TJ Walker shares four steps to handle audience members on their phones: stay calm, move closer to them, mention their name casually, and ask a rhetorical question. Don't fixate on it, since the distraction might signal something serious in their life.
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So what do you do? You've been preparing for this presentation, this speech. You think it's going really well, and then you look down there on the front row, there's someone on a cell phone ignoring you. Now, we've all had this happen. I've had it happen. What do you do? The natural reaction is to just get annoyed. Ignore that person. Maybe turn your back, look at your screen or something. We all have to fight the impulse of going over to them and say, hey, pay attention. You're being rude. But you can't do that in polite society. But here's the problem. If one person can do it, other people can see that person checking email or text Facebook, and then they might start doing it. So I don't think you should just ignore it. Step one, relax. Don't let it bother you. This person may have a crisis of epic proportion. This person may have a spouse about to go into labor. Step two, see if you can engage the person in a friendly way. That could be as simple as just walking over there rather than staying behind a lectern. Sometimes just getting physically close to someone will make them put their cell phone away. Step three, see if you can engage them somehow. Let's say it's Jim, and you know it's Jim. I would go to the other side of the room and say, you know, I was just talking to Jim earlier, and he told me one of his concerns. So I'm not embarrassing him. I'm not criticizing him, but I'm mentioning him by name. And quite often that will bring someone back. The fourth step is to ask a rhetorical question. Say, how many of you have ever experienced a situation where, blah, blah, blah, Jim, that's happened to you before, right? And quite often the person will look up and they'll shake their head, you're not embarrassing them. The. Because they don't have to say, I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention. I don't know what the question is. All they have to do is kind of nod and then you're going on. So those are some steps. But finally, the final step, Just realize it might not be you. It may be that they are going through a divorce or something like that, and there's simply more important matters going on in their life. So don't fixate on that person when there's so many other people who are paying attention. I'm TJ Walker. Thanks for joining me. By the way, if you would like some more tips on how to speak persuasively, how to use storytelling in presentations. I have an upcoming free webinar that you may be interested in attending, so scroll down to the bottom of this page and sign up.
