and involved. When you engage your audience, they are much more receptive to buying in to your presentation objective—whether it is to inspire, guide, persuade, or share knowledge.

To grab their attention and keep it, engage your audience in the presentation immediately. Call audience members by name (using nametags or name cards if you need to), ask them questions, and give them opportunities to respond. Another great way to engage your audience is to make them your partners in the presentation by asking them to share their expectations. Or suggest that they write something down, like points of your presentation that are useful to them, or questions they would like to ask at the end.

One of the most effective ways to engage your audience and create a winning atmosphere is to use what I call Strategic Engagement. The degree to which people enjoy an experience usually has a direct bearing on how well they absorb it and take appropriate action. Simply put, Strategic Engagement is an activity that breaks up the monotony of hearing one speaking voice and makes a point with something other than words. It revitalizes your audience and adds the “fun factor.” One of my favorite Strategic Engagement methods is to pass out dollar bills in reward for audience participation. Games, skits, activities, and events are creative ways to engage your audience through Strategic Engagement, because they get your audience members up and moving.

Verbal Surveying and Target Polling are also great ways to engage your audience. Verbal Surveying is simply asking the audience how things are going. About a third of the way into your presentation, you may ask your audience questions like “How are we doing?” or “Is everything making sense, or should we go back to something?” Then make necessary adjustments according to their responses. It’s a great tool to help you engage your audience and deliver your best presentation.

In Target Polling, you engage your audience by polling individuals before your presentation or during a break and asking them to share their expectations for your time together or provide background information about the group, audience, or region. Be sure to make adjustments according to the feedback you receive in order to improve the remainder of your presentation.

I cannot emphasize enough the power of engaging your audience to create and maintain a winning environment. When people win, they want to come back, they want to be involved, and they want to take that action or make that change you are suggesting.

** Watch for your favorite business, spiritual and educational titles to appear as Tapstacks from Six Voices at http://tapstack.com/ **

Purpose-Filled Presentations by Tony Jeary – How any Christian can communicate more effectively

Having trained executives at more than 500 world-class organizations in the art of effective, winning presentations, Tony Jeary (Mr. Presentation™) now brings those same techniques and strategies to the church. Tony shares basic principles to help unlock dramatic personal and professional success every time you speak, whether from behind a podium, on the phone, or on a street corner.

Purpose-Filled Presentations is written for pastors, teachers, small group leaders, greeters, staff members, as well as anyone interested in becoming better at personal evangelism. This Tapstack distills the book down to easy-to-follow tips that will help readers gain confidence, improve self-esteem, enhance credibility, and maximize response.

Tapstack

Six Voices Tapstack format offers a unique and surprisingly fun way to explore your favorite books. By distilling them down to a selection of engaging “cards” like only the iPhone could provide, Tapstack offers you a great way to read on-the-go. Swipe, shake, rotate and spin your way through the most important points from top-selling titles.

The Purpose-Filled Presentations Tapstack can serve as a great reference tool as you prepare for any presentation. Calm your nerves by browsing Tonys tips before walking out on stage or picking up the phone. No matter where you are youll always know that you have some of the best communication advice available just a thumb slide away.

- Swipe to remove the top card and advance to the next.
- Rotate to spin the card-wheel and find a card.
- Shake to learn more about this Tapstack.

http://iphone.wareseeker.com/purpose-filled-presentations.app/42e73b50af

Written by Carrie

October 20, 2009

Purpose-Filled Presentations is subtitled, “How any Christian Can Communicate More Effectively to Anybody, Anytime, Anywhere.” Although I do agree that it is written primarily to Christians, it can be utilized by people of any faith because the advice and practical types for public speakers, as well as personal communications, are very practical. Author Tony Jeary apparently brands himself “Mr. Presentation” and expresses a desire to teach church goers how to communicate with one another.

From the back cover:

“Your presentation may be informal and momentary — like greeting people at the door — or formal and momentous — like sharing your testimony before a congregation. But either way, it will make an impact.”

That is very true. Our first impressions, and longer lasting impressions, of people do matter. What I say and what I do will have an impact in the way that you think about me. (What I write in this post will leave an impression and while I hope it’s a good one I’m well aware of the fact that my English skills are frequently lacking and mistakes likely go unchecked with some regularity which no doubt drives some of you crazy!) Learning how to address people well is an essential skill for humans, not just church-goers.

Jeary introduces you to seven steps for effective presentations. He gives you techniques for speeches, if you are to address a gathering. He talks to you about appearing more natural before your audience and about speaking clearly and succinctly in order to effectively hold your audience’s attention. He lays things out in this book in a very practical way, giving examples and objectives as he goes.

If you have a young public speaker on your hands, you might want to offer them this book. If you are nervous when speaking to others, this book might help you move past that. Really though, if you are human and want to learn how to communicate more effectively, then this book could be the practical tool you need to help you do that. (If you don’t fit into any of those categories – even the human one – I’m sure you can think of someone you know with poor communication habits that you think could really use this book, right? I can think about half a dozen . . .)

Purpose-Filled Presentations meets a need and serves its purpose well, teaching us how to make an impact with the people who mean the most to us – the ones right in front of our faces on a daily basis. You cannot get any more practical than that!

Carrie comes by her book obsession honestly, having descended from a long line of bibliophiles. She blogs about books regularly at Reading to Know and Reading My Library.

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Filed under Carrie, Non-Fiction by Carrie

Tony Jeary

How Any Christian Can Communicate More Effectively to Anybody, Anytime, Anywhere

Item # 10314
Chances are, if you’re active in your church, at some point you’ll have to talk to people. Your presentation may be informal—like greeting people at the door—or formal—like sharing your testimony before a congregation. But either way, it will make an impact.

Master presenter Tony Jeary uses his experience training top CEOs around the world to provide a unique, practical handbook for any teacher, preacher, leader, speaker—any Christian involved in ministry.

Gain confidence, enhance your credibility, and maximize your response—prepare with purpose.
For retailers, order here
For more information about the book, visit www.purposefilledpresentations.com.

Perfect bound, 240 pages.

Tony Jeary (known as Mr. Presentation™) is recognized as the leading authority on both strategy and presentation effectiveness. He has published 38 books, of which 15 are on the subject of presentations that support his methodology, “Presentation Mastery™”. Tony impacts organizations from all over the globe via his private Strategic Acceleration Studio. He is the personal coach of many top CEOs from companies including Wal-Mart, Ford, Shell, Sam’s Club and other Fortune 500 companies. He is a devoted husband and the father of two daughters.

Tony is available to speak to your group

For availability and fees, call 1-877-2INSPIRE or email info@tonyjeary.com.

More About Tony

• For more information on Tony, visit www.tonyjeary.com or www.mrpresentation.com.
• Read an interview with Tony Jeary in Christian Standard, May 2009. (PDF, 61KB)
• Learn more about Tony’s presentation techniques in this Christian Standard article from June 2009. (PDF, 143KB)

Listen to Tony Jeary’s Presentation at Book Expo America below.