1WINNING OVER AN AUDIENCE
Designing a presentation without an audience in mind is like writing a love letter and addressing it “to whom it may concern.”
—Ken Haemer, design expert
It was a cold, wintry evening in rural southwest England in February 2012. I had been invited to join BBC Radio 4’s flagship political panel show, Any Questions? The show is broadcast in front of a live audience that is allowed to ask questions of the panelists, who tend to be a mix of politicians and pundits.
That night we were in the small town of Crewkerne—population seven thousand—and, as I walked onstage at the Wadham Community School, I turned to scan the audience in the hall. The house was packed, but it took only three words to describe the whole of the crowd: elderly, white, conservative.
I leaned over to fellow panelist David Lammy, a Black Labour member of Parliament, and whispered: “We may be the only people of color, and the only people under the age of forty, in this entire room.”
As the show began, so did the contentious political arguments. One of the big stories in the news that week was the fate of extremist preacher Abu Qatada, a Jordanian asylum-seeker who had been dubbed “Osama bin Laden’s spiritual ambassador to Europe” and held in the UK without trial for a decade. The Conservative-led coalition government wanted to have Abu Qatada deported to Jordan—despite a credible fear that he might be tortured by the authorities back in Amman. And, on just the second question of the night, a member of the audience rose and asked about the issue directly: “Should the British government ignore the instruction of the European Court of Human Rights and simply deport Abu Qatada to Jordan?”
My mind was racing. I was in the hot seat, center stage. I knew that millions were listening on the radio, many of whom would agree with my own liberal stance: Abu Qatada should be tried in the UK and not tortured in Jordan. But how could I convince the Daily Mail–reading, conservative audience facing me down in Crewkerne? How could I get them on board with my argument?
When the questioner had spoken, the audience had clapped rousingly. They seemed to want Abu Qatada gone! I knew that if I simply cited reports from Amnesty International or the articles of the European Convention on Human Rights, I would lose this crowd. Instead, I had to adapt my usual liberal arguments and appeal to what I knew that particular audience would value and cherish—namely, British tradition, British history.
So, when host Jonathan Dimbleby came to me for an answer to that provocative question from the audience, this is how I answered. I said it was “absurd” to claim Abu Qatada could not be prosecuted in a UK court. Why?
The bigger point for me is the principle. When I was in school—we’re in a school—I learned about the Magna Carta; I learned about trial by jury; I learned about habeas corpus; I learned about free speech. The “glorious history of liberty” in this country. And I find it amazing that twenty years later, such is the pernicious impact of the “War on Terror” that I have to come back on a program like this, I have to go into TV studios, and debate certain journalists, and say, “Wait a minute, what happened to those liberties? Why have we suddenly abandoned those liberties that made this country great?”
The audience erupted in applause. By bringing it back to the Magna Carta, England’s first ever bill of rights, I had connected with them. I now had their full attention and loud support, so I pushed on.
No matter how odious and nasty Abu Qatada may be, the whole point of human rights is that it is the nasty and odious people who need human rights the most, and need the protection of the law the most, because if we don’t extend it to them, there’s no point [in having them].
This is how you make an argument in front of a skeptical audience. You have to be able to adapt, you have to be agile, and to do that, you have to know your audience and cater to it.
I was able to win over most of that audience in Crewkerne, seemingly against the odds, not because those locals liked me or agreed with my politics but because I understood who they were, where they were coming from, and what they wanted, what they needed, to hear in order to be persuaded.
It isn’t always easy to do that—but it isn’t rocket science either.
* * *
In this chapter, I am going to outline three main ways in which you can win over a live audience—whether it’s your family in your living room, or a crowd of hundreds in a lecture hall, or even millions of people watching you at home on television.
Remember: anytime an audience is present, you cannot, cannot, afford to ignore them or take them for granted. The audience is the key. Even if you’re in a one-on-one debate, they are the people who have been described as “judge and jury.” They are who you’re trying to convince, persuade, and bring on board with your arguments.
So how do you do all of that? How do you win them over?
KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
Above all, you have to try to understand where your audience is coming from. If, say, you’re in a competitive debate, you’ll want to get inside the head of the judge or the audience members whose votes you’re seeking. This means that to succeed in “knowing your audience,” you’ll have to do some legwork before you even enter the room, before you start speaking in front of a crowd.
First, find out who is going to be in the audience. These are the kind of questions I ask the organizers of every event that I’m invited to speak at:
How big is the audience?What kind of people constitute the audience?What’s the rough demographic? Are they young or old? Students or professionals? Political or apolitical? Male or female? White, Black, or Brown?It all matters, because once you have a detailed breakdown of the members of your prospective audience, you can focus your language and tailor your arguments toward them.
For example, if I’m speaking to a group of high school or college students, I probably shouldn’t make references to events from my childhood, which occurred before most of them were born. And I should definitely avoid patronizing or talking down to them. On the other hand, if I’m speaking to a group of adults, or older people, on a serious matter, I should avoid making references to movies or memes that might go over their heads.
The key benefit of knowing your audience is that it grants you the ability to modify the language you use to make your case.
Whether you’re trying to sell an argument or, for that matter, sell a product, you should also change how you present your speech, depending on who is in front of you. You cannot, writes business speaker Ian Altman, just take a “one-size-fits-all” approach. You have to be agile and be able to target different arguments to different audiences.
Everything from varying tone and volume, to varying content and emphasis, matters. Think about it this way: you wouldn’t pitch your ideas to your spouse the same way you would present them to a corporate executive. You would adjust your tone—strong or soft, serious or conversational, more passionate or less. Just as important is your volume, depending on whether you’re addressing five people in a small conference room, five hundred people in a university auditorium, or five million people watching you at home on television.
Making these adjustments is necessary, even when you are trying to make the same argument in front of each of those very different audiences. And these strategies speak to the hardest part of public speaking: adapting. Whenever you take the spotlight—proverbially or literally—you need to be flexible. Be willing to customize your presentation—even the shape of your arguments—to whoever it is you want to win over.
You probably know how to convince your kids or your partner to do something, right? It’s because you know those people better than anyone else. If you learn as much as you can about the audience members who you are trying to address, persuade, and convince, you’ll find that it’s much easier to make headway.
To be clear: I don’t want you to change your entire argument, or just tell people what they want to hear. What I’m saying is that you should present your argument in such a way that people feel comfortable getting on board with that argument, because you’ve specifically tailored it to their interests or identities. It would be a huge mistake, as Ian Altman notes, to give the same speech to different types of people in different types of venues.
Take the issue of immigration. I’m not suggesting you should be pro-immigration in front of a liberal crowd and anti-immigration in front of a conservative one. I’m saying that if you’re addressing a right-wing or conservative crowd on the merits of immigration, if you’re trying to make a pro-immigration case to them, it might not make sense to quote, say, Barack Obama or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Instead, try quoting a prominent conservative, like Ronald Reagan, from his famous pro-immigration speech at Liberty State Park in New Jersey in 1980.
You could say: “Don’t take my word for it: Remember how Ronald Reagan in front of the Statue of Liberty praised immigrants for bringing ‘with them courage, ambition and the values of family, neighborhood, work, peace and freedom’ and helping ‘make America great again’?”
By changing your approach, and finding a common language, you immediately make the issue much more palatable.
So remember: cite facts, figures, and quotes that not only bolster your own argument but also appeal to the specific audience in front of you. This works beyond politics, as well—beyond Republican versus Democrat, or Tory versus Labour. If you are debating faith or religion with a Jew, a Christian, or a Muslim, you might want to quote the Bible or the Quran to them. However, if you are debating an atheist, there really is no point quoting a holy book, is there?
In the summer of 2014, I was invited to give a speech to the World Affairs Council of Greater Houston, in Texas, on the topic of Muslim integration in Europe and the United States. I did my homework beforehand and learned that I would be addressing an audience not just of liberals but conservatives, too: people more skeptical of my message. So I made sure I peppered my talk with references to right-wing journalists and news sources—boosting my case for why it was a myth to suggest that Muslims are unable to integrate in the West.
“Don’t take my word for it,” I said (always a useful phrase in front of a skeptical audience). “Just two weeks ago, in the Daily Telegraph newspaper, the leading right-wing, conservative British journalist and columnist, Fraser Nelson, editor of the right-wing Spectator magazine, published a piece headlined ‘The British Muslim Is Truly One among Us—and Proud to Be So.’ Nelson wrote, and I quote: ‘The integration of Muslims can now be seen as one of the great success stories of modern Britain.’”
Their ears pricked up when they heard the word conservative and the references to publications like the Telegraph and the Spectator. They didn’t expect it, and I had their undivided attention.
I was also told ahead of the event that there would be a fair number of Jewish audience members, too, so I decided to tell this (true) story from the UK.
Look at what happened last year when the tiny Jewish community in the northern city of Bradford was facing the closure of their historic synagogue, first built in 1880. Its roof was leaking, and the few dozen remaining regulars could not afford the repairs. The chairman of the synagogue, Rudi Leavor, made the decision to sell the building; it was on the verge of being purchased and turned into a block of luxury apartments when, out of nowhere, the synagogue was saved after a fundraising campaign led by a local mosque. Zulfi Karim, the secretary of Bradford’s Council of Mosques, who was behind the campaign, now refers to Leavor, who fled to the UK from Nazi-occupied Europe during the Second World War, as his “newfound brother.”
From behind my podium, I could see their eyes widen, unexpected smiles appearing on their faces. They were nudging and nodding to each other in approval.
Getting to know your audience is of absolute importance, but it is only the first step. It’s what you have to do before you even get up onstage, or on camera, or at the podium. The next step is about what you do once you’re up there.
GRAB THEIR ATTENTION
I have some bad news for you. You may have heard that viral stat about how a goldfish only has an attention span of nine seconds. But, according to a study conducted by researchers at Microsoft, the average human loses “concentration after eight seconds.” You have very, very little time to capture an audience’s attention before they tune you out and start thinking about what they’re going to have for dinner or, more likely, scrolling through Instagram.
We live in an online era, where everyone, everywhere, is on their smartphone almost all the time. You’ll be speaking for twenty, thirty, forty minutes, yes, but if the people you’re addressing get distracted or—worse—bored at the very start, the rest of your presentation will end up being a huge waste of time. For you, and for them.
Whether giving a presentation in a boardroom or constructing an argument with friends, you want to start in a very clear, direct, and unique manner. As a group of comms experts point out, you want to avoid rote remarks, empty platitudes, and tired clichés.
“Thank you for inviting me.”“I’m so glad to be here with you today.”“How are you all doing?”No. No. No.
You must grab your audience in the very first minute, ideally in the very first ten or twenty seconds.
How?
1. Start with a strong opening line
Something unexpected, provocative, contrary even. To quote the legendary Dale Carnegie, “Begin with something interesting in your first sentence. Not the second. Not the third. The First! F-I-R-S-T! First!”
Here’s how British celebrity chef and food campaigner Jamie Oliver kicked off his 2010 TED Talk.
Sadly, in the next eighteen minutes when I do our chat, four Americans that are alive will be dead from the food that they eat. My name’s Jamie Oliver. I’m thirty-four years old. I’m from Essex in England, and for the last seven years I’ve worked fairly tirelessly to save lives in my own way. I’m not a doctor; I’m a chef, I don’t have expensive equipment or medicine. I use information, education.
Wouldn’t you want to sit up and listen to more of that?
2. Start with a question
Ideally, a “provocative” question, say those comms experts. “Starting with a question creates a knowledge gap: a gap between what the listeners know and what they don’t know,” adds Akash Karia in his book How to Deliver a Great TED Talk. “This gap creates curiosity because people are hardwired with a desire to fill knowledge gaps.”
Former NASA scientist James Hansen knows he’s not the greatest of orators, but he managed to use that very quality to grab his audience’s attention in a 2012 TED Talk on climate change. How? With these opening questions:
What do I know that would cause me, a reticent midwestern scientist, to get myself arrested in front of the White House protesting? And what would you do if you knew what I know?
Wouldn’t you want to hear the answers to those stark questions? Wouldn’t you look up from your iPhone for those?
3. Start with a story
Ideally, a personal anecdote. You get bonus points if it’s funny, able to get people laughing and relaxed—and paying attention—from the get-go. Storytelling helps with instant engagement because everyone loves a great yarn. Plus, our brains are built to fall in love with a good story—one that taps into imagination and empathy from the very beginning.
Copyright © 2023 by Mehdi Hasan
