10 reasons your presentation didn’t wow your audience

As an experienced speaker, my goal is to create a “magical” experience for the audience every time out. I want to pitch a perfect game, complete every pass and block every shot. But every once in a while, I encounter an audience that responds to me politely but without much enthusiasm.

Years ago, I used to blame the audience for that: “What a crappy audience. Bunch of idiots.”

That was only my insecurity talking. As I’ve become more secure in my speaking abilities, I never blame the audience. Doing so doesn’t help me grow as a speaker. Analyzing what I could have done differently does.

Here are 10 things to consider when your speech isn’t received with the enthusiasm you would like:

1. Was the event marketed properly? Did you look at the invitations, agendas and marketing materials before they were printed and published? If not, is it possible that the audience had a different expectation for your talk from what you did?

2. Did you miss something in your research? Did you conduct research about the group, their concerns and their level of knowledge prior to your talk? If so, did you fail to uncover important information that might have changed the focus of your talk?