Understanding Your Audience | The Speakers Edge Podcast

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Hey guys, welcome back to The Speaker’s Edge Podcast. This is the podcast designed to help you learn from some of the world's very best communicators so that you don't have to reinvent the wheel — and you can learn how to inspire your audience by mastering your message every time you speak.

In this episode we're going to be talking about: Who is the most important person in the room every time you speak? No matter who you're speaking to — who is the most important person in the room? I'll give you a clue. It's not you. It's not you. It's the audience, isn't it? It's the audience. Because it's always all about the audience. Always about the audience.

And so in this episode we're going to look at how really understanding who's in your audience sets you up to win every time you speak. Every time you speak.

Now, when you stop and think about it, there are a number of pitfalls which, when we think about them together, are fairly obvious. They're easy to understand. Because when most people are asked to speak in front of an audience, their first thought really is: "Am I going to do a good job? Are they going to like me? Are they going to accept me? Am I going to be negatively evaluated? Will they see me as an equal? Will they see me as worthy? What am I going to say? How will I remember what I'm going to say? What will I do if I forget what I'm going to say?"

All of these things are things that we think about. But this is all about you, if you think about it. This is all about you, the speaker. It's I, I, me, me. It's all about what you want to get from the audience — what you want to take from them — rather than what you can give to the audience. How you can serve them.

Now, if you want to make progress quickly in anything, try to focus on the most important things. Because you've only got a certain amount of time. We all get 24 hours a day. It's not about having more time, it's about using it effectively, isn't it? And the people that seem to be most successful use their time most effectively. And "most effectively" really means they're focusing on the most important things, not the least important things.

In fact, Emerson said, “The things that matter most must never be at the mercy of the things that matter least.” So we need to be able to determine what's more important than what's less important — and make sure that we're focusing on the right things. Otherwise we can be spending a great deal of energy, a great deal of time, and not making very much progress.

I'll give you a simple example of this. This was, I don't know, about over 10 years ago when we lived in England. I decided that I wanted to get good at swimming, because I always admired those people that could power up and down the lanes doing front crawl — you know, freestyle — and it looks kind of effortless and strong. I thought, “I want to be able to do that.” So I decided I was going to get swimming lessons.

First lesson with my swimming instructor, he said, "Jump in the pool and show me what you can do." So I jumped in and I went up and down for lengths and I gave it everything I could. I got out of the pool and I was exhausted. I was exhausted. And he's like, "Well, you certainly put everything into that, didn't you?"

I said, "Yeah, yeah." He said, "That's not a good thing."

I said, "Oh — why is that not a good thing?"

He says, "Well, when you look at the best swimmers in the world, and even just good swimmers, they don't do that. They're not splashing around all over the place giving it everything they've got. They're much more graceful than that."

And I said, "But if I want to swim faster, of course I need to be stronger and I need to be fitter."

And he said, "No you don't. You're not going to get anywhere like that. You're not going to meet your goals like that."

And I'm like, "Of course I am. If I can pull harder through the water and I can do it for longer, then I'm going to be a faster swimmer. I'm going to be a better swimmer."

He says, "You're not. You could double the power and get very, very little increase in your speed. But if you just improve your drag in the water — if you're more efficient in the water, less water resistance — then you don't need to increase your power. In fact you could reduce your power and you'll go much faster with much less effort."

Like, what?

He said, "When you see the best swimmers, they kind of sit on top of the water. They're flat to the water, and they move effortlessly through the water — very little drag. You? You're going at like 45 degrees. Your feet are flailing around all over the place, practically dragging on the floor. There's so much resistance it doesn't matter how much power you've got. You're not going to swim that much faster unless you can improve your drag in the water."

So he said, "It's not about working harder. It's about working smarter."

Now for me, I enjoyed weight training. I enjoyed going to the gym. I enjoyed being fit. So the answer for me was, “I'll be stronger and fitter and then I'll be able to swim better.” But it just wasn't true. It wasn't true. I was focusing in the wrong areas. I could exhaust myself and get next to no improvement.

So when it comes down to speaking, how can we improve our effectiveness as a speaker? By focusing in the right areas. It's about prioritizing, isn't it?

John says the quickest way to make progress in anything is prioritizing your time. Ask yourself this great question: "What's the best use of my time right now? What's the best use of my time right now?"

So when it comes to speaking, there's probably some things we enjoy, there's some things we're indifferent about, and there's some things we don't enjoy. That shouldn't determine what we do. We should work on: What are the most important things? What's the best use of my time right now?

Now, in the last episode we talked about developing unshakable self-confidence. We talked about overcoming fear. If fear is stopping you from even beginning the process of starting as a speaker, then that's where you want to start.

After that, the next most important thing you can do is think about who's in the audience and how you can help them. That's the best use of your time. Understanding who's in the audience, how you can connect with them, how you can communicate with them, and how you can influence them.

Because the audience is, you know, a little bit judgy. They're not just going to open up and let you in straight away. You need to earn the right to influence them. And they're distracted by all kinds of things. So we want to make sure that we can grab their attention, hold their attention — and that's going to be because we can help them, and they see that we can help them.

So to help us get better at understanding who's in the audience and how we can better help them, better serve them, better add value to them, we're going to go through six steps that help you tailor your message to your audience so that you've got a much better chance of connecting, communicating, and influencing them.

STEP 1: Realize it's not about you, the speaker.
It's not about you. Aristotle, years ago, talked about the three keys to effective communication: the character of the speaker, the logic/reasoning of the message, and the emotional receptivity of the audience. Speaker, message, audience. Which one of those three is the most important? Of course, the audience.

Why? Because who decides how well you did after you finish? The audience. It's not about you saying, "Yeah I think that went pretty well, I'm feeling pretty good about that, I enjoyed that, therefore it was a success." If everyone else was like, "What in the world was that about? Who is that guy? That doesn't help me at all," then it wasn't a success for them, was it?

They decide how well you did. So obviously they're the most important person in the room. Obviously it's about them. It's not about how you feel. "Oh, I don't mind standing up in front of an audience, I'm confident in front of an audience." Well, great. But it's not about that. It's about how they feel. It's not what you think, it's what they think. It's how you can help them.

So the first step really is to realize: if you're the speaker, it's not about you.

John Maxwell says, "Get over yourself. Get over yourself. Stop worrying about whether or not you look good in front of the audience."

Now, you might be thinking to yourself, "I don't worry about what I look like in front of the audience. I don't worry about those sorts of things." Well, let's do a quick test, shall we? When you see a group photo, what's the first thing you do? Don't lie. You look for yourself in that photo. And if it's a good picture of you — "This is a great photo, this is a great photo!" And if it's a bad picture of you — "Oh, that's not very good." We all do this.

It's an easy mistake to think about ourselves when we're talking about communicating with the audience. We're the speaker with a message for the audience, so of course it's about us. And we are the center of our own universe anyway, aren't we?

But it has to shift. It's not about you.

STEP 2: Your job is to add value to them.
Your primary goal is to add value to the audience. So it's not about what you can get — applause, approval, credibility, sales — it's about what you can give.

When you think about selling, if you think about selling as "you get commission," then that's about you. If you think about selling as “a service you're doing for them,” helping them solve a problem that matters to them, now it's about value.

Influence as service. That's the mindset.

Zig Ziglar said, "If you can help enough people get what they want, you can have whatever you want — as long as you help them get what they want first."

So our focus is: How do I help them? How do I serve them? How do I add value to them?

STEP 3: Who is in the audience?
In order to add value to them, you have to know who “them” is.

When we say “the audience,” it could be one person or it could be 10,000 people. It doesn't matter. "The audience" is a concept. The real thing is the individual human being sitting in front of you. You connect with individuals, one human being to another. So the most important person in the room is every single individual in the room.

How do you find out who's going to be there? Ask the person who invited you. Ask your sponsor. "Who's in the room? Senior executives? Team leaders? Employees? Customers? Suppliers? Is it one company? Is it an association? Is it a public ticketed event?"

Ask: "Did they choose to be there or were they told to be there?" Because that's a very different audience. Someone whose boss said "Be in that room" is different from someone who paid their own money and rearranged childcare to be in that room.

If you can, talk to a few people beforehand. Not just leadership — everybody. Bonnie St. John, the Paralympian, said that if you only interview management before you speak to a company, then when you go on stage you sound like management. And that does not help you connect with everyone else. Brilliant point.

STEP 4: What problem do they have that you can solve?
This is huge.

Where are they stuck? What hurts right now? What's in the way? What’s costing them time, money, energy, reputation, sleep?

Because if you don't know what problem you're solving, you can't meaningfully claim to be helping.

And — do they even agree it's a problem? You might see it, but if they don't feel it, they're not going to engage with your solution.

I’ll give you a simple example. Years ago, my business partner Paul (this was before SpeakerPro days) used to sell life insurance. He said if you walk up to somebody and ask, "Do you want to buy life insurance?" almost everyone says, "No thanks, not interested."

But if you say, "Beautiful house. Are you married? Do you have kids? Does your wife work? Do you have a mortgage? Okay. God forbid anything happens to you — could she keep this house? Could she keep the kids in this school? Do you have backup money sitting around? Do you have rich parents who can swoop in?" and they say, "No… no… no… I don't actually know how she'd pay the mortgage…" now they feel the problem. Now your solution is relevant.

It's the same in leadership training. If you say, "Do you want leadership training?" most people say, "No, we're fine." But if you ask, "What's the biggest pain right now?" and they say, "We keep losing staff — constant turnover," and you say, "That’s not a hiring problem, that's a leadership problem. People don't usually quit companies. They quit managers." Now you've connected pain → cause → solution.

That's influence as service.

STEP 5: How can you help them?
Once you understand the people and the problem, now you can position the transformation.

Not “what you are,” but “what it does for them.” My friend Jim Edwards says, “What a thing does is more persuasive than what it is.” People don't actually buy coaching. They buy clarity. They buy confidence. They buy relief. They buy momentum.

So for you as a communicator: How are they better off at the end of your talk than they were at the beginning? That's the question. Answer that out loud before you build a talk.

Also, don't try to be everything to everyone. Be specific. John Maxwell is known for leadership. Les Brown is known for mindset and belief. Seth Godin is known for marketing. You serve best when they know what they're getting from you.

STEP 6: You're responsible to the audience, not for the audience.
This part will keep you sane.

You're responsible to them — to prepare, to care, to tell the truth, to give your best. You are not responsible for whether they actually change. You can't force transformation on someone who doesn't want it yet.

There will always be some people in the room who adore you (I call them the golden retrievers), some people who are on the fence (the beagles), and some people who are walled off and suspicious no matter what you do (the German shepherds).

Talk to the golden retrievers. Win the beagles. Bless and release the German shepherds. Don't burn yourself out trying to convert the one person with their arms crossed, scowling in the third row. Serve the room. Serve the willing. There is always another audience.

I’ll give you a perfect example of this. Our friend Teresa Scanlan — Miss America 2011 — also served for years as MC at the International Maxwell Conference. She told me most people don't realize this: When you win Miss America, the very next day you're on a one-year speaking tour. You're on stage constantly. No prep. No coaching. No easing-in. She was 17 years old. Seventeen.

She said her manager told her in the car: "They want you for 40 minutes. Just talk about your values." And she thought, "I don't even know what my values ARE, let alone speak on them for 40 minutes to a room of girls looking up to me." She said those first talks were awful. She felt sick. She had panic. She felt like an imposter. It was brutal.

But here’s the key: She didn't get time to sit in the shame. She was thrown on stage again. And again. And again. She said after about six weeks, she started to get a little better. After a few months, she started to feel strong. Within three years she had spoken over a thousand times.

A thousand.

And today, she's phenomenal. Truly phenomenal. She proved herself wrong. She proved that "I'm not cut out for this" was a lie. And that only happened because she kept showing up in front of real audiences and serving them.

So. Let's land this.

In this episode we talked about six steps that help you get clarity around who's in the audience and how to serve them:

1. It's not about you.
2. Your job is to add value to the audience.
3. To do that, you have to know who they are.
4. You must understand the problem they actually feel.
5. You position yourself as a solution to that problem — in their words, not yours.
6. You're responsible to them, not for them.

In the next episode, we're going to talk about what John Maxwell says is by far the most important idea in communication: connection. How to help people feel like they know you, like you, and trust you — so you can influence them.

Don't forget to download the roadmap from the last episode. Go to MaxwellLeadership.com/TheSpeakersEdge, download the roadmap, follow those simple steps, and you'll be able to master your message and inspire your audience.

I'll see you in the next episode of The Speaker’s Edge. Thanks for listening. Bye-bye. God bless.

Ep. 002 — Understanding Your Audience

Hosted by Roddy Galbraith

A Maxwell Leadership Podcast Network production

Weekly highlights from The Speaker’s Edge — a Maxwell Leadership Podcast Network production hosted by Roddy Galbraith. Learn how to communicate with clarity, confidence, and impact — in business, on stage, and in life.

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Key Takeaways

Get clarity around who's in the audience and how to serve them:

1. It's not about you.

2. Your job is to add value to the audience.

3. To do that, you have to know who they are.

4. You must understand the problem they actually feel.

5. You position yourself as a solution to that problem — in their words, not yours.

6. You're responsible to them, not for them.

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Full Transcript (Ep. 002 — Understanding the audience)Released: March 4, 2025

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The Speakers Edge

Weekly highlights from The Speaker’s Edge, a Maxwell Leadership Podcast Network production hosted by Roddy Galbraith. Learn how to communiate with clarity, confidence, and impact — in business, on stage, and in life.

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Full Transcript (Ep. 002 — Understanding the audience)
Released: March 4, 2025