“I could feel a deep connection from my audience. It was beautiful.”
I had a very perceptive student, Alisa, in my Mastering Virtual Presentations Workshop. Alisa is unusually intelligent and very aware.
In our first coaching session, Alisa learned to look straight at the camera lens, which meant she then wasn’t able to see anyone’s face.
Initially this violates everyone’s sensibilities. “What???? But I want to see their faces! I need to see how they’re responding! It feels so weird to look at the camera! This isn’t natural!”
I understand. It feels weird. You’re right – it’s not natural.
But, when you do it, when you do it really well, it creates an AMAZING audience experience. The people in your audience respond to you in ways you don’t even imagine are possible. This is true whether you have an audience of 1 or 1,000.
Alisa had an important presentation before our second coaching session. She decided to try what she learned instead of her normal routine which is to look at her notes or her slides.
Afterward, Alisa made a brilliant observation, “The results exceeded expectations. Looking into the camera made me tune into their voices, how their voices sounded.”
I asked her, “What did the voices tell you?”
Alisa said, “I could tell they were warm, receptive, interested and engaged. I didn’t need to see their faces.”
This is profound. She could FEEL her audience: warm, receptive, interested, engaged.
Alisa is right. Human voices, when you really tune in, tell you everything.
They reveal emotion, passion, eagerness, vigor, loyalty, support, trust, everything.
Even silence is a communication.
Communicating in this league represents a MUCH higher level of skill than “needing to see their faces”. This is a heady, exhilarating level of skill that few people achieve.
The good news is that there’s nothing stopping you from reaching it.
You have MANY powers of perception. You open these channels of perception and discover their riches by quieting your mental noise and tuning in to the people in the world around you.
This makes you aware. You strengthen your powers by using them and learning to trust them. Your abilities to perceive everything can grow unbelievably fast. They’re very responsive once you decide to activate them.
Being sensitive greatly enhances your ability as a communicator. It puts you in a real position to create a much more favorable outcome.
Sensitive means quick to detect and respond to changes and signals.
Keen sensitivity is the hallmark of great communicators.
As people’s feelings and thoughts change, their voices change dramatically. Their voices can change many times within one conversation.
Their voices tell you what is inside them, even more than their words. Their voices tell you everything.
What you DO with what you hear is a topic for another day. First comes the HEARING.
Listen for it. Listen to the unspoken message that is so richly expressed in the sound, the tone, of their voices.
Let me know what you hear.
Be the cause!