Part Four: Your Fourth Strategy on How to Give a Presentation
“How to give a presentation” Tip 4: Engage Your Audience Immediately.
Now that you’ve designed the body of your speech, it’s time to go back and tack on the beginning. As you look at what you’re going to talk about, what strikes you as the most interesting story or example or analogy? Grab it and use it up-front. If nothing sounds compelling to you then ask yourself these questions:
Can you use a story that relates to your message?
Do you have a startling and fun statistic about your pitch?
Can you quote someone in the audience who everyone knows?
Want to ask the audience a question – take a poll? (If you do this, then guesstimate the percentage of “yes’s” and “no’s” and tell the audience. “We have 33% who have researched IP issues.”)
Do NOT start with, “Good morning. My name is Karen Cortell Reisman and I’m happy to be here. There was a lot of traffic this morning and it’s great that at least we didn’t have any rain…” Please, kill me now. Do not be this unoriginal.
But DO start like this, “One time I stood up to give a speech and my skirt fell down.” Then tell the story and WHY/HOW it relates to your crowd.
Stay tuned to additional blogs in this series on how to give a presentation and what to do next.
Karen Cortell Reisman, M.S., author of 3 books and President of Speak For Yourself®, works with organizations on how to communicate to make more money. It’s all in how you speak for yourself. Read more at www.SpeakForYourself.com/blog/
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