Chapter 15 Motivate the audience to resonate with you

All speaking situations are made up of three elements: the speaker, the speech (content), and the audience.The first two laws in this chapter dealt with the interrelationship between the speaker and the speech, and so far we haven't really talked about what happens when we speak.Only when the speaker makes his speech relevant to a living audience does the speech really take shape.A speech may be well-prepared, or it may be about a topic the speaker is passionate about.To be truly and completely successful, however, there is another factor to consider: he must make what he has to say matter;Famous rhetoricians in history all possessed the technique of "the old king sells melons", or the technique of spreading the gospel.You can't go wrong with calling it whatever you like.A good speaker is eager for his audience to feel what he feels, to agree with him, to do what he thinks they should, to share his joys and his sorrows.He is audience-centered, not ego-centered.He understands that the success or failure of his speech is not for him to decide—it is for the brains and hearts of his audience.

During the frugality campaign, I trained a group of people for the New York chapter of the Institute of American Bankers, and one of them was particularly incapable of communicating with his audience.To help him, the first step we take is to get his brain and mind on fire with his own topic.I told him, go to the side and think about the topic again and again, and you must make yourself enthusiastic.I want him to keep in mind that New York's "Probate Court Records" show that 85 percent of people die with nothing, and 3.3 percent leave $10,000 or more; So, instead of asking for favors or doing things that he cannot afford financially, he wants to say to himself: "I am preparing for these people, so that they will be well-fed and comfortable in their old age, and leave their wives The safety and security of the child." I want him to remember that he is out doing a great service to the community.

He thought it over, and after he had considered these facts, he finally made them burn in his mind.He aroused his interest, excited his enthusiasm, and felt that he had a real calling.So he went out to speak, and the words that conveyed his beliefs won a wave of echoes. He shared the benefits of frugality with the audience because he was eager to help people.He was no longer just a speaker with some facts in his head, he became a preacher, trying to get people to believe in worthwhile beliefs.