09 Dec Crafting the Perfect Opening
How you open your speech is critical to any presentation. I recommend you deliver a compelling opening and closing without the agenda slide, PowerPoint, or video. This is where the audience gets to know you. Be selfish. Connect without standing behind a lectern or having anything that creates distance between you and your listeners. Openings set the hook, create the frame, and establish a connection with your audience. Done well, a good opening can reduce your anxiety during the rest of the presentation.
A speaker has only a brief window of time when the audience gives her the luxury of their full attention. During this honeymoon period of about thirty seconds, you can grab the audience or leave them cold. Like any marriage, this period determines whether the rest of your talk will be smooth sailing or you’ll be clawing your way out of a bottomless pit.
But how do most speakers open? They copy one another, saying things like, “Good morning. My name is Deborah and over the next hour I’m going to cover . . .” Or, “I’d like to thank so-and-so for . . .” Audiences have heard these obligatory openings so often that they’ve lost all meaning. When you follow this old model, your audience is likely to tune you out and tune into their smart phones. Instead of giving a traditional welcome or delivering meaningless platitudes, use the moment to make your audience see you and your content in a new way.
“Crafting the Perfect Opening” is an excerpt from my new book, Out Front: How Women Can Become Engaging, Memorable and Fearless Speakers. You can pre-order your copy of Out Front here.
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