Dear Communicator,
I really do enjoy listening to presentations, sermons, and speeches. In fact, every week, I listen to dozens of them. I have a decent attention span, and if I have chosen to come and listen to you speak, I really do want to be engaged and be able to apply something new to my life.
Unfortunately, I was not engaged in your talk this time. It is not because I didn’t want to be. I genuinely wanted to be wrapped up in your content and presentation, but this time I checked out.
Why? Well, it’s likely because of one of these five reasons.
1. You did not grab my attention in the beginning.
I will make a judgment about you within the first 30 seconds of your talk.
I can’t help it. Like the rest of the audience, I’m wired that way. You will make a first impression, whether you are intentional about it or not. When you came out on the stage without a smile, with closed off body language, and with no greeting…I began tuning you out.
2. You failed to reel me into the tension.
Even though I have chosen to be a part of the audience, that doesn’t mean I care about the problem that you are trying to solve.
As the communicator, your job is to put me on the edge of my seat and make me long for a solution to the problem you are dealing with. If you had helped me feel the tension of your message, I would have tracked with you until you gave me a solution.
