Getting feedback is SO important to your growth as a speaker, but sometimes it’s difficult to find feedback that will actually be helpful to you.

When you ask “So what did you think?” there are 3 types of feedback you’re likely to get…

1. Vague (usually in a positive way)
“Yeah, you were great” is lovely to hear, but not useful in any specific way other than being encouraging if you were very nervous or worried.

2. Irrelevant (often mostly negative)
This person might give you lots of details about things that bothered them, but they might not be relevant to what you want to improve, or even have anything to do with your competence as a speaker. (One of my favourite pieces of this type of feedback was something they didn’t like about the shape of my mouth… Still not sure what they expected me to do about that.)

A long list of what you did wrong isn’t necessarily good for your self-esteem or your speaking instincts. Especially if it’s something you can’t do anything about.

3. Specific and balanced
We’ve all heard of the sandwich technique, which is a great way to approach feedback, but either way, the most useful thing to hear is why something worked or didn’t. That way you can evaluate the feedback itself and decide if that person’s perspective is in alignment with your goals.

​The truth is that receiving useful feedback lies with you. And it starts before you even get on stage.