🛡️ How to disarm any audience (in a single sentence)

The next time you find yourself in a room full of people with more experience than you, try saying this...

It’s very easy to fall into the trap of patronising our audiences.

Typically, it happens because we're so focused on proving our value, we forget to show respect for theirs.

In my experience, what separates the best communicators and everyone else is their ability to frame their expertise in a way that resonates with anyone.

Why it works:

1. It disarms 🛡️

   When you acknowledge their experience up front, you drop their guard and increase the chances of them actually listening.

2. It repositions you 🧠

   Instead of being the 'expert' whose talking down, you're a peer offering a your unique perspective.

3. It invites curiosity 🧐

   You're not telling them what to think, you're giving them a new way to look.

Incidentally, this skill isn’t just important in our talks, but also in how we package them. Especially our keynote/workshop titles and descriptions.

Take this example:

❌ How to become a better storyteller
Seems harmless enough, but there’s an unwritten assumption that the audience must be poor storytellers.

Instead:

✅ Strategic Storytelling: How great communicators make their ideas stick
It signals respect. It sparks curiosity and it’s framed in a way that speaks to everyone, regardless of their capability.

This stuff really matters if we want to get booked (again and again).

It’s why we’ve poured months of blood, sweat and tears into building a strategic speaking assistant for MicDrop members.

Because if we can take the thinking, guesswork and time out of the “how do land more talks” part, our members can spend more time doing what actually matters:

1. Amplifying their ideas 💡

2. Creating change at scale ⚡️

3. Building traction without burning out 🔋

Alex

P.s. Found this article useful? It would mean the world if you’d give us a one-liner testimonial.