You have prepared for your presentation. You are ready.

But wait! How will you get introduced? It’s one ingredient for a knockout presentation that often goes missing… with fatal consequences.

Not to sound too dramatic – without a planned way to introduce yourself, you leave yourself open to the whim of the meeting organizer.

• Maybe there are things you DON’T want the audience to know.
• Maybe you want the audience to laugh even before you’ve opened your mouth.
• Maybe you want to add some speaker credibility from another source.
• Maybe you want to lower your speaker anxiety index!

Your template for a clever, fun and engaging introduction

1. Open with WHY the audience wants to hear about your subject. That’s right… your subject. NOT YOU! How is your info relevant to them? What will they gain from listening to you?
2. Next – Share some credibility facts about you – why you are the perfect person to discuss the subject matter. Keep this to four sentences max.
3. Following short paragraph: Share some personal stuff (if that works for you). Audiences like to know about you, the person, as well as you, the expert.
4. Last paragraph: Share your name and title of your speech – “Let’s welcome from Dallas, Texas – Karen Cortell Reisman, who will tell us how to Speak For Yourself!”

Rules for a great introduction

1. Fits on one page at 18-font type (sometimes your introducer needs reading glasses but isn’t wearing them…)
2. Print out your intro and bring to the event, even though you emailed it in advance.
3. Provide a phonetic spelling of your name: “Karen Core-tell Rice-men”
4. Keep the whole thing short. We stop listening after your third accolade.
5. Include something funny – here’s what I use: “Our speaker has one masters degree, one bachelors degree, one cow named Bliss, one daughter, one son and one husband, not exactly in that order. When our speaker is not working with decision makers on how to communicate, she can be found on that farm with her cow trying to find cell phone reception to talk to her city slicker friends.”

Don’t miss this opportunity to begin your presentation with pizzaz and predictability.

Source: thanks to Christine Cashen, CSP, Speaker Hall of Fame, for many of the ideas used in this blog. She is the pro on creating fantastic introductions.

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