Mirroring

I’ve talked about the perpendicular and the horizontal before.

Let’s talk about these differently.

People refer to “mirroring”, a term that means that someone identifies with someone else.

If you’re a speaker, how do you want to connect someone else’s “perpendicular” with your own when you speak? How do you get people to identify with you and what you are saying?

Simple language helps.

So does repetition.

But don’t underestimate your audience. Don’t consider a speech an elementary school session that will bore the life out of your audience due to endless repetition, and dull subject matter.

In order to engage your audience, you need the following key elements:

1-the stimulation of something new

2-surprise

Something new:
Don’t be afraid to teach your audience something, or at least remind them of it. You do not want your audience to f eel that you are talking down to them. You do not want them to think that you are part of elite, and they are not.
On the other hand, elite opinion does matter, because it helps provide clear definition and appropriate context required to fully explore and explain vital subjects.

So, you need to “frame” or set a context for your subject matter. When you do that, you need to do it in simple, yet meaningful fashion. You shouldn’t talk down to your audience by seeming to be more intelligent than they are, but you shouldn’t talk down to them by patronizing them, either, appearing to oversimplify complex matters.

Surprise:
Repetition can help make your audience comfortable. But you don’t want your audience to be TOO comfortable.

Remember in an earlier post when I talked about people’s minds insisting on a totality and so showing discomfort with silence.

You can also lead people down a road and suddenly bring them to a sharp turn that they did not anticipate, just as composers put in elements that bring in a new key or a new tempo, or even sudden loud notes to get their audience to pay particular attention.

Get people to identify with you, your thoughts; make that horizontal as strong, varied, and stimulating as it can be.

Stay tuned.