3 Things I Learned While Presenting at the Dubai Business Women Council

Published on June 16, 2019

by Kishore Dharmarajan

CEO of SeoSouq.com - World's First 700% ROIDigital Agency

 am always nervous speaking to a crowd.

But when the Dubai Business Women Council at the Dubai Chamber asked me to share my thoughts about using LinkedIn to Grow a Brand, I thought I should forget my nervousness and rise up to the challenge.

I am glad I took that opportunity as it turned out to be an amazing experience and here are 3 things that I learned:

Lesson One: You can Keep People's Attention for 2 Hours

We all know that its difficult to keep an audience engaged for 2 hours. They might get bored. They might scroll through mobile feeds. They might go out to get a glass of water.

But surprisingly, during the 2 hours that I spent at Dubai Business Women Council, not a single person was browsing their mobile phones.

Because I was asking questions all the time.

Not simple questions.

But questions designed to make the audience think.

And write.

It seems likes a simple idea.

But the whole process of asking questions and leading the audience towards a challenge that could only be explained after the exercise was over is a pretty neat speaking technique.

The audience was fascinated with the topic.

For two hours.

Lesson Two: People Love Stories

Opening a talk is one of the most important tasks that a speaker will face.

Should you tell a joke?

Should you talk about what the audience will learn today?

I decided to tell a story of my experiences as a small business owner and how I used LinkedIn to generate sales for my company.

The story had specific details that outlined the entire strategy of my talk.

The story talked about the challenges that a small business owner usually face and how to use the power of LinkedIn.

The story showed how to rise above failure and was designed to inspire.

By pressing all the emotional buttons, I was able to excite the crowd with the intro and let them know they were in for a talk they had never seen before.

Lesson Three: Don't Shy Away from Questions

One of the biggest challenges that a speaker will face is being asked questions after the talk. You really don't have much time to think and will be put on the spot.

But I think, this is one of the most joyful parts of the process. The fact that I was flooded with questions was a testimony to the fact that all members of the group were actively listening to the talk and had questions of their own.

If you are a subject expert, you will be able to quickly answer all the questions and even guide the questioner to places they hadn't thought off when asking the questions. This will bring even more credibility to the whole process as the audience can quickly judge your knowledge from your answers.

If you can exhibit professionalism and integrity, it will automatically build trust.

And trust, as you know, is critical for success in business and in life.

This articles and more articles from Kishore are found here