In this instructional video, public‑speaking coach David Price explains that the single most important secret to a strong speech opening is a deliberate pause before speaking. Building on that foundation, he presents seven concrete opening techniques: (1) the Question Hook, where a rhetorical question is asked and followed by a pause; (2) the Dramatic Statement, a bold, concise claim that grabs attention; (3) the Story Opener, a brief narrative that sets a scene and slows the delivery; (4) the Surprising Statistic, a data point that shocks the audience; (5) the Show‑of‑Hands opener, suitable for larger groups, prompting audience participation; (6) the Silence Opener, where the speaker maintains eye contact and holds silence for several seconds before speaking; and (7) an implied upcoming set of seven additional openings in a follow‑up video. Throughout, Price stresses the power of pausing, slowing down, and eye contact to convey confidence and keep the audience engaged.
Chapters
David Price here. This is the first of 2 videos about how you can open a speech. The precursor to this is another video, and that is you stand and you pause before you start speaking. And that's really an overriding secret to this. When you get there, you pause. Don't start speaking for 1, 2, 3 seconds. But then I'm going to give you 7 openings you can use. And in another video, I'm going to give you another 7. Here's the first 7. The question hook. Ask a question. Remember, all of these are built on the basis that you have gone to your spot in front of the audience and you've paused. Then you do all of these. First one is the question hook. For instance, have you ever walked out of a meeting thinking, what was the point of that? And then you pause again. Those 2 pauses work together to show that you are very confident. Or here's another example of the question hook. Have you ever engaged a new employee and then just in the first few weeks you realise you've chosen the wrong one? Pause. Continue. The second is what's called the dramatic statement. So it's something like this. No more good morning, thanks for having me, any of that. Get rid of all of that. It's wasted real estate. Dramatic statement is something like, 99% of people in this room have a passion none of us know about. Pause. Third one, the story opener. This is my favorite. It was 2 PM on a Thursday afternoon. Winter was arriving and had brought with it some rain and some cold temperatures. There was a knock at my door. There, standing before me, was the last person I ever expected to see. Pause. It's that pause that builds the power. That's where the audience really gets taken in. Here's a work-related one. We got up at 4:30 AM so that we had plenty of time to get to the building site. When we arrived, we realized that this job was way bigger than we have ever anticipated. Pause. Also notice how I slowed down a lot in that. Stories are really good for slowing down. They give more impact. The next one is the statistic that surprises. There's all sorts of things you can find here. I'm clearly making up these statistics for the purpose of this exercise, but find some real statistics. Here's 2 examples. Researchers have found that most speakers lose their audience in the first 8 seconds. 8 seconds. That's less time than it takes to read this sentence. Pause. Or another one, a work-related one. 38% of contractors who respond to tenders don't have the immediate capacity to carry out the work if they were awarded the tender? Pause. By the end of this presentation, you'll know exactly how to hold the audience in the palm of your hand and keep them there. Let me show you how. Number 6. This is the show of hands, but this is for bigger audiences, audiences of probably 10, 15, or more. And it goes like this. Who's ever stood looking at something, anything, and thought, there's something not quite right here? And you raise your hand near the end of the sentence so people know that's what you're expecting them to do. And the final one is the silence opener. You walk out, you pause, you look at the audience, and you say nothing. You look at different people in the audience. You make eye contact, you hold it for a full 5 seconds, and then you speak. The room is already yours before you've uttered a word because silence signals confidence. In the next video, I'm going to give you 7 more ways to open a speech.
