Your Naked Audience

May 19th, 2014

I remember the very first episode of The Brady Bunch. Loretta-my-all-time-favorite-babysitter was babysitting, and she turned us on to the Friday night line-up.

The Partridge Family came right after The Brady Bunch, and Friday nights became a highly anticipated night of the week.

My world was forever rocked.

I remember the episode where Jan’s diary accidentally got sold at the garage sale, the one where Jan had to get glasses, and the one where Dad gives Jan public speaking advice. (Being a middle child too, I guess I identified with Jan.)

Do you remember what he told her?

He told her to imagine the audience in their underwear!

Here’s the clip:

I really do remember seeing this episode. Perhaps because of how edgy it was for Dad Brady to be talking about anyone in their underwear, it stayed with me.

Now, it’s pretty much standard knowledge in the world of public speaking that this is in fact NOT sound advice for speaking.

I know all the reasons why this is not sound advice for speaking:

It’s distracting.

Your goal is to connect with the audience. Imagining them in their underwear actually takes you away from that connection. If your mind is paying attention to boxers and red lace bras and tighty whities, you’re not thinking about your message and the people you’re sharing it with.

You’re off in your imagination and not in the room.

In theory I get it. But here’s the thing: I’ve never actually tried it.

So when I gave a talk last week I decided to try it, just to see for myself how it worked. For real.

I pictured everyone in the room in their underwear.

And I’m reporting back: It’s true. It’s not great advice.

It was indeed terribly distracting. I actually had to hold back a chuckle. All those bodies. All that skin. All that underwear! Big, full, round, bony, hairy, beautiful, perfectly imperfect bodies, indeed. But it distracted me from my task at hand.

I quickly realized I had to come back to the room. Back to my body. Back to my breath. Back to this moment, these people.

And I did.

At the heart of the underwear advice is the intention to remind us that we’re all human, but there are so many more effective ways to remember that everyone out there is human too.

It starts with remembering your own humanness.

You and your body in all your perfectly imperfect glory.

In the my ongoing training group, Speaker’s Playground, we explore just that: How to connect with your audience and communicate through your authentic humanness.

No need to take your clothes off or anyone else’s.

How bout you? What’s your best way to connect with your audience?