This is an excerpt from Dr. Jordan B. Peterson’s lecture.
Source: 2015 Maps of Meaning Lecture 03a: Narrative, Neuropsychology & Mythology I (Part 1)
Don’t talk to the audience until they are absolutely silent
Wait. Because they will quiet down. You want to wait until just before it becomes awkward, and then you’ve got everyone’s attention.
If you speak before then, you are giving permission to people to speak while you’re speaking. You should not allow people to do that because the hypothesis is that you have something important to say. Otherwise, the whole setup is a lie.
Don’t talk to a group
You are speaking to people in the group. And you can move your attention from one person to another. If you speak to the group, you are going to be terrified, because the group as a whole does not give you any feedback. But if you look at individuals and talk to them, then it’s not that much different from having a conversation.
When you are looking at someone, you can tell whether they understand what’s going on, whether they are hooked in. As long as you are paying attention, then you are going to utilize your natural skills as a communicator, which you’ve been practicing since you were born.
It’s a dialogue
Most of the response from people is non-verbal, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a dialogue. You pay attention, the dialogue happens, and you keep everybody’s interest reasonably high.