Rapport- Pure and Simple

What makes you different from a robot?  You can grow rapport with the audience.

What is the goal of rapport?  A feeling of mutual warmth and the sense that you’re on the same wavelength and mind frame.

Rerun from Oct 1, 2014

What do YOU want to accomplish through your speech?

Get the answer to the question of what you personally want to achieve through your speech makes developing your speech… the words and the nonverbal props and body language… easier.

Do you have any of these goals?

• You want to build your credibility
• You want the audience to agree with your position
• You want your audience to understand something
• You want to make your audience feel good

Get your goals before you write your speech.  Then it’s easy to determine what to include and what to throw out.  Whatever doesn’t further your goals, is excluded.  Be sure to understand that you have more than one goal.  Find them!

Rerun from Sep 24, 2014

Figure Out Why You Are Presenting

• What is the function of your talk?  Are you trying to inform, persuade, inspire, or entertain.
• What is your motivation for speaking

-Were you asked to speak?

-Were you ordered to speak?

-Do you want to speak?

• What is your audience’s motivation for listening?

-Does the audience want to hear you?

-Have they been compelled to hear you?

-Will they listen?

Figuring out the answers to these questions will help you determine the tone and undertone of your talk.  It will help you know what material to include or leave out.  It will also help you know how much effort to direct toward rapport building.

Rerun from Sep 8, 2017