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The best way to bore your audience and turn them off from actively listening to your presentation is to limit your content to plain raw information—bars, graphs, charts, statistics, etc. Indeed, you need facts to support your point. However, as a speaker, you should also remember that your listeners are not only motivated by intellect; they become absorbed through their emotions. And if you want to become a dynamic, interesting speaker, then you need to focus on your audience’s emotions and not on their minds only. This is the key to make your presentations a lot more interesting and compelling. But how do you capture your audience’s emotions? Simple—by sharing your personal stories. The Power of Personal Stories Everyone loves a good story. It is for this reason movies, novels, memoirs, and television series are not only popular these days but lucrative as well. People are willing to pay just to hear or watch good stories. Now just imagine if you can harness the power of storytelling and use it to your advantage. The results will surely be astonishing! You will capture the interest of your audience and hold it throughout the duration of your speech, give a more persuasive and compelling presentation, make an important point clearer, and create a more lasting impact. Do Not Be Afraid to Share Your Experiences Oftentimes many speakers are afraid or hesitant to share their personal stories. By not taking advantage of the power of storytelling as a communication tool, they rob themselves of one of the most important skills for effective communication. If you are facing the same dilemma right now, then you need to take action. In order for you to overcome this fear, you need to understand where it is coming from. It could be that you are afraid to share your personal experiences because of fear of judgment. Perhaps you feel that you are not a born storyteller. Knowing and understanding where your fear is coming from will help you to take the necessary actions. For instance, in the first situation mentioned above, your fear comes from other people’s judgment. For you to overcome this, you need to understand that vulnerability is a trait that we all share. It is what makes us humans and you approachable. When your audience sees that you too have weaknesses, have been hurt or emotionally damaged in the past, have experienced failures, and have been through difficult, life-changing events, they create a deeper connection with you. As a result, they are more engaged and active throughout your presentation. On the other hand, if the second situation is your problem, then keep in mind that storytelling is a skill. This simply means that you can learn and develop it. You do not need to be a born storyteller to make your presentations more interesting and effective. All you need to do is learn the right storytelling techniques and then practice. One way for you to learn and master the art of storytelling is by participating in leadership skills training and hiring a communications coach. Replace Facts with Emotion When you share your personal stories, you create a deeper connection with your audience. They see themselves in the stories that you share; they can relate with the experiences you have been through; the words and thoughts that come out of your mouth inspire them and the facts you convey have more meaning. As you can see, it all boils down to one word—emotions. Sharing stories is the most effective way to elicit emotional response from your audience. Stories tell them that you are not a mechanical robot whose duty is to bombard them with raw data but a human speaker whose goal is to help them understand subject matter in a way that will touch their hearts. Always remember that facts stimulate the mind, but it is stories that touch the heart. Make your presentations more compelling, more interesting, and most important of all, more authentic by embellishing it with your own personal experiences. You might just be surprised at the wonders a few of your stories can provide to your presentations. If you want to learn more on how to improve the communication skills of a speaker, spend some time on Google and consider hiring a communications coach.
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