The third P is people understand who it is that you're going to be speaking to, as part of your preparation. This is very important because it allows you to tailor the speech to an audience. So what should you be thinking about who you're speaking to? Well, I think it makes a difference whether they are men or women, or an even split, because they do react slightly differently to different types of content and humor. It's very important, how knowledgeable are they? Are they beginners at this topic or experts, you don't want to go out there and teach people to suck eggs.
But you also don't want to go out there and lose people by being too clever. So you have to get the level of expertise that you're going to give them just right for who they are. The third really important factor to think about is what keeps them awake at night. What are the classic things that they are Worrying about the relate to this topic. If you can answer those and even just raise those problems up in front of them, they will love that, because they will feel like you are a mind reader. Many times I've given talks that I would just call problem talk.
So I'm almost just illustrating what the problems are, I'm barely giving any solution because what I want to do is bring the solution in later. So what keeps him awake at night is the third part of thinking about who you're speaking to. So once you've got clear on that, what you need to do is reflect the people in the talk. And by that, I mean it's very important to have images on your slides that reflect them. I was working with a construction firm recently coaching all of our senior people. And every single slide had a picture of a man in construction.
And I said to them, so there's no women working here then, and they don't know that we're really really proud of our male people. My ratio and I thought that's funny because I can't see a single woman on a slide. And they thought this was very PC and unnecessary. I can tell you, it will really matter to the women in the room. The same goes for ethnic minorities, disabilities, all of it, you need to reflect the people in the room on the slide. Secondly, even if you're not using visuals, tell stories about the people that are in the room or the types of people that are there.
If you are speaking to franchises, which I often do, then tell stories about franchises. If you work in the technology sector, then use examples from Tech. Just be relatable to the people that you're speaking to. And you will be seen as a highly engaging speaker