Taken from:

f The HeART of
o PUBLIIC SPEAK
KING byy Raju Maandhyan

Analy
yzing Au
udience
e Needs

One way
w to d efine pub blic speak king and oral
ntations is to analyzze the wor d “presen tation.”
presen
entation” stems f rom the word “ present,”
“Prese
meanin o give, or to show. It is also a
ng to brin g forth, to
synonyym for the word “giftt.”

In esseence, a prresentation
n is a “giftt” you give
e to an au dience.
I am sure you must ha ve spent long hou urs pondeering and
planninng a gift yyou want to give someone.
s You wantt a gift th at
would be worth hwhile, vaaluable, and
a imme nsely ple asing to the
recipie
ent.

Think about
a u take in g iving the perfect
the steps you p gifft. The ste
eps you ussually take
e
are:

• You get to
o know the e recipientt and unde erstand th eir desiress.
• Once you grasp wh hat they w ant and n eed, you begin to h hunt for th e gift thatt
would ple ase them.
• After you have acq uired the gift, you ttake painss in wrapp ing it attra actively inn
a way tha t will surp rise and delight
d e recipient .
the
• You finallyy deliver the
t gift witth warmth , confiden ce, and sttyle.

In the same man nner, publ ic speakin

ng is more e about the e recipien ts than th e speakerr
or his presentat ion. If we genuinely y care abo out our au udience a nd give th heir needss
specia l attention
n, it will be
ecome nattural for uss to easilyy please th
hem.

The prrocess is simple. These

T u need to answer t o analyze
are the quesstions you e
audien
nce needs::

• Who are tthey?

• Who sent them to li sten to yo ou?
• Did they come
c to lissten to you u out of th heir own c hoice? Wh hy?
• What is it that they need to k now, unde erstand, o r learn?
• What is th heir educa ational and d work bacckground?
• What age group, ge ender, and d nationali ty do theyy belong to o?
• What are their speccific objecttives?
• What is th heir stock knowledg e and exp erience on n the subj ect?
• How are you y qualifi ed to fulfi ll their exppectationss and desi res?
• How exacctly will wh hat you sh are with th hem help them?
t
• What are the steps they will need n to ta ke given the
t new le
earning?
• Is there s omething in your p resentatio on that wil l also provvide a littlle hope, a
littl e happine ss?

Follow ing the above method

m beefore you ur speaki ng eventt will he lp create
e
presen
ntations th at are cle ar, concis e, and rel evant.

A Worlld of Clear, C
Creative andd Conscientious
us Thinkers! www.maandhyan.com
m
Taken from:
f The HeART of
o PUBLIIC SPEAK
KING byy Raju Maandhyan

Ten yeears ago, when I haad just hit the speakking circui t, I was in
nvited to speak
s at a
local chapter
c off the Rota
arians. I called myy host and d asked w what exac tly did hee
m to talk about. He was surp rised.
want me

Are you no
“A ot a speakker? Don’t you have a standarrd speech?
?”
“Y
Yes, I am a speakerr. And I ge
enerally sp
peak abou
ut what myy clients want
w me to
o
sp
peak abouut,” I replie
ed.

On thee telephon e, I could almost he

ear his br ain circuitts clicking away in confusion.
c .
Momen nts later, he recove ered and said, “Okkay, we do on’t have a topic but
b please
e
speak about anyything you like.” Obv n my early speaking days, I was
viously, in w hungryy
for worrk and too
ok up the challenge
c of speakinng for 45 minutes
m ab
bout “anytthing.”

ut a scrip t or a pla
Withou an, I arrivved at the e Rotary meeting a an hour before
b the
e
meetin
ng started . I met evvery mem mber of th e club wh ho walked
d in that evening.
e I
shook hands, chhatted with
h each of them,
t aske ed questio
ons, and to
ook menta al notes.
I made
e jokes ab out the weeather, th e traffic, bbusiness, and aging
g gracefullly. Again I
asked questionss and tookk more me ental notess. In that one hour, my hostss were nott
aware that I had
d finished doing a si mple anallysis of myy audience e and the subject off
my spe
eech, “Cha allenges and
a Chancces after Mid-life:
M A Rotarian’ss Perspec tive.”
While they weree warming g up the meeting,
m I quickly “ mind-map ped,’ seveeral ideass
and be
egan churnning them up in my head.

For th e next fo rty minute es, I stoood up and d told the m what I thought about the e
busineess, familyy and ho ow to age e gracefu ully. All points
p I mmade werre from a
Rotariaan’s point of view. I was tell ing them things tha at were reelevant to them and
d
things that theyy looked forward to o. I talke d about aging,
a the
eir fears, and theirr
individ ual idiosy ncrasies. I had them
m thinkingg, feeling, and laughhing out lo
oud when I
told th em things so relevaant and cu rrent to th
hem..

I had given
g m nothing that they hadn’t givven me. I was luckyy that the topic wass
them
“anyth ing.” Thatt day, I le arned a valuable
v le
esson: Yo
our audien
nce wants to hear
about things re elevant to o them more
m thann whateveer your ssubject matter
m
expert ise might be.

About Raju
R Mandhya
an

Raju has s over ten yeears’ experience in perso

onal developm ment, specifiically in the areas
a of
interperssonal relation
ns, increasedd awarenesss, and communication skiills. He speccializes in
helping others
o underrstand how to o communica ate thoughtss, ideas, goalls, and visionns of the futu
ure.
Thousan nds of execu utives across the Asian-PPacific region have benefiited from Rajju’s training and
a
coaching g.

He has been
b trained
d and certified
d in many mo
odalities including but no
ot limited to th
he following:
Neuro Linguistic Pro
ogramming, Mind
M Mapping, LIFO and Celemi. He is a trainer ccertified by thhe
America
an Management Associattion and by th he Arbinger Institute.

He has authored
a twoo books, one e on Public Speaking and d another on Humor as a tool for
Leadersship. His backkground is in n internationa
al trade. He has
h lived andd worked in tthree
differentt cultures - In
ndian, Filipino
o, and American. Currently, he lives and
a works ou ut of the
Philippin
nes.

A Worlld of Clear, C
Creative andd Conscientious
us Thinkers! www.maandhyan.com
m