Ep 173 What Are Techniques to Grab The Audience's Attention at the Beginning June 21, 2016

What are techniques to grab an audience's attention right at the beginning of your speech?

Speaking the show about effective speaking in public, to the media, at work and in life. Speaking with TJ Walker.

Today's question comes from one of my students on the online community, Udemy. This is from Isadora B. Thanks for the question, tj. What is one or what are two techniques to grab an audience's attention at the very beginning? And it's an absolute great goal, is it? Or to capture the audience's attention. Too many speakers had this attitude of, well, let me have a slow warm up, let me get used to things, let me get comfortable with audience, let me build, and then I'll sort of hop in with a speech and be interesting. Guess what? By then, whether it's two minutes or seven minutes in or even 30 seconds in, it's too late. You've already lost the audience. There is the old cliche, you never have a second chance to make a first impression. I don't know if I buy that all the time, but as a rule of thumb, it is helpful when giving speeches and presentations because if you start off boring, it's very hard to reel back the audience because people are smart, they think okay. Most people, if they start off really dull, will continue to be dull. Therefore, the rational thing to do is for me to read email now and to check my RSS feed or go to Facebook. And that's what they do. And then if you are all of a sudden really interesting, doesn't matter, you've lost them. So let's go through some of the techniques. I'll give you more than the one or two you asked for. For starters, say something provocative, provocative question, provocative set of statistics that seems counterintuitive. Just blurt it right out there. Those of you who are regular listeners to this podcast know that I have a tease. Essentially, I introduce the topic. I try to say it in a question format or some provocative way, I hope not in a sensationalistic or sleazy or tabloid way. But I introduce the topic. I do it a little more energy than I do and the rest of the conversational tone of voice that I try to use for the full podcast. Then it goes to the opening credits and then I come back and talk. But what I try to do in this podcast, the audio version and the video version is in some way similar to what I do in every presentation. That is, the first thing out of my mouth is about helping you. It's some information that I hope is interesting or relevant to you and that's not what most speakers do. Most speakers start off talking about, me, me, me. I'm happy to be here today. I'm so glad you're here. I'm so glad you invited me. I'm so glad the introducer said these nice things about me. Guess what? Nobody in your audience cares about you. That is a guiding principle that I have. And I don't mean to sound cynic. I'm not some misanthrope. It's not that I think people are bad, but I do think that audience members are human beings, and they are designed to think first and foremost about themselves. Therefore, if you're a speaker and you want to connect with them, if you want to resonate with them, if you want to right out of the gate, connect with them, talk to them about stuff that's relevant to them, too many speakers have the attitude of, well, I must establish my legitimacy. I must establish my authority. Otherwise they won't listen to me. So let me tell them about all my advanced degrees and all my accomplishments and my awards, and I will therefore establish my credibility. I understand a lot of people feel that way. I've never seen that work on audiences. Now, if you want to have someone introduce you and they spend a little time on some of your credentials, fine. But your speech, your presentation, shouldn't start off with, aren't I great? Aren't I wonderful? Because it's just not interesting to people. Now, some of you may notice I do have some blurbs at the end of my show. Sometimes in the middle of the show, the process of trying to whet your appetite to sign up for one of my free online courses. I do have the voiceover person say a few nice things about me, but I don't start the show with that. The first thing out of my mouth. Even before you hear the produced woman voiceover and the description of the show, the first thing is always me talking about some topic that relates to speaking that could help you. That should be the first thing you do to get attention. Now, other things you can do of a slightly more theatrical bed, although it doesn't require any great talent. You don't have to go to Juilliard or the Yale School of Drama. But here's a technique that I use quite often. I'm being introduced. I have a microphone on. The person introducing me is standing on stage behind the lectern. What do people expect? They expect me to walk out and get behind the lectern and say, thank you, blah, blah, blah. I'll actually start my speech in the back of the room or the back of the auditorium sounds the same to people. I may say exactly the same thing, but it's unexpected. They actually have to turn their necks around. They have to move their head a little. It creates variety and it is a little bit unexpected. I'm now walking either down the front row or along the side. I'm gesturing a little more. It brings in more animation, and it's just something different. Here's another technique that I find quite effective. If I'm doing a training session or a speech on public speaking, for example, something I do about half the time, I'll go around the room and ask people, where are you most comfortable speaking? Where are you least comfortable? And Samantha will say, well, T.J. i'm comfortable in front of large audiences, but I get nervous speaking to my own colleagues. And I'll talk to Jim, and Jim will say, well, I'm very comfortable when I've practiced a lot. But if my boss just calls on me to speak at a meeting, I get nervous. So I'll have these private conversations with people. But then when I'm starting my speech, the first thing out of. I don't mean after I've said, good morning, thanks for having me, lovely coffee. I mean, literally the first thing out of my mouth is, so why are we here? Samantha, you mentioned you're comfortable speaking in front of large audiences. You're a good speaker, that's great. But you get a little nervous speaking in front of your own colleagues. That can make you uncomfortable. We're going to work on some solutions to help you make that a lot easier. Jim, you mention and then I'll basically repeat the conversation. Never anything that's embarrassing or they wouldn't want me to say. But I repeat the snippets of the conversation right into the beginning of my speech. Is it funny? No. Is it wildly creative? No. Is it the most theatrical thing ever? No. But it's unexpected. Those people feel like, wow, he was really listening to me. He's responsive to me. Any of the individuals I mentioned, for all the other people in the room, they're thinking, okay, well, this guy isn't just coming in here giving me the same old, same old. This obviously isn't a speech somebody else wrote for him. He's not just reading a whole bunch of PowerPoint bullets, thank goodness, maybe I will pay attention to him. So that's a technique that I find highly effective. It's easy to do. Hardly anyone ever does it.

Do you have a speaking related question for number one USA Today? Best selling author TJ Walker. For more than 30 years, Walker has been a public speaking coach and media trainer to presidents of Countries, Prime Ministers, CEOs, Nobel Peace Prize winners, professional athletes and Ms. Universes. Send your questions to infoediatrainingworldwide.com or on Twitter J. Walker.

Another great way of starting a presentation is what comedians call the callback. If you can reference something thing that a previous speaker said or that someone said earlier in the day and it's referencing something they said and there's some humor to it, people love that if the first thing is getting a laugh. I wouldn't necessarily go into a presentation with that in mind, but if you're really listening to the speakers before, that's why it's good to get to a venue early. Listen to other speakers, get a sense of what works. Because if you can make you don't want to seem too mean spirited or like you're attacking someone. But if you can reference a previous speaker and do it in a way that perhaps makes fun of yourself, that's the best of all because it shows people you're here, you're present, you're listening to others, and you're going to be in the moment and having a conversation. You do that, you will grab the audience's attention and they will at least start off liking you. Doesn't really matter if the meat the guts of your speech are boring and tedious in a data dump, but at least you've got them to start. I'm TJ Walker. As always, may all of your presentations in life be a huge success.

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