Fact: Your audiences won’t give a hoot about any dogs that may have eaten your homework when you speak – but they will notice when it’s not done!

How ironic. Despite a clear message about ‘why entrepreneurs must constantly learn to help their businesses to grow’, supporting content that should have engaged and a polished delivery…

…Most of the speaker’s audience looked like they could care less. And when he finished – polite applause, no questions and an awkward silence. He looked chastened and they were obviously nonplussed.

Hmmm.

Surprised and curious by the apathetic response, I buttonholed a few less than excited audience members in the break that followed to ask what was going on.

“I’ve heard it all before”, said the first. “And from him.”

“I’m so disappointed”, agreed her pal, more forcefully. “He was terrific the first I saw him and I only turned up today because he was speaking. How could he not know most of us here (entrepreneurs) go to a pile of these events? I have a good mind to ask for my money back.”

Oops. Incidentally, my second confidante actually said a lot more than I’ve included and used more colourful language. I think she took my (professional) interest in her mood as a sign that I had something to do with organizing the event. In any case, she didn’t hold back on ‘exactly’ what she thought.

They were irritated. And they had a right to be. Sins of failing to do homework and complacency had been committed.

But, here’s the thing – these shouldn’t and needn’t have happened. And while the event organisers should have done a better job (including briefing speakers about their audience and themes, reviewing content before the off, and more)…

…As I’ve mentioned in a previous post – When stuff goes wrong, the speakers will almost always get the lion’s share of blame.

Never Rest on Your Laurels

The moral of this story is this: The more experienced and in demand a speaker you become, the more will be expected of you.

No matter how good any stock in trade talk you may have is, you mustn’t wander from event to event with just one string on your guitar, strumming the same ‘Play it again Sam’ notes everywhere you go.

If you’re regularly appearing in front of a similar audience, they won’t wear it. And they won’t buy lame excuses for repeat episodes.

That doesn’t mean that you can’t revisit your best materials on a regular basis – recognizing that much weight should be given to legitimate questions like:

“Why mess with success?‘, “Shouldn’t good stuff that’s worked before work again?”, and/or “Why reinvent the wheel?”

Of course you can centre your talks on similar themes and supporting points for your chosen topics…

…But you must keep freshening your ideas and adapting them to make it worth your audiences’ whiles to hear you first time and every time.

And with that in mind…

Here Are 3 Ways You Can Re-purpose and Re-energize Your Old Talks:

#1 Find new angles for your themes – Pick interesting strands from within or closely related to a current theme and narrow your audience’s focus. For instance, the speaker in today’s post may have had a more excited reaction from his audience if he shifted from a general message about learning from experiences to more specific elements of his idea.

#2 Tailor your examples –  Make these more personal and meaningful to each audience by leveraging their direct experiences or building upon what they believe/know today.

# 3 Vary the role your audience should take  – Tap into their creativity and enlist them to consider new ways to address issues they care about (during and after the event)

Over to you

Please share your experiences, observations or comments about ways you’ve reused or adapted talks for different audiences.

What worked for you and what did you learn?

To find out how we could work together to inspire others through your ideas, please  click here!