The Art of Visual Speaking

maintains audience attention throughout presentation with the effective use of speaker’s body, voice, and words to creatively and concisely illustrate messages.

Three people sitting in a row with red chairs, laughing and enjoying themselves at an event.
A group of five young adults at an indoor event, with the woman in the foreground wearing a black top and red pants, holding a camera, and the others standing behind her, some looking at her and some at their phones.
Group of diverse people clapping during a professional event or seminar.
A diverse group of colleagues are sitting in a modern office, laughing and enjoying a discussion.

A focus on audience attention rejects ordinary outcomes!

Audience-Centered RESULTS

Audience Attention Decreases Amount of Time Wasted

A slide from a presentation about people tuning out of PowerPoint after 10 minutes, with a background of an audience and an icon of an hourglass.

Audience Attention Requires Methods to Prevent Boredom

Group of four people, two men and two women, sitting with heads resting on hands, looking bored. A speech bubble with a smiley face and the text 'most presentations are boring.' a circular graphic shows 79% of people agree.

Audience Attention Overcomes the Pull of Distractions

Infographic showing a statistic that over 4 in 5 business professionals shift focus away from the speaker, with illustrations of diverse people at a conference table.

A lack of audience attention ignites desire to improve skills!

Audience-Centered MOTIVATION

  • A woman standing and leaning over a table with four seated young adults, some appearing bored or tired, in a meeting room with a laptop and a projector on the table.

    Efficient Preparation

    You create a message and, after delivering it, you believe your lack of preparation time is to blame for losing audience attention.

    S O L U T I O N
  • A man in a business suit holding his forehead stands in front of a whiteboard with a rising graph, while a group of four people, two women and two men, sit at a table with coffee cups and laptops, in a bright office.

    Nervousness Release

    Your audience pays less attention to what you say when your nervous mannerisms are interpreted as lacking confidence.

    S O L U T I O N
  • A woman with curly red hair wearing a blue shirt standing in front of a whiteboard with papers and notes, inside a bright office with large windows.

    Animated Delivery

    You use wordy visual aids as speaking notes, even though your prolonged focus on these visuals divert attention from you and the message.

    S O L U T I O N
  • An angry man in a gray suit yells into a landline phone while holding a megaphone in an office environment. He has short dark hair and wears glasses, with office supplies and a laptop on his desk.

    Behavior Change

    Although you receive lackluster responses from your audiences, improving your presentation skills is a low priority for you.

    S O L U T I O N
  • A woman with glasses and dark hair is touching her face, standing in front of a gray wall with a speech bubble graphic next to her head.

    Memorable Presentation

    Your audience seems to understand your content while delivering it, but days later can’t recall much of what they heard.

    S O L U T I O N
  • Man with glasses wearing a maroon shirt showing thumb down with a displeased facial expression.

    Hopeful Improvement

    You decline invitations to prepare and deliver presentations, avoiding the negative audience reactions you previously experienced.

    S O L U T I O N

Audience attention requires change from common practices!

Audience-Centered DISTINCTION

A colorful diagonal striped sign with a blue, brown, and red background bearing the message 'Stop losing! audiences with boring speaches!'
A person sleeping on a desk in a classroom with other students in the background, and a note with the word "BORED" written on it with a pen.

Most speakers do not intentionally bore their audiences. In fact, many are well-intentioned.  They typically want their audience to know what they discovered while preparing the presentation.

However, in their zeal to deliver as much information as possible, these speakers lose their audience. They deliver their presentation as if the audience’s attention span is the same as theirs, without realizing how the speaker’s attention span is substantially increased during the preparation process.

In other words, boredom sets in when the speaker attempts to, metaphorically, pour its pitcher full of content into the audience’s empty cup. Much is wasted when a pitcher full of information is emptied into a cup, since the cup retains very little from the pitcher.

The speaker mistakenly pours the content in the same manner as the pitcher was filled during preparation. Essentially, the audience’s capacity to retain content during message delivery is not the same as the speaker during message preparation.

An anti-settling message with bold white, black, and white text on a colorful geometric background of red, blue, and brown shapes.
A collage of two images: on the left, two women sitting at a table, looking down at a book or notebook with focused expressions; on the right, a close-up of a person in a suit holding a microphone.

It’s easy to become comfortable with holding the attention of some of the audience, some of the time, throughout an entire presentation. The personal satisfaction in reaching some of the audience tends to block a speaker from fully assessing the presentation’s areas of needed improvement.

Reaching some means there is more work to do in reaching all. A more reliable indication of a speaker’s effectiveness comes from the audience members who are not paying attention.

Those who are seemingly attentive are quite possibly engaged in casual hearing, without adequately processing the message. This is typically the case when speakers incorporate wordy, digital slides into their presentation.

While it may appear that audience members are actively listening to and processing the message, their attentiveness is actually “active confusion.” They are engaged in an attempt to understand information they are reading within the slides while, at the same time, listening to information coming from the speaker’s voice.

Colorful background with the text: "stop wasting time and money preparing mediocre speeches!" in bold white, black, and cream fonts.
Two men in business suits sitting on white chairs in a bright, modern indoor space, each using a tablet device.

Speakers maximize the preparation process when resources are used to not only organize content, but also to practice content delivery.

Many speakers, however, focus primarily on content preparation, particularly if the bulk of their preparation occurs immediately prior to the scheduled presentation date. As a consequence, those speakers run the risk of delivering a message filled with abstract concepts and with extremely limited potential for grabbing and holding audience attention.

Preparation efficiency is maximized when speakers know what to do and how to do it. When speakers know and understand the absolute importance of connecting with their audience throughout their presentation, they don’t waste resources preparing content that appeals only to audience members’ sense of hearing.

These speakers include material that draws mental pictures. They practice an animated delivery of this content, further engaging the audience throughout the presentation.

The BOOST Process naturally increases audience attention!

Audience-Centered ACTION

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BOOST appropriately describes my Group Training and Private Coaching philosophy and methodology. Here’s a brief summary for you to remember.

  • Clients receive a BOOST or increase of awareness as they discover their natural presentation style from an audience viewpoint.

  • Clients also receive a BOOST or elevation of their presentation performance as they enhance, not abandon, their natural style.

Tim Brown, JD, MDiv - Public Speaking Practitioner, Visual Speaking Training Consultant

Click here to Learn about Tim Brown's experience & qualifications!
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Clients value Visual Speaking Training & Coaching Method!

Audience-Centered FEEDBACK

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“I appreciate how your content organization techniques helped to relieve my nervousness while speaking!”

LaTrece Smith, MBA MSW LCSW - Chief Executive Officer, EPIR Source Mental Health Services, St. Louis, MO

Click Here to Learn Who Benefits from Private Coaching
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“Thank you for our customized training. It exceeded my expectations!”

Joe H. Tucker, Jr., Esq. - Founder and CEO, Tucker Law Group, Philadelphia, PA

Click Here to Learn Who Benefits From Group Training

Customized Group Training

EVALUATION COMMENTS

Tucker Law Group, Philadelphia, PA

I especially liked and wish to compliment:

  • “The course was well structured. The material was expertly conveyed. The presenter, Tim, is enthusiastic, and highly qualified.”

  • “All the tips - will continue to work on these points. Looking forward to private coaching too.”

  • “Your individual attention to each of our strengths/weaknesses and ability to incorporate our feedback on the fly.”

  • “The hands on training w/ the taping, playback & direct critique.”

  • “The instructors ability to deliver constructive criticism.”

  • “The practice and instruction format.”

  • “Time taken to give individual comments.”

  • “The ability to adapt and make/tailor the program to us.”

  • “All of the public speaking - the portion of the day - excellent!”

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