A question I get a lot when coaching public speaking is: How do I reach everyone in my audience? What can I do to make sure every single person receives my message?
Short answer: You can’t do it. Even in a small group, everyone there has different priorities, interests, and backgrounds. If you try to create a message that reaches them all, chances are that you’ll reach no one.
Longer, hopefully more helpful answer: Instead of focusing on how to reach everyone, think about how to get your message to a specific someone. Who is your message really for? What do they need? How can you help?
When you niche down your audience from “everyone within the sound of my voice” to “people who run small companies who are looking for ways to integrate specific strategies I know about,” you immediately make your talk more relevant to the people who really need to hear it.
Ideally, you will create your talk so that the folks you made it for are blown away, and the folks who aren’t quite in your target market will still be thinking about your ideas.
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