A simple technique to make a strong connection with people

Bill Gove, legendary professional speaker from the United States, who has now passed on, advised that to make a connection with an audience, at the start of a presentation, you should ‘let the little boy or girl in you come out to play’. What does this mean? It means to bring some of the excitement, energy and exuberance you had as a child (think of yourself as a four year old here) into your speaking and presentation. Your memory, of that four year old’s excitement, energy and exuberance will bubble up and be projected through your voice, face and body language. Your audience will then be positively ‘hit’ by this energy etc. and will feel connected to you. If you pay attention you’ll be able to perceive that connection ‘hit’ on the audience.

Inserted in the pocket of my business diary I keep a photo of myself at about five years of age. It’s a reminder to me to ‘let my little boy come out to play’ and to connect with my audiences – audiences of one through to audiences of one thousand.

Now I’m not suggesting with this technique that you don’t take your presentation topic or your area of work seriously – rather, to not take yourself, too seriously. And from my observation over my business life, there seems to be a number of business people (for the most part, men) who walk the Central Business District streets of Sydney, Australia, where I live, who take themselves too seriously. If they happen to make eye contact with me, they seem to be projecting or wanting to project, through their face and swagger of their body, the following message:  ‘hi there . . . I’m pretty important  – you too?’

The how to apply for this post: is to find a photo of yourself when you were four or five years old. Look at the photo intermittently to remind you to let the ‘little boy or girl in your come out to play’ in your interactions and sales presentations.