Public Speaking Course:

Give 'em What They Want

I have been in situations where I carefully planned for a big speaking event and then showed up to only having three people in the audience. That hurts, but you can't just quit and walk away. Even though you obviously can't work a plan made for 500 audience members on just 3 you can still make it work.

So what do you do instead? You turn it into a great opportunity for the three people who did attend. You immediately scrap your big speaking plans and tell the 3 people who came that you will be their personal consultant for the next couple hours.

So you answer their questions and make them feel like they are important enough to demand your complete attention.

As a professional speaker, you don't break down and cry because your book and product sales will suffer or because your ego is suffering. You give it everything you got whether there are 3 or 3000 in the audience.

There's a story that comes out of Washington, North Carolina on a rainy noon day church service during Holy Week, only one person showed up for the preacher to give his sermon to, one little boy. Years later, that boy had grown up to be movie maker Cecil B. DeMille who after producing the movie "The Ten Commandments" said that day and that preacher's sermon was the most memorable speech in his life.

When you practice what you learn in my public speaking course, you should try to make a difference in the life of every one in your audience, even if there is only one.

Always "give it everything you've got"! For the whole wide world may be changed!