How To Connect With Your Audience

Connecting with people is critical for selling, persuading or getting the point across. And one of the ways we connect with people is to tell them stories about ourselves.

I was at a business workshop recently, and the stories that were most effective (by acclamation of the attendees) were ones where the person let down his/her guard, and revealed something personal. This is one of the reasons storytelling is more effective than reciting a list of benefits to a prospect. In addition to being interesting and easy to understand, it also helps create a personal bond with the audience. It means that you may want, in your ministry storytelling, to reveal anxieties, fears and feelings. In other words, to give the audience your confidence.

How To Make A Point Effectively

We often grapple with the question of why and how leaders should go about making a point through their messages. In otherwords get people to understand the message when they hear it, they remember it, and they change their behavior because of it.

Messages that make a point or “sticky” messages have certain distinctives - unexpected, concrete, credible, and emotional.



Read More on my other blog.

3 Points from Aristotle on Presentation

1. Begin With the End in Mind
Knowing where you're trying to go before you start is crucial to leading an effective life (and handy for road trips too). Aristotle called this teleology, which is the study of matters with their end or purpose in mind. Fans of Stephen Covey will recognize the concept from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

The same principle applies to any presentation. The overall story that a presentation is trying to tell is tied into your unique selling proposition, and you need to have a clearly-defined big picture perspective of how you're going to tell that story over time.
You do that by telling smaller stories, and, those smaller stories should each have a clear individual point and reason for being. Even if it's just to make your audience smile on a Monday.
Each story in some way should be also telling a part of the bigger story that demonstrates to your audience that they will benefit from engaging with you. There's a million different ways to do that, and developing your own unique style is as important as any other advice you might get.
Just always remain focused on where you're trying to end up. Even when the path disappears, you’ve got to remember where you’re trying to go.

2. It's Not About You
Aristotle nailed the key to persuasion. Aristotle said that persuasion involved being able to identify the most compelling naturally-occurring element of any subject.
Once identified, Aristotle argued that the most compelling way to communicate that natural element is via pathos, the ability to connect with the emotions, desires, fears, and passions of the audience. And you certainly don't accomplish that by focusing on yourself.

3. Tell Persuasive Stories
When it's time to bang out a winning story post that captivates your audience and prompts them to take action, Aristotle's got you covered. Here is his four step structure to persuasive presentations:
Exordium: This is your opening. You've caught their interest with your headline, but the opening is where you've really got to grab hold for dear life. It might be a shocking statement, an interesting factoid, a famous quote, or a vivid anecdote.
Narratio: Next you've got to show the audience you understand their problems. They need to identify with you, and you with them. In this section you demonstrate that you feel their pain.
Confirmatio: The solution appears. Use vivid imagery to illustrate that the technique or service you offer is the answer, and give examples featuring people similar to the audience.
Peroratio: Don't forget to expressly state the need to act upon the solution offered now. This is the call to action, and it's crucial, yet so many people simply stop at the confirmatio.

The Right Story at the Right Time
The point I hope you take away from this post is that you'll see certain timeless truths again and again in the world of marketing. How those truths eventually resonate with you depends on who tells you the right story at the right time.

This applies to you and your ministry. Someone in your field is going to connect with that motivated individual, convert them and disciple them.
If you're telling compelling stories, and others can't be bothered to, who's that someone more likely to be?

3 Reasons Why a Lack of Resources is a Blessing

There's an air of iron willed determination about entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurs. Along with hope and a blind optimism which leaves most people just shaking their heads but leaves me fascinated by them.

Ministry development or church planting for me is essentially the same thing. I believe the innovation and creativity born out of not ever having enough resources [be it people, money and or time] leads to some of the most amazing problem-solving skills and breakthrough ideas. Sometimes it may appear to be stuck together with band-aids or duct-taped together, but they'll make it work!

Seth Godin talks a bit about this in a recent post about marketing budgets, but I think it applies to ministry development as well.

First: Great product development and marketing almost always comes from organizations that don't have enough money. Having less money keeps you from trying to buy your way out of trouble.

Second: Learning to live with less money means you will develop skills and resources instead of buying them. And it means that when you have less money (again), you'll be prepared.

Third: It keeps a focus on what needs to be done and cuts out on the extra frills.

Tags: Ministry development, Innovation, Marketing, Public relations