Give 'em What They Want

I have been in situations where I practiced what I teach in my public speaking course and cafefully planned for a big event and then showed up to only three people in the audience. That hurts, but you can't just quit and walk away. Even though you can't work a plan for 500 on just 3 you can still make it work.

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

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

As a professional public speaker you don't mope around crying because your "back of the room" book and product sales will suffer or because your ego is suffering. You give it your all whether there are 3 or 3000 in the audience.

There is a little story along this line that in 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!

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