For so many, public speaking is considered “risk-taking.” But, there’s a lot to be said for taking risks while public speaking. It adds an element of excitement to a speech and a new level of investment from the speaker. Plus, taking these risks helps strengthen your executive presence.
It can also have a significant effect on the audience. Read on to find out how.
This is what we’ll be covering:
- How the band, Twenty One Pilots, brought 20K+ people together
- Breaking down how Twenty One Pilots involved their audience
- What audiences love
- Suggestions for risk-taking and getting your audience involved while public speaking
- Conclusion
1 How the band, “Twenty One Pilots”, brought 20k+ people together
Recently, my friend Deanne and I took our 14-year-old sons, friends since birth, to a “Twenty One Pilots” concert. It was my son’s first big rock concert. You’ve probably heard their song Stressed Out.
In the middle of a song, a large platform, holding an entire drum set, was moved into the pit where the audience members put up their arms and literally started holding the whole thing up!
The crowd was loving this
Was Josh, the drummer, going to climb up onto that shaky platform and play the drums with the audience holding him up? We were holding our breath!
Josh milked the moment. He looked at the tenuous support and took a long pause, teasing the crowd and building intense anticipation. Would the crowd be able to hold his weight, too, if he climbed up? Would he really be able to play the drums on such an unpredictable surface? Could he, and could WE, trust this to go well?
When Josh finally took the leap of faith and climbed onto the risky platform to play the drums, the crowd went wild.
The effect was amazing. My son jerked his head towards me, eyes wide open in disbelief. It was scary and thrilling all at once. People all over were nodding in awe and in “YES!” It cemented the crowd. Truly riveting.
2 How the band involved their audience:
The band did something very clever – they made the audience a part of their performance and a part of their team. They called upon us to get involved, help, support, and assist with their performance. They demanded that people be engaged and the audience willingly jumped for it.
Breaking down the elements at play:
- Fear: What if the platform tilted to one side and the drums slid off the platform and knocked someone out. In this moment the drummer was taking a huge risk and he invited the audience to come along with him.
- Responsibility: What would we, as an audience, do if he fell?
- Community: It brought the whole stadium together. The audience was completely energized.
- Trust: By trusting the audience to hold him up, he empowered the audience.
- The “What if”: They introduced the question, ”If something goes wrong, what will we do?” The audience has to fill in the blanks.
- Vulnerability: The drummer was vulnerable and he looked it… It was a bit wobbly and they could have dropped him.
The ripple effect through the stadium was bonding and the energy soared.
3 What audiences love
This is an important question to consider when public speaking. After all, it’s not about you, it’s about your audience.
- How do you want the audience to feel?
- What kind of experience do you want them to have?
- What feeling do you want them to walk away with?
So, here’s what audiences love.
Audiences:
- They love it when you involve them. If it’s not them on stage they want to see how an audience member handles being brought up on stage
- They love when you trust them
- They love to be a part of a community and interacting builds community
- They like to be entertained as opposed to bored
- They like to be surprised
- They, like everyone, are thirsty to be seen and heard
Public speaking is a live experience and you have to ask this question: If you don’t want to acknowledge your audience and involve them in your speech, why not just send them your PowerPoint or transcript?
4 Daring greatly: suggestions for risk-taking while public speaking
I love this quote from Theodore Roosevelt. I put it below because it’s so important for public speaking and performers. Brene Brown read this quote and decided to use his phrase “Daring Greatly” as the title for her book.
“It’s not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the person who is in the arena. Whose face is marred with dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly … (sic) who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly …”
– Theodore Roosevelt
And so the question here is: Do YOU want to be the person in the arena?
How can you, a non-rock star, roll your sleeves up, walk yourself into that arena, and dare greatly?
Suggestions for taking risks or “Daring Greatly” in your next speech:
- Risk telling a vulnerable personal story
- Ask for volunteers to participate in an exercise on stage with you
- Walk into the audience and interact with them
- Introduce a controversial topic
- Use body language in a much more expressive way than you normally do
- Sing
- Push yourself to be more expressive than you normally are
- Do something you haven’t done before on stage
- Speak on a topic you’re afraid to speak about
When you push yourself to take some kind of risk during public speaking, you take the attention off of your own speech and content and put it into the moment. Once you do this, you’re taking your speech to the next level, involving your audience and making them feel something, in part, because you’re feeling something.
“At the end of the day people won’t remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel.”
― Maya Angelou
CONCLUSION
Knowing that you’re in the arena and that you will and can take a risk or “Dare Greatly” is a fantastic way to energize your performance or speech and get people to listen. Look at the list above and take time to define what your personal risks could be and how you could involve your audience. If you don’t know where to start, please contact us for information on executive coaching and public speaking courses. Our Public Speaking 101 course can get you started and executive coaching can help you refine your speech or performance, and identify what risks to take.
And, if you’ve succeeded in taking risks and drawing your audience in, they will leave feeling something profound and a sense of time well spent, just like we did at the Twenty One Pilots concert.
Additional Resources:
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