One thing I often see in Japan is an ignorance, either purposely or not, of the audience. When people are given the easy way out, given the option to talk about what they want to, rather than what the audience wants, they tend to get lost in their own world.

As a result, presentations become impersonal, irrelevant, and boring. All killer, no filler, means that you fill presentations, sales pitches, or idea sharing not with things that you want to say, but rather what people want to hear. It can be hard to know what the people want to hear, sure, but with practice, you can get closer and closer.

In today’s presentation, I think I was able to hold the attention of the students quite well for the majority of my presentation. A lot of them didn’t realise I was using some techniques to keep their attention, which is because I focused a lot on relevant and personal messages.

My lesson from this, is that you should first focus on what people want to hear, on what is relevant and what has a personal meaning, a personal benefit to them. Only then do you add in what you want to say, and only then if it’s relevant to what they want to hear. That way you all but guarantee that your ideas will be heard.