As a motivational speaker, I’m told by savvy marketers everywhere to tailor my message to my multi-generational audiences. Talk their language; speak to their hearts and minds, identify their specific pain and solve it. I agree with that philosophy, but what happens when you have a mixed audience? For over 20 years, I have spoken in the corporate and association markets. Once in awhile, I’ll speak to a university staff, but rarely students. Imagine my concern about tailoring my message when I was asked to speak for family weekend at High Point University. In my audience, I would be addressing a diverse audience: students AND their parents!
I was scheduled to appear as one of the optional activities on Saturday afternoon for family weekend. They advertised a lecture series called Front-Row Leadership. Since I was scheduled to speak on Saturday, they had me do some pre-work by speaking to the Selling Club, Entrepreneur Club, the School of Business and the school of Finance on Thursday and Friday. My messages were geared toward selling, being an entrepreneur and taking charge of your career. I have a core message of being accountable for your own success, but tailored the message for each class of students. In order to bring my points home, I infused some personal stories of success and failure and added of course, some humor.
But Saturday would be the mixed crowd. I kept thinking, how am I going to make my message resonate with both the students and their parents? How am I going to deliver relevant information for the more senior attendees while keeping the attention of the younger generation?
The good news is, the response from the students was very favorable. So when it came time to decide on the many family options for Saturday afternoon, many students who had already seen me speak, took their parents to see me! The best feedback happened before I took the stage. As I was walking around the theater meeting people, I heard “My son hasn’t stopped talking about you for the last 2 hours!”
When I did my pre-work, I asked the client what would have to happen for him to say I hit a grand slam home run. He gave me some specifics, and added how important it was for me to be accessible to the students. With that in mind, I offered my cell number if anyone wanted to text me if they had any questions. The funny part was, when I started getting positive feedback via texts that night and the following day, I had to ask “Is this a parent or a student?” A testament to me connecting with them was I got an equal number from both.
I found a way to make it work because of three things that helped make it a success.
If you have a presentation to give that addresses a diverse audience, try these:
- Present something ahead of time to prime the pump. Do a great job so there is word of mouth buzz about you. Third party endorsements weigh much heavier than a promotional piece from your marketing department.
- Adapt your message in a way that both young people and their parents could relate. People of all ages can be inspired by a story of hope and overcoming odds. Tell stories that speak to the heart and connect with them emotionally.
- Be accessible to that they can follow up and know you made a difference. Have your twitter handle handy, and if you’re gutsy give your cell phone out for follow up texts. I noticed very few people were taking notes, but everyone had a smart phone. Suggest they take a photo of slides that you would want them to keep. (I used this technique with a slide that had some sample questions they would use with a mentor. And, it worked. Bonus – my inspirational quote “You can’t walk in gratitude and sit in self-pity at the same time. – @FrontRowGirl” was the most re-tweeted part of my presentation, which by the way, came with a photo of my slide.
One final thought. Just because you have an audience of multi-generational people, don’t talk down to the younger generation and don’t pander to the older generation. Just be yourself – your authentic, value-adding, non-condescending self.
From your grateful to connect with people at any age motivational speaker,
Marilyn Sherman
