Want to REALLY connect with your audience? You need to start your presentation with impact!
We’ve all seen speakers who start with “Hi everyone, thank you coming. Today I’m going to talk to you about…”
…and next thing you know, you’re checking Facebook or wondering what to have for lunch. You’ve lost interest and are disengaged from the get go. (And let’s face it, we’ve all been one of those speakers at some point!)
They say you only have one chance to make a first impression, and it’s the same with a speech or presentation. If you don’t grab your audience from the very beginning, it makes it more difficult to re-engage them further down the track. The opening of your presentation is critical to building rapport with your audience, setting the tone and establishing your authority.
If there is one thing I recommend you practice over and over and over (and over) again, it’s your presentation’s opening.
In this episode, I share the structure I use to start a presentation strong, step by step. This includes:
- Getting the audience energised, without the need for jokes (or jumping on chairs)
- Truly understanding your audience to enable you to connect with them
- Getting audience buy-in, so they agree they NEED to be there and listening to what you have to say
- Setting up your presentation so the audience is hungry to hear more
- …all of this before you’ve even introduced yourself!
Listen in to hear the structure. And this is a structure you can use over and over again; it works for so many different presentation styles 🙂
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Really loved how natural and genuine this approach to kicking off a presentation. I always find it awkward and hard to know when and how to introduce myself. This makes it all about the audience and building that emotional connection with you.
So glad to hear it was helpful! Thanks for stopping by Erin 🙂