A Storytelling Presentation Isn’t Just About the Words That Come Out of Your Mouth
When you’re telling a story, especially if you’re doing it in front of a large group of people, the story you’re telling isn’t the only thing that matters. There are multiple factors that can make or break your presentation.
Giving a speech or telling a story is not the same as writing something online. You have to consider how things like body language, facial expressions, attire, and more will affect the mood of the audience and influence their reaction to your story.
One of the easiest things you can get right is attire. As long as you dress right for the event you’re speaking at, and wear clothes that look nice and fit well, you’re going to be set on attire. Strange or bad fitting clothes can be really distracting to the audience.
Body language can be difficult to master for some, but is a very important part of storytelling and public speaking as a whole. It has a major subconscious influence on your audience and can affect how they see you.
One thing you can always count on wanting to avoid with body language is being slouched over or being perfectly still. For a lot of people, this is their natural way of standing, especially when they’re shy.
However, this kind of body language puts out the message that you’re scared and intimidated by the audience. You’re unlikely to get their respect or full attention by standing there looking meek.
Similarly, facial expressions matter just as much as body language. In a large auditorium you might think it’s difficult for people in the very back to even tell, but a surprisingly large part of the audience can clearly see your expressions.
Your facial expressions will go hand in hand with your body language and tone of voice. An unmoving, robotic expression will put off a lot of your audience, and usually is accompanied by a lack of tone variation and still body language.
Another problem that many speakers run into, especially when reading off of a script, is tone. Many people speak very normally, but the moment they start reading off of a script, they get very monotone and static with their voice.
You have to keep adjusting your tone depending on what’s happening in the story. Keeping your tone the same the whole time will genuinely put audience members to sleep, and it’s a bad habit to have.
Bringing the Audience in During a Storytelling Event
Being able to foster a relationship and a dynamic with your audience while telling a story is going to make you a much better storyteller and allow you to really impact your audience more than if you just talked at them.
One of the easiest things you can do is to passively include the audience. This doesn’t require direct interaction with them, but you can do a few different things to make the audience feel more included.
For example, you can change up some of your uses of “I” to “us” or “we.” Instead of saying, “I know a lot of people that have struggled financially,” you can say, “Many of us have struggled or know people who have struggled financially.”
What this does is it includes the audience in the story you’re telling without them even saying anything. When they feel included, and you say something relatable, it’s going to hit home for them and make them really connect with what you’re saying.
There are more active ways of including your audience as well, though this needs to be done correctly. If an audience is responsive, and you can interact with them directly, it can really complete your storytelling event.
If your audience seems to be low energy or generally awkward, you shouldn’t try to force any interaction out of them. This tends to fail and ruin the mood of the entire event, so you need to be careful with it.
One way you can interact with your audience is to take questions from them and answer in depth. This can help clear up small confusions, and can even give you information about topics you need to clarify in future stories.
If the audience is really responsive, you can even get them to partake by having them speak up when calling on them to share their experiences. This might be dependent on the setup of the stage or auditorium you’re in, though.
Getting viewers to partake and share their own experiences can help you better connect with the audience and vice versa, as when they talk about their experiences, you can share your own similar ones.
Involving yourself with your audience is what moves you from being another generic speaker to someone that they’ll remember. You can make a greater difference in their lives if you’re able to connect personally with them and make them feel included.
