Childhood begins in innocence.   As you grow, so do your desires as well as the skills and the schemes to realize them.  You have undoubtedly heard “You should know better”, perhaps uttering it to yourself, in response to someone inappropriately claiming innocence.   Once you are accountable for your actions, your innocence is lost.  Innocence lacks judgment.  Poor judgment stems from ignorance. Ignorance unchallenged is truly pitiful.    Learn to speak to your audience, honoring their innocence while dispelling their ignorance.  When you help your audiences become aware of their judgments, they will listen with innocent ears.

Your audience has no idea of what you are going to say next, and depending on how well prepared you are, you might not know either.  They are innocent listeners… until you begin to speak.  Instantaneously, your words, your tone, your body language are being judged.  This is a good thing because it means your audience is listening, attempting to understand you.  The bad thing is that these judgments will ultimately define what your audience gets from your presentation.   No matter how clearly you think you speak, someone will credit you for saying something you know you did not say. This is an innocent mistake; however, you can help your audience’s understanding by attuning their awareness.

Have you ever noticed how guided meditations start off by describing the sounds in the room, the feel of the chair, and then lead you to focus on your breath?  Once you become aware of your breathing, they start to guide your imagination.  Drawing attention to the details, and potential distractions that most of your audience is aware of, helps them to start sharing in a collective vision.  Asking a series of questions which the obvious answer is ‘Yes’ may give you the impression that the audience is with you, but more than a few will feel manipulated.  Better to ask questions that open your audience’s mind to additional perspectives.   “Would you like to make more money?” will get a yes answer almost every time.  “What would you do with more money?” assumes you already have the additional income and starts your mind exploring, as yet, unmet desires.  These reveries will often be immediately interrupted by judgments; the same judgments that are blocking your audience from hearing you, in the first place.

It is best to call out the most common judgments.  If you are peddling something, give your prospects a list of typical objections.  It saves them the time and energy to be coming up with them on their own, and can give the impression that you are innocently reading their mind.    But why do this?  Because, when your audience is talking to themselves, they are not listening to you.  What’s worse is when the voice in their heads is actively arguing against you.  It’s pointless to convict them of misunderstanding, when they are innocently listening to the only voice that matters, theirs.

To have your audience hear your message with innocent ears, you need to help them become aware of their judgments. Once conscious, these biases can be questioned, and it is in this state of open mindedness that you can align your message with an innocent intellect.