Speaker 1: Hi everybody. I don't know if I can follow that, but I'll have a run. I'm going to talk to you this evening about how you engage an audience, which after what we've seen so far is a pretty tough act to follow. I'm going to start by telling you a story. This story is about the first time I ever left Ireland. I was about 18 at the time and I went to New York. It was the first time I'd ever flown. I'd seen the movies. I was very excited. I'd seen the skyline, the hot dog stands, the yellow taxis. I was all pumped up. As far as I was concerned, De Niro and Pacino were going to pick me up at the airport. We were going to go into New York City and we were probably going to do something really illegal. Life was about to start. I arrived in New York and my cousin Michael picked me up. He's not as dangerous as some of the characters Pacino's played, but he's a nice guy. He picked me up and as we were putting my luggage into the car, he said something really interesting. He said, Porik, I hope you don't mind, but we're going straight to a party. Okay. Things are picking up. I ended up at this party and within 20 minutes, I was in the kitchen drinking beer, which at 18 was illegal in New York. So, box ticked. Life had just started happening. I found myself surrounded by beautiful women. Yeah, I know, because I just discovered something about myself. Do you know what that was? An amazing thing. Something I had to leave Ireland to find out. I discovered I had an accent. I didn't need looks or a personality. Just my accent. Life was starting to get even better and they just loved the way I spoke. They go like, oh, Mary Lou, you got to listen to this guy. Say something with vowels in it. They love my vowels. Say something with vowels in it. And I go, bold. They go, oh my God, did you hear that? It's amazing. And then I'd say words like marmalade. They love that word. They absolutely love it because they call it jelly. So, it's a whole new word, but it had a lot of vowels. So, I'd only use that one if I really fancied her. So, things were going really well, right? And then all of a sudden, the door to the kitchen opened and in walked the guy that owned the house. And he said, hey, Irish. Because they couldn't pronounce Poric. That was far too much to ask. He said, hey, Irish, you want a cold beer? I said, I'd love one. I'll get you one from the refrigerator. And then he turned, but then he stopped and he turned back and he said, Irish, you guys got refrigerators in Ireland, right? And I thought, you know, there'd be a little twinkle in his eye, possibly a little smile, nothing. And maybe it was the beer, but something in the back of my mind went, let's see where this goes. So, I went, refrigerator? He says, yeah, dude, you know, keeps your beers cold, preserves your food. What? You mean you don't have to bury it in the garden? To which he went, dude, this is going to mess your head up. And then he walked me across the kitchen to show me a fridge. Now, it was America. This was probably the biggest fridge I'd ever seen. It was like floor to ceiling, double doors. I mean, it was almost like the guy bought a fridge, built a house around it. And boy, was he proud of his fridge. He whipped open the doors and he started, dude, this is where I put the eggs, man. Look where I put the beers. And then at one point he opened the freezer, reached in, pulled out a chicken. And he said, look, man. I said, it's a frozen chicken. Yeah. But what you don't know is that was fresh when I put it in. No. Oh my God. At this point, I'd noticed a bottle of vodka in the fridge. I said, hey, it doesn't freeze the vodka. No, it doesn't freeze vodka. Hold on a minute. You've invented a machine that will freeze the chicken, but won't freeze vodka. Mm-hmm. Geez, I heard you put a man on the moon, but this is amazing. And this kept going on. I asked the dumbest questions like, could it freeze a polar bear? He's like, what do you want to freeze a polar bear for? Well, they're difficult to freeze. And about this time, the doorbell went ding dong. And I went, Jesus, what was that? I did. That's the doorbell. That's like how you get into the house. Oh my God, I wish we had them in Ireland. I'm always locking myself out of the house. And he was about to start explaining how a doorbell worked when he kind of stopped himself. And he said, are you playing me? And I said, yeah, like a violin. We've got bridges and bells, jingle bells, doorbells, whatever bells you got, we got them. So I like to tell that story because it's a funny story. No other reason. Oh yeah, there is another reason. Also because that story has a couple of things that every engaging speaker uses when they're trying to engage an audience. Yeah. Things that you're looking for right now, every time a speaker walks out here. Three key things actually. I'll tell you what they are, but you know already. So I'm going to get you to tell me. You up for that? Good. I've brought some technology. Hope you don't mind. So three things. The first one starts with an eye. What do you think it is? And you really want it. What is it? Eye contact. Oh, very good. Eye contact. Yeah. Okay. Well done. Yes. Eye contact. That's exactly what I... No. Somebody missed the spelling bee when they're at school. So not eye contact. Any other ideas? What was that? Instigation. Inspiration. Yes, sir. We do want inspiration. And you will get, but it's not right. Sorry, sir. Information is wrong as well. Yes. You're the dumbest audience I've ever talked to. Insight. Absolutely. I don't know who said it, but insight. Yeah. It's often mistaken for information, but information is not always insight. Matter of fact, usually it's not. So yes, insight. In other words, you want to learn something. You want to hear something you've never heard before. A fresh perspective. Yes. And if you get that, you're happy. Inside yourself, you go, oh yeah, I think I can survive on the planet a bit longer because I've got this insight. Yes. And there's another thing you want. And it begins with E. What was that? She's doing it again. What is it? Cheese. Is it cheese? No. What? EDAM. Oh, I see what you mean. EDAM. Oh yeah. Oh, put me in my place with her cheese-related crack. So yeah, it's not EDAM, but somebody said it. What was it? Entertainment. Yes. We all want to be entertained. Yes. Absolutely. And then there's a final one. It's got two words in it. Yeah. Oh, this could take a while. This could take a while. Will we start at the lower end of the, yeah, have a go then. Vinigale. I did say the lower end. No, it's not a political party, believe it or not. You're not hungry for politics. Feel good. Oh, look at you. Feel good. A little feel good act out. Dude, you should be up here. Yeah. Feel good. So what happens when people create a talk is they do this thing. They say, Oh, what's the amazing insight I'm going to impart to this audience? How am I going to look super clever? And at the same time, change the world, make it a better place. And we focus a lot on this stuff. And that's good. Unfortunately, quite often it's information, but this is the stuff we tend to look for as an audience. We want this. I encourage people to do a lot more of this and a lot more of this, because guess what? You people have become very difficult. Yeah. You're not as compliant as you used to be. You used to sit down and listen, but now you don't do that anymore. Too many distractions. Oh, where's my phone? Somebody could be looking for me. Could be life or death. Facebook message. That's what you're like. So that's why us speakers, we have to add this stuff in. What's the time? The good old days when you could just do this. No. No. Thank you very much. No. But that's not enough. A great speaker, a great engager, will do something with these three things. He or she will ask themselves a question. They'll go, How engaged do I want to make my audience? E for engagement. T for time. Yes. So they'll say, How engaged do I want to make my audience? And then they'll say, Hmm, I've got 20 minutes or whatever it is. And they'll say, Right. And then they'll plan it out. And they'll know. They'll know this. They'll know that, Ooh, when I walk out on stage, there'll be a little bit of interest because they'll be going, Oh, what's he about? Who does he think he is? Where did he get those shoes? All of that stuff is going on. Okay. So there's a level of interest. I got that. And then I'll do something like, I'll start telling a story. And then boom. Oh, that's even more. Now, if I came out and started telling, 10 years ago, I used to be a comedian. And then things went really wrong because people stopped talking back to me. That's how it could go. But no, I told a story. I took it up. I said, Yeah, let's tell a story. And then what happened? I got into my story. But even within seconds of me getting into my story, some of you highly distracted, addicted to other things, people. Some of you were already going, Well, it's a story I know, but I'm losing interest. So then what did I have to do? I'll tell you what I did. I said something about, Oh, women surrounded by women. Did somebody? Oh, look, surrounded by women. Jeez, I find it hard to believe. This is fascinating. Then, oh, it's his accent. That's boring. I don't like accents. No, no, no. A refrigerator. I fell out of it. In Ireland, the cheek of him. And then, and then, oh, yeah, what's in the refrigerator. And then this just went on and on. Right. Okay. So as an audience member, you have that little, just an ebb and flow continually. Now what I, as a great speaker that I aspire to be, what I like to do is I'll do like any good speaker. I'll try and identify what that is. Do you know what that is? Time. Good, sir. Thank you for sharing that. What kind of time? It's a certain type of time, sir. Attention span. Thank you. See? Very good at the front row. So yeah, that's attention span. In stand-up comedy, that's 20 seconds. In a business meeting, maybe you've got two minutes. Depends on the context. If you're doing a lecture in a theatre where students can't get out the door, maybe you've got a bit longer, but they've drifted off. I don't know. So you have to ask yourself, what's a good speaker that wants to engage people will say? What's actually their attention span? And that'll be dictated by the context, how interested they are in your subject, what they know about it, how they feel about it, all those things. And then they'll go, well, it's two minutes. So that speaker will then do this. They'll say, I'm going to open with something that's going to grab them. And then every two minutes, I'm going to give them a little bit of feel good. Or I'm going to give them an insight. Or what's the other thing I'm going to give them? Entertainment. Oh my God. You are such fast learners. Seriously. I want all your names before you leave. Yeah. So my peoples, I am done here. I feel my work is done. I feel like we all, we got a moment. It was amazing for me and hopefully for you. So the next time you're going to do a little talk or speech, think of these things. Design engagement into it. Thank you very much. Have a lovely night. Bye-bye.