In every speech or presentation, there comes a time when you make your most important point. Or there can be 2 or 3 places where you say something very important and you desire extra attention from the audience.
What do you do in such a case?
You can pause.
You can pause just before making that crucial point. A silence for even 10 seconds will get everyone to pay attention again.
You can also pause after you have made that point. This will let the meaning of the message sink in. You need to give the audience some extra time to digest what you have just said. Since what you are saying is new, they need to listen, then think about it. If you do not pause, where is the time for the audience to think over.
In every presentation you make, decide beforehand some slides where you will pause. Pause before and get everyone to pay attention. Then make that important point. Then pause again and let the message sink in.
Pause > Message > Pause
Well said. A pause is a powerful thing alright.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure how a 10-second pause would seem, though, because that sounds like an awfully long time.
I've a couple of posts about pauses too. Would love you to leave a comment, and by all means leave a link to your own post if you'd like to:
http://j.mp/1nJcZEv