InfluenceOlogy

I love questions from the audience. Every presentation has a context though. Sometimes you're doing a Q&A with all the time in the world. But sometimes you have a hard stop and you have to finish on time.

And there's always that one person. First question, second question, third question...they keep going.....They're not really curious...what they want is the attention and control of the room. If you're not careful, they get it...

Here's what I do. When I sense that's what's happening, I use this script and everybody walks away feeling good about it. The person gets their questions answered, the rest of the audience doesn't feel discouraged from asking their own, and you stay in control of your presentation.

"𝘐 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦. 𝘐'𝘮 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘵𝘰𝘰. 𝘑𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘴𝘰 𝘸𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘰𝘯 𝘴𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘥𝘶𝘭𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘐 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘐'𝘮 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘸𝘢𝘺, 𝘥𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯? 𝘈𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘦'𝘳𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘯𝘦, 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘬 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘦-𝘰𝘯-𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘸𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮."