InVisibleLight

Throwing Balls at the Audience

7th June, 2010 - Posted by janebeard - No Comments

This weekend, I got a dose of my own medicine, when I spoke to an audience at the Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology. The topic was, “Using Intention to Transform Your Audience,” and it was a blast.

These folks know that science is proving, over and over, that focused intention has an impact on the physical world. That’s not just the stuff of a Dan Brown novel — it’s laboratory based science. In fact, they’d just heard from Dr. Dean Radin about some of the newest science out there. Lucky ones heard from Dr. Eric Leskowitz on the SCIENCE of fan intention and outcomes in baseball.

So, I didn’t have to convince this crowd THAT intention mattered. I only had to show them how the intentions of most speakers differed from the intentions of smart speakers. Here’s how I did it.

I had a boatload of used tennis balls (thank you David Kane). Smart speakers direct their intentions toward the audience — like you would when you throw a ball out there toward the audience. MOST speakers direct their intentions toward themselves — like you would when you throw a ball at your own chest.

Ow.

In real life, the equivalent is the speaker who wants to “do a good job,” or “not make a mistake, ” or “use good body language.” Those intentions all focus on the speaker. Ow.

SMART speakers know that the audience counts more than the speaker — so that’s where their intentions are focused.

The strongest speakers intend to change the audience in some way. They deliver a message that’s built to make the listener able to do something they couldn’t have done without being in the audience. Smart speakers make it about listener, rather than themselves.

I didn’t take out anybody or anything when I tossed those balls out there. And it didn’t hurt a bit. But I changed some minds and hearts about what makes a good speaker.

Which was my intention, all along.