This lesson you're going to learn about building rapport with your audience. And by report, I mean that your audience likes you or that they identify with you, and that they're actively engaged in your message. It's established by building in elements of ethos and pathos with your audience in your early remarks. There are a number of ways people do this. We learned about the importance of small talk in the course on relationship building, in the formal presentation situation, an easy way to build rapport to tell a short, but relevant personal story. Now Jen and I were at idea city.

It's a TED talk late conference held each year in Toronto. Last year, we listened to Alan Alda, talking about effective communication skills. Let's listen it could change my life was the most it really did. It really changed my life is the most effective communication I've ever experienced. I was in Chile, it was 14 years ago, October 19 2010. Service became became my new birthday.

While I was up on top of a mountain 8000 feet up on top of this mountain, outside of the small town called lotsa aim. And I was sitting in this lobby of the observatory where I was going to interview some scientists in a few minutes. And I remember this so clearly ever sitting on a blue vinyl bench. And I got this taken with my gut. And it within a few minutes, it was the worst pain I've ever felt in my life. And I'm all crumpled up on the on the bench and they had a medic up there.

I see him looking at me across the lobby him. I don't think he ever done anything medical before. He comes over to me and he says, Are you arriving? And I said, No, I got this pain and I think it went down here. I think maybe I have appendicitis. And he said, I think so.

Confidence in this, but they had an anthem and stuff. There will be big old bye You must have been 50 years old. And they slid me in the angles of screaming and painting in an hour and a half down a bumpy mountain road to this little High School, where there's this brilliant surgeon who knew exactly what was wrong with me. It wasn't my appendix at all, was about a yard of my intestine, that have been all creeped up and lost its blood supply. And within a couple of hours, it was going to be dead and so without it. But this was the communication This was so wonderful.

He leaned over so he could see my face and I could see his face and I could still see his eyes through his rimless glasses. And he said, Here's what's happened. Some of you are testing has gone bad and we have to cut out the bad part. And so the two good days together. And I said oh, you're going to do it into international Moses. How do you know that?

I should Oh, I did. Many of them on my Now notice how he used the story to build rapport with his audience. And this set up the entire talk that he had about communication skills. Now to be a strong, effective executive communicator, you need an ability to read your audience. When you communicate with executive presence. It's like figuratively taking your audience by the hand and kind of guiding them through your message.

This is easier done in person. Watch for the subtle indications that you're getting through your audience. What are some of those cues that you're looking for? So just think about that for a moment? What do you look for? Yeah, you're looking for things like nodding their heads as if to they're agreeing with you.

Are they making eye contact with you? Are they looking down at their phones? Are they taking notes on hanging on every word? You're saying? Are they sitting forward? Are they smiling at you?

Are they tilting their head which is an ending occasion that they're showing interest. On the other hand, sometimes our message does not resonate with our audience audience and they also give us cues. So I always call this or refer to this as my superpower, because I've learned to identify over the years when members of my audience are either lost or they get tired or they're bored, which means I'm not only wasting their time, but I'm wasting my own. You'll notice things like people checking their phones, people flipping pages or skipping ahead in the notes or the handouts. You'll notice the glazed vacant, blank stares in their faces. Some people close their eyes, some people lean back and yawn, all indications that your message is not resonating with your audience.

So when we lose our audience, you've lost their the connection with them. What can you do to get them back is all lost? Well, not at all, but it does require you to adjust your presentation style on the fly. So for instance, you might speed up your presentation when people are nodding quickly, which is an involuntary reaction to information they already know. On the other hand, you may need to slow down when you get that loss stare in their eyes. You may want to take a pause and ask a question or facilitated discussion.

To break up the monotony of your presentation. You may simply just call for a break. When people have that tired, feel and look to them. You may ask your audience for some feedback as to how well things are going or where their areas of interest lie. And whenever possible, get your audience involved. You can ask for their perspective, their opinions, you can play a little game with them.

Even if this is a less formal presentation. There are all sorts of creative ways to get your audience to take an active part in the communication. And in doing so this will not only improve their own retention, but it will also elevate your executive presence and make you more influential. In our next lesson, you're going to learn how to tell a story Just as Alan Alda did earlier