The Audience is Not The Client

Do you struggle with fear, doubt, and worry in your public speaking? Do you find it difficult to connect with your audience and deliver presentations that leave a lasting, positive, unforgettable impact? If yes, then let's dive in the world of public speaking and presentation skills with your host, Eric Edmeads. Welcome to the Unforgettable Podcast.

The audience is not the client. Let me disclaim that for a moment. If you're running a retreat or your own seminar, your own workshop, then the people bought their tickets from you or registered with you, then they're the client. But in all other situations, when you're an invited guest speaker, when you're a paid keynote speaker, when you're a hired trainer, when you're working for a corporate client, when you're speaking professionally, you need to understand something. The audience is not the client. And this is a very important distinction to understand. And if you. If you don't understand it, there's a bunch of tragic mistakes you might make. You see, if you think that the audience is the client, then here's one horrible mistake you might make. You might come toward the end of your allotted time and you might think, well, I want to deliver more for the client. And since the audience is the client, I may as well ask the client if they would like me to deliver more. And then you'll say to the client, you'll say to the audience, hey, I've only got three minutes left. Would you guys like me to go on? And then the audience is very likely, if you're half decent, that they're gonna go, yeah, yeah, we want more. Meanwhile, the real client, the producer of the event, is cringing because you are causing chaos at the event. You are creating a negative impact for all of the speakers that follow you. You're creating a negative impact for the audio visual team. You're creating a negative impact for the audience. You're messing everything up because you thought the audience was the client. The client is the person that booked you, the person that's paying you, the person that organized the event. And I can tell you that taking this approach has been unbelievably successful for me because what I've done is I've developed a reputation for delivering what the producer wants. Yes, of course I deliver the maximum quality value that I can for the audience. Of course I make them laugh, I make them cry, I teach them, I make them want me to come back. But more than that, I am easy to work with. I do what they ask me to do. If they ask me to cut 15 minutes out of my presentation. You know what I don't do is have a temper tantrum. You know what most speakers do have a temper tantrum. I don't do that. They go, we need to take 15 minutes out of your time slot because there's some other speaker went over time. I'm like, no problem. But equally, equally when they say, hey, Eric, I know you spoke yesterday already and you're all done, but we've had a cancellation. Can you come and fill in and do 45 minutes again today? Absolutely, I can. I want to be the solution to their problem. And as a result of being the solution to their problem, guess what? I'm probably going to get invited back. There are many conferences that have a general policy of only bringing speakers in once or once every few years where I've been invited to speak again and again and again. And that's not simply because of what I did for the audience. It's because of what I did for the client. The client is the person who hired you, engaged you, organized the event and are paying you. That's the client. And if you approach it that way from the beginning, then you will change everything. It means that you are polite, that you are responsive, that you are flexible, and that all of your customer service energy is applied to the producer. And then you deliver to the audience for the producer. The audience isn't the client.

So that's it for today's episode of Unforgettable. Head on over to itunes or wherever you listen and subscribe to the show. One lucky listener every single week who posts a review on itunes will win a chance in the grand prize drawing to win a private $25,000 VIP day with Eric Edmeads himself. Be sure to head on over to Unforgettable show and pick up a free copy of Eric's gift and join us on the next episod.