{"id":4458,"date":"2021-01-21T10:00:56","date_gmt":"2021-01-21T18:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/?p=4458"},"modified":"2021-01-08T16:44:34","modified_gmt":"2021-01-09T00:44:34","slug":"please-dont-overestimate-your-audiences-knowledge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/?p=4458","title":{"rendered":"Please don\u2019t overestimate your audience\u2019s knowledge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ask the important question first<\/strong><\/p>\n

When making a presentation to a new audience, the smart thing to do, if there is an opportunity, is to ask your audience by show of hands, if they have some knowledge of \"\"your industry or space.\u00a0 And if you are making a one-to-one presentation, don\u2019t start without a conversation about the other person\u2019s knowledge of your space.<\/p>\n

Asking the important question creates a connection<\/strong><\/p>\n

With that question you create an immediate connection with your audience even before beginning to present, and you know better how much explanation you will need to accompany your most elementary statements.\u00a0 And you will not insult the industry experts by appearing to talk down to them.<\/p>\n

How I ask the question<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I give a keynote address, I often start by asking my audience, by raise of hands, to tell me how many of them are angel or VC investors, how many are entrepreneurs, and how many are service providers such as attorneys.\u00a0 Immediately, I can tell how to orient the explanations behind my pre-cast slides, based upon the response.\u00a0 It always works, and the audience should appreciate that the speaker takes the time to orient the talk to the audience, not the other way around.<\/p>\n

\u00a0What to do with a split audience<\/strong><\/p>\n

[Email readers, continue here…]\u00a0<\/em><\/span> \u00a0If your audience is composed of PhD\u2019s in organic chemistry, would you want to explain the most elementary teachings in the field?\u00a0 On the other hand, it is most often true that only one or a few of your audience members might be knowledgeable in your area of expertise.\u00a0 Address them directly with \u201cI hope you will put up with me as I spend a few moments explaining some of our elementary knowledge to the others.\u201d\u00a0 That makes these experts a part of your presentation, able to nod their heads when you do explain these things to the others, instead of looking a bit disdainful that you don\u2019t recognize that there are experts in the room.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ask the important question first When making a presentation to a new audience, the smart thing to do, if there is an opportunity, is to ask your audience by show of hands, if they have some knowledge of your industry … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4458\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}