subject: Bring Your Audience to Their Feet Book Review by Todd Rutherford [print this page] Bring Your Audience to Their Feet Book Review by Todd Rutherford
Irene Brennick's Bring Your Audience to Their Feet is a powerful self-help book that not only teaches the individual to deliver great presentations, but also provides a blueprint for using life experiences to compel an audience of all sizes.
Irene Brennick's Bring Your Audience to Their Feet is a powerful self-help book that not only teaches the individual to deliver great presentations, but also provides a blueprint for using life experiences to compel an audience of all sizes. The author touches on essential public-speaking strategies, and emphasizes the "two-way street" concept. In other words, your audience is just as much a part of a successful presentation as are your speaking skills.
Whether the individual is speaking at a school assembly or in front of a group of professionals, Bring Your Audience to Their Feet points out that no one can argue with personal experience. More specifically, Brennick states, "People aren't stupid. They know when you're being real." In other words, be real and seek to make a connection with your audience. In public speaking, it is vital to be consciously aware of your audience and to ensure that there is nothing pretentious about what is being said. Brennick elaborates, "We can learn a lot from people who haven't walked in our shoes. But if you don't relate to them, never pretend you do. It won't go over well."
When speaking of being real and sharing life experiences, Irene Brennick is the perfect example. Dealing with a broken marriage, the author found herself in the midst of extreme adversity: caring for her children and little to no capacity with which to support her family. From the brink of welfare to founding the Goalmodels speaking program for at-risk teens, Irene teaches through example. For the audience, the benefits of using personal experiences are crystal clear: "We might be galvanized by someone's story of overcoming great adversity. The point is, when we connect with someone and they touch our very souls, we remember and pay attention." The bottom line is that one's life story speaks volumes and carries enormous weight-and the potential to inspire the audience.
Ultimately, Bring Your Audience To Their Feet instructs the individual to speak with passion, speak from the heart, overcome one's fear, know the audience, and be sincere. Throughout the book, there are a number of helpful tips that can be useful for all levels of public speakers-from the casual to the experienced. Bring Your Audience To Their Feet is simply fascinating and a must read for all.
