Start a Speech

00:00 The best way to start off your presentation is by saying something interesting to your audience, not about yourself.

00:09 You don't have to start with a joke.

00:11 It doesn't have to be something amazingly emotional and compelling.

00:15 But what you do need to start off with is something of interest to your audience.

00:20 Now, what of most speakers do they start off with? Good morning. As you know, my name is this, my title is this.

00:30 And you may not be aware, but we're in the following cities that you don't care about because you're in this city.

00:35 And I'm very happy to be here today.

00:39 That's how most speakers start.

00:41 And guess what? It's deadly dull.

00:44 You already either know who they are and their name, rank and title, or you don't care. At that stage of the relationship, do you care if the person is happy to be there? The whole thing comes across as phony baloney, trite, cliché. So most people.

01:04 Start checking email, they figure, Oh, the speaker hasn't really started.

01:08 I'm not really missing anything.

01:10 And you know what? They're right.

01:13 Here's the problem, though.

01:15 Once you actually start your speech, a minute or two, and you've already lost the audience, so what I recommend is dispense with all the phony baloney.

01:25 Thank you very much.

01:26 What an honor to be here.

01:28 Bah bah bah bah. Start off where you normally would have started two or 3 minutes into your presentation.

01:34 Start by giving some piece of content, some idea, some message of interest to your audience.

01:43 And if you start with a story even better now, if you want to thank the person who invited you or introduced you, fine.

01:49 Do it in the middle of the speech.

01:50 Do it near the end.

01:52 People aren't expecting it then.

01:55 Don't do it in the beginning.

01:58 This one thing will really make you stand out as different from other speakers.

02:04 Because most speakers, even if they're polished, even if their suit and tie or their dress is perfect, even if they have good eye contact the way they start their speeches.

02:14 Me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me.

02:16 I did this. And here's why I'm legitimate and here's why I'm great.

02:21 Nobody cares about that yet.

02:23 You can stand out by saying something interesting, useful, relevant to your audience.

02:29 Do that, and you will hook them, and they will stay with you for the rest of your presentation.