Speaking Made Fearless | Distracted Audience

When Distraction Happens

Today we’re talking about speaking when your audience isn’t paying attention to you. Sometimes it’s completely unexpected.

The first step in dealing with it is to realize that this CAN happen. Knowing and accepting that is part of being prepared and being flexible.

What Could Distract Them?

Maybe they’re eating while you’re talking. That can keep them very distracted. It could be you’re speaking at a time of day when it’s hard for people to keep their mind on what you’re doing — first thing in the morning, the end of the day, right before or right after work. People can be distracted by what they’re thinking about, distracted by their mobile devices. Especially at those transition times around the beginning and end of the work day – and around noon.

If your meeting is at a natural food time and snacks or drinks are available, there may be people getting up and down while you’re speaking, people coming into and leaving the room – all these things can be very distracting to your audience.

Here are a few tips for you:

Be aware of the possibilities.
Be prepared for it. Ask your speaking venue about it – whoever booked the engagement. Do your homework.

Do your research ahead of time – especially at early morning meetings. Sometimes it’s a surprise that there is food offered. People are half awake, some are still in a daze. There can be all kinds of wandering around the room, which can be very distracting. The best thing you can do for yourself is to be prepared.

Engage Your Audience

If you know there are going to be distraction factors, build some attention-grabbing elements into your talk, that help your audience to stay focused on what you’re saying. The biggest thing you can do is to get them actively participating – physically engaged. Ask them questions and ask for a show of hands, or to stand up to be counted. Then if someone is distracted but they see the person next to them raising their hand, they’ll think, ‘Oh – what are we doing? I want to be included, I need to pay attention.’

Shift Your Thinking

Then there are a couple of mindset shifts that can help with this that we can achieve by doing some tapping. That involves not taking it personally – which I know can be tricky. But it’s really not personal. There are too many things calling their attention. That’s the biggest mindset shift you want. Don’t take it personally, because then your reaction will be reflected in your talk no matter how hard you’re trying to hide it.

People will feel the vibe of you being annoyed or disappointed or offended and that will interfere with how effective you are as a communicator. And you also don’t want to just feel resigned to it. They’ll feel that, too, and it will definitely influence your performance.

So that’s what we’re going to work on with our tapping today – to help shift your mindset for working with an audience that’s distracted.

Use EFT Tapping To Clear Inner Blocks to Confident Speaking

If you’re not familiar with tapping, it’s simple! Just click on this Quick Start EFT Video to get the hang of it.

Tapping for the Problem

Even though I have these concerns about a distracted audience, I want to accept myself anyway.
Even though I have some anxiety and frustration about speaking to a distracted audience, I want to respect who I am and how I feel.
Even though I have these issues about the audience being distracted, I want to respect myself as a speaker.
All these concerns about the audience being distracted.
This feeling that I can’t do anything about it.
This anxiety and tension.
Thinking I should do better with this.
Wondering if they will pay attention.
Here I put all this effort into my speaking.
And people don’t pay attention.
I should be able to ignore it.
But it really irritates me.
There’s always some clown interrupting things.
People getting up and down.
How am I supposed to deal with this?
I don’t like competing with distractions.
I wish I did a better job of handling it.
It’s hard enough to do a good job without distractions.

Tapping for the Solution

Even though there’s a little part of me that still has some concerns left, there’s a big part of me that has already let go, and I appreciate both parts of me.
Even though there’s a small part of me that’s still tense when I think of a distracted audience, there’s a powerful part of me that has already released that, and that feels great.
Even though I still have some concerns, they are really small and I’m ready to let the rest of them go right now. And I accept both parts of me – the part that’s hanging on and the part that’s letting go.

The last of these concerns – I’m choosing to let them go.
The last of the limiting beliefs – I’m leaving them behind me.
People do what people do.
I know I’m giving them my best.
I’ll use all my skills to keep them engaged.
Because I really want them to get what I have to say.
Maybe I can crack jokes about the distractions.
I don’t have to fight against it.
It’s part of how things go in real life.
It feels so good to feel calm about it.
I can do my best to be prepared.
And then I can relax into whatever shows up.
I know they really want to hear what I have to say.
The more relaxed and flexible I am, the better I come across.
People can connect with the best I have to offer. And that feels great!

When Your Audience Is Distracted