Dave Gordon is an incredible speaker, speech coach and brand educator that I’ve worked with a lot in the past as a colleague and client. He has a great piece out on not getting discouraged by that portion of your audience that no matter what, will always be overly critical and in some cases, flat out hate you.
10% of the people will come up to you at the end of your talk and tell you in person how much your message meant to them. They will shake your hand, give you their card, or somehow make a connection.
80% will respond via survey that they enjoyed the presentation and got at least one thing out of it that they could do to advance their career.
10% hate you. For whatever reason, they didn’t like you, your message, your clothes, your hair, your accent. Whatever it was, they just didn’t connect.
Those who get nervous when they present, focus on the 10% that hate. You want everyone to love you and your message, but that’s not possible. The key is to remember “show and tell.” Get up and share something meaningful for you that you know over 90% of your audience will appreciate and enjoy. Find the friendly faces and nodding heads in the audience. They are the people you talk to. The other 10% aren’t really listening anyway, but that’s about them, not you.
I suppose it’s a bit like pricing your services in which if you’re not getting a small portion of clients saying you’re too expensive, then you’re not charging enough. If you don’t have a small portion of your audience “hating” you, maybe you’re doing something wrong.
In any case, read the piece here, and sign up for his newsletter which is always filled with good stuff.
