As I stand and walk towards the door I suggest to him that he should invite some of his CEO friends and we’ll have a small group gathering each Monday morning, rather than just him and me meeting over breakfast.
He says no.
I am puzzled. I have suggested this multiple times before, and every time I suggest it, he shoots me down. But today I have worked up the courage, or maybe just hit my limit for frustration, and I ask:
Why do you always say no?
He says:
Because this brings me peace.
Ostensibly, I am there to teach English and presentation skills. But evidently, I am serving another purpose, one I do not understand, so I just shrug my shoulders and say goodbye, see you again in a few days.
What does this have to do with your presentations? Keep in mind that it is highly likely that you don’t actually understand what your audience wants from you. Don’t worry about this, or think that you have somehow fallen short.
Yes, we presentation trainers say over and over, “Know your audience.”
But the truth is that sometimes you’re not going to know your audience.
In fact, sometimes they might not even know what they themselves want, much less how to articulate it to you. If they don’t know it themselves, how on earth can you ever hope to?
So yes, try your best to know your audience. But realize that sometimes you won’t, and that doesn’t mean something is wrong with you.
By the way, yes, the example is about a real-life client, and yes, he is a member of this email list. So if you recognize yourself in this story, yes, this story is probably about you.