Archive for the ‘introduction’ Category

What Harry Potter Can Teach You About Creating A Speech Introduction

Tuesday, November 8th, 2011
Image Credit It Doesn't Take Magic To Create A Great Opening For Your Next Speech

It Doesn't Take Magic To Create A Great Opening For Your Next Speech

When you go to see a movie, what’s the first thing that you always see? The answer is, of course, trailers! I must confess that there have been movies that I’ve gone to in the past in which the trailers were the best part of the whole movie viewing experience! What’s interesting about these trailers is that they have been designed with one thing in mind: to get you to come back and see the movie that they are advertising. Maybe we can learn something from trailers that we can use in our next speech.

Why The Opening Of Your Speech Is So Very Important

Let’s spend a moment thinking about what runs through your mind when you go to see a movie. You sit down in your seat, you’ve got your tub of popcorn, your gigantic cup of soda and you’re in the mood to be entertained.

All of the ads and trailers get over and then the main feature starts. How long does it take you to figure out if you are going to enjoy watching this movie? How long is it before you might start thinking that the US$30 that you’ve spent to be sitting in this seat at this time was a big mistake? I’m willing to bet that this evaluation happens in less than a minute. Maybe even in less than 30 seconds.

Clearly, how a movie starts is a critical part of determining whether or not we’re going to end up enjoying it. Sure, sure – sometimes a movie can start out badly and pull out a save in the end. However, these are rare occurrences – the opening pretty much determines what we’re going to think about the whole movie.

Although you and I are not in the movie making business, we do spend our time making and delivering speeches. If you’re willing to come a long with me for just a moment or two, then I’d like to propose that a speech is very much like a movie. We know about the importance of public speaking and it’s up to us to show our audience how important what we have to say is. We’ve got an audience and we’d like to capture their attention (no matter how good their listening skills are) and hold it throughout our entire speech. Hmm, I wonder just how we can go about doing this…

How To Build A Speech Opening That’s Like A Movie Trailer

Maybe we should take an easier route here. Instead of trying to worry about building our entire speech like a movie, let’s just focus for now on building our speech’s opening like a movie trailer.

What is the purpose of a movie trailer? It’s a quick 1-2 minute video presentation that is designed to get us interested enough in an upcoming movie that we’ll come back to the movie theater and pay to see it. Hmm, this attention grabbing thing sounds exactly like what we try to do when we are starting our speech.

How does a movie trailer work its magic on us? It’s actually pretty simple. A movie trailer has to immediately grab our attention. No matter if it’s an explosion, a gunshot, or a face slap, it has very little time so it has to move quickly.

The next thing that has to happen in a movie trailer is that we need to be introduced to the characters. This needs to happen fast and we need to understand who they are and what they are trying to do. They may be an archeologist, a superhero, a wizard, it doesn’t matter – the background is being set up. This also needs to be done quickly.

A movie trailer only has time to accomplish one more thing. The people that we’ve just been introduced to now have to be put into some sort of challenging situation that there appears to be no way for them to get out of. This is the “hook” that will make us come back to the movie theater in order to find out how things turn out.

When you are creating the opening for your next speech, you are going to want to do the same set of steps. You have very little time in which to capture your audience’s attention and so you’re going to have move quickly. The first words out of your mouth are going to have to grab their attention. You’re going to have to follow this up with a description of the situation that you’ll be talking about and the people who will be involved. Finally, you’ll need to create challenging situation to end your introduction. This challenge is what’s going to cause your audience to remain sitting in their seats and listening to your entire speech.

What All Of This Means For You

The first few words that tumble out of your mouth during your next speech set the stage for the rest of the speech that is to follow. One of the benefits of public speaking is that you control what you say and so you can create a powerful introduction for your next speech. Your speech’s introduction is a critical part of making the entire speech effective.

In order to design a speech opening that will both grab and hold your audience’s attention, take a look at how movie trailers do it. They always open with a bang – they grab your attention. Next, they introduce the characters and provide some background info, and finally they place them in some sort of situation that appears to be difficult / impossible to get out of. This is exactly what you need to do in your speech’s opening in order to hook your audience. Forget all of those presentation tips – the opening of your speech is where it’s at.

The opening of your speech is only one part of the total speech. However, if you get this part correct, then the rest of the speech will be much easier to do correctly. Take the time to craft a great “trailer” for your next speech and your audience will end up giving you a great review!

- Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World Public Speaking Skills™

Question For You: How long do you think your next speech’s opening should be?

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Note: What we talked about are advanced speaking skills. If you are just starting out I highly recommend joining Toastmasters in order to get the benefits of public speaking. Look for a Toastmasters club to join in your home town by visiting the web site www.Toastmasters.org. Toastmasters is dedicated to helping their members to understand the importance of public speaking by developing listening skills and getting presentation tips. Toastmasters is how I got started speaking and it can help you also!

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

Babe Ruth was great at baseball. Michael Jordan was fantastic at basketball. Joe Namath was a master of the game of U.S. football. As public speakers we’d like to be known as being the best at what we do. All of these sports stars had talents that made them better than everyone else. Guess what – there’s a speaking skill that can make you better than every other speaker out there!

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It’s All About The Introductions…

Tuesday, March 1st, 2011
Image Credit
Proper Introductions Can Change A Speech For The Better

Proper Introductions Can Change A Speech For The Better

Did you know that how well a speech is going to turn out can be determined before you even open your mouth? It turns out that introductions are one of the most important things that that set the tone for a speech. If done correctly, then you’re going to have an easy time coming out on top. If not, well then there’s just no way that you can win…

Introducing – You!

In a perfect world, you would have someone introduce you before any speech that you gave. Unfortunately we don’t live in a perfect world. This means that all too often we find ourselves in the awkward situation where we have to introduce ourselves. When this happens (and it DOES happen), you need to be ready to say the right things.

The trick with this kind of introduction is that you need to walk a fine line – you are special and the audience is lucky to have you there to give a speech, but you really can’t come out and say that. Instead, you are going to have to find a way to allow them to reach that conclusion all by themselves.

One of the best ways to do this is to use your self-delivered introduction to communicate your passion for the topic that you will be talking on. By taking the time to explain how you came to care so much about the topic you will be able to show your audience that you know what you are talking about and why they should listen to what you have to say.

Introduce Your Audience To Each Other

If you want your audience to pay attention to what you have to say, you’re going to have to find a way to make them feel comfortable listening to you. One rather unique way to go about doing this is to halt before you start your speech and get them to do something for you.

What you are going to want to have them do is to stand up and take just a moment to introduce themselves to the rest of the audience. Of course the size of your audience matters – if it’s too big, then you can’t have everyone introduce themselves to everyone else. However, for smaller groups asking everyone to share their name and one other piece of information (where they are from, why they are there, etc.) can be a great way to change everyone’s view of your speech.

Instead of showing up and sitting with a bunch of strangers to listen to a speaker that they don’t know, something will have changed. Now they’ll be sitting among people who they know and with whom they have something in common.

As a speaker this will work for your benefit. Everyone will be in a more relaxed and positive mood as you speak. You should find it easier to connect with your audience and they should enjoy your speech more.

What All Of This Means For You

As speakers we are always looking for ways to better connect with our audiences. One great way to make this happen is to use the power of introductions to start things off right.

All too often we’ll find ourselves in a situation where we end up having to introduce ourselves. When this happens, we need to be careful to not come across as being too boastful. Instead, share with the audience why you care so much about the topic that you’ll be talking about and they’ll understand that you really know what you are talking about. Likewise, taking the time to allow your audience to introduce themselves before you start to speak can help everyone feel connected.

When we meet new people, we always start the relationship by introducing ourselves. As speakers we need to find ways to use this social skill during our speeches so that we are able to better connect with our audiences and thereby more easily change their lives…

- Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World Public Speaking Skills™

Question For You: If you have to introduce yourself, how long do you think this should take?

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What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

Let’s say that you were going to go out and buy a new car. Now lets say that you didn’t get to make any decisions about what that car was going to look like. You don’t get to choose the color, the accessories, or even the type of car. When the car got delivered to you, how would you feel? I’m willing to bet that you’d have almost no connection to that car – it had not been customized for you. What this all means is that if you don’t take the time to customize your speech for your audience, then you’re going to get the same reaction: they aren’t going to feel any sense of connection with you.

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Bragging Is What Presenters Need To Be Able To Do Well

Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
Presenters Need To Learn How To Use Bragging To Establish Their Creditability

Presenters Need To Learn How To Use Bragging To Establish Their Creditability

Just in case you’ve forgotten it, the #1 question on the minds of any audience that is seated and waiting for you to begin talking to them is “Why should I even bother listening to you?“. This means that in order for you to have any hope of making an impact on this  audience, you’re going to have to answer this question right off the bat. But how?

The Art Of The Brag

I’m afraid that we’re going to have to talk about the “C” word – “credibility“. As a presenter, it’s your job to establish your credibility in the minds of your audience. This is where bragging comes in.

John Spaith has spent some time thinking about how to do this correctly and he’s got some good suggestions. Spaith points out that you always have competition when you give a presentation. This doesn’t mean that you have to deal with other speakers (although sometimes you do), but rather your audience has a lot of other things on their mind and if you don’t grab their attention and hold it by establishing your credibility, then they won’t pay attention to what you have to say.

A Plan For Self-Promotion (Bragging)

The best way to establish credibility with your audience is to have the person who is introducing you do it for you. However, for a variety of reasons this may not always be possible. When you find yourself in situations like this, you need to do your bragging yourself. Here’s what Spaith suggests that we think about:

  • Make It Relevant: If you are addressing a sales team, then spending time talking about the amazing singing career you had in the past won’t buy you any credibility. Instead, make your bragging relevant – tell them that you survived a trip down the Amazon and that you’ve been shot four times. Survival bragging would work well with this group.
  • It’s All Relative: The accomplishments or talents that you are bragging about have to be something that your audience can relate to. Telling everyone that you are an award winning professional ballroom dancer is great, but who can relate to that? If you tell everyone that you spent 10,000 hours on your feet in uncomfortable shoes practicing to become an award winning professional ballroom dancer, now that’s something that we can relate to.

How To Brag

Once you’ve established WHAT you’ll be bragging about, you need to nail down just HOW you’re going to go about doing it. First off, you need to get your bragging done at the start of your presentation – credibility is something that you need right off the bat. Next, you need to keep it long enough to build that credibility, but not too long. I’m going to say that a minute should be long enough and you might want to keep it even shorter.

You are going to want to write out and memorize your bragging words. It is so important to get these words just right – not too boastful, but at the same time not too self-deprecating.

Final Thoughts

Some of you might be a bit shy about bragging about yourself – get over it. You owe it to your audience to deliver the best presentation that you can and taking the time and effort to make sure that your message sinks in is part of this. Using carefully designed bragging to establish your “street cred” is an important part of any presentation that you give.

Questions For You

When you give a presentation, do you include bragging about yourself? Have you ever “gone over the top” and done too much bragging? Have you ever done too little bragging and not gotten the audience’s respect? Have you ever seen an introduction that established just the right amount of credibility for the speaker? Leave me a comment and let me know what you are thinking.

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What We’ll To Be Talking About Next Time

When we are given an opportunity to address a group, we spend a great deal of time preparing what we are going to say and how we are going to say it. This is all well and good, but we may be forgetting one critical factor: our audience may not be able to hear us speak…

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D.O.A.: Why Presenters Hate Bad Introductions

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009

A Poor Introduction Can Kill A Speech Before You Start

A Poor Introduction Can Kill A Speech Before You Start

We spend all of this time coming up with our next speech, getting each and every word just right, practicing the speech, the gestures, the pauses, only to get killed before we even open our mouths to speak.

How does this crime occur? Simple – whoever is running the show delivers a bad introduction and then turns the stage over to us. Just imagine the total silence that grips the room then – all of a sudden there is no excitement about who you are or what you are going to be saying. Talk about having to dig yourself out of a hole before you even start!

Michael Varma is a professional speaker who had found himself in this situation a number of times and has come up with some ways to avoid it.

First off, as a presenter you’ve got to spend some time thinking about just what an introduction is designed to do. In the world of professional comedy, a warm-up act comes out before the main act. The role of the warm-up act is simply to get the audience used to laughing. This makes things much easier for the main act – the audience is already conditioned to laugh no matter what the main act says. An introduction does the same thing for a presenter.

As a presenter, you need to come up with a good introduction for yourself and your speech. A good introduction needs to contain three things:

  • Content: What are you going to be talking about? This is designed to grab your audience’s attention so that they will be eager to hear more.
  • Context: Just knowing WHAT you will be talking about is not enough, your audience needs to know WHY you will be talking about it and why they should care. Providing them with this information will start to build a bridge between you on stage and the audience even before you start to speak.
  • Credibility: Providing the audience with a reason why you are the best person to be talking to them about this topic is the final part of an introduction. All too often we put too much information here (we are, after all, proud of ourselves). In all honesty, one or two sentences does the trick.

Look, you can’t always control the way life goes and sometimes you will be introduced poorly. However, if you write out your introduction, print it out nice an large and provide it to your introducer BEFORE he or she goes on stage, then you will have done your best to avoid being a victim of the crime of a poor introduction.

Have you ever been introduced poorly? Was it hard to get the audience to pay attention after this? Have you ever been introduced well? Did you have an easier time with a good introduction? How do you get your introducer to use your introduction? Leave me a comment and let me know what you are thinking.

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