3 Best Ways to Start Your Speech

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3 Best Ways To Start Your SpeechPosted on OCTOBER 22, 2012 Written by JDONOVAN 1 COMMENT

Of the co untless w ays to be g in your speec h, I am go ing to de tail the three types of

openings that the most com pelling TED sp eakers us e to enga ge their audiences.Remember that the first ten or twenty seconds of your speech is the peak of youraudiences engagement level. It is not going to get any better as one by one yourlisteners will get distracted by their mental grocery lists or the next days outfit. Hookthem fast with benefits by giving them an implicit or explicit reason to pay closeat tention.

Opening #1: The Personal Story

The most consistently successful opening is the personal story. Here is what you needto know. First, your personal story should really be personal. Tell your own story andshare your observations. It is a good idea to make others the heroes in your stories.Second, make sure your story is directly relevant to your core message. If your goal is toinspire people to volunteer their time to feed the homeless, a cute story about how yourdog can bark I love you just does not belong. Third, fourth, and fifth, make your story

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highly emotional, highly sensory, and rich in dialogue. The story should be so specificthat your audience is able to relive it with you. And sixth, start your story somewhere inthe middle so that you immediate prompt your audience to wonder who, what, where,whey, why, or how.

In his TEDTalk, author and success expert Richard St. John demonstrated the power of using a personal story for his opening:

This is really a two hour presentation I give to high school students, cut down to threeminutes. And it all started one day on a plane, on my way to TED, seven years ago. And inthe seat next to me was a high school student, a teenager, and she came from a really poor

family. And she wanted to make something of her life, and she asked me a simple littlequestion. She said, What leads to success? And I felt really badly, because I couldnt giveher a good answer. So I get off the plane, and I come to TED. And I think, jeez, Im in themiddle of a room of successful people! So why dont I ask them what helped them succeed,and pass it on to kids?

Did you visualize yourself on the plane? Did you turn your head and eavesdrop whenthe teenage girl, who came from a poor family, asked Richard for the secret of success?Could you feel Richards disappointment about not having a good answer and his zeal tobe ready to help kids in the future? Moreover, and more selfishly, are you now intensely

curious what Richard St. John found to be the key to success? To find out, you will haveto watch his talk on TED.com; I cannot spoil all the fun. But, at least you now knowRichards secret to capturing his audience with a personal story opening.

Opening #2: The Powerful Question

If you go the powerful question route, I recommend that you use why questions andhow questions. Why questions are by far the most enticing since they tap into our

natural curiosity to understand the world around us. Once we know why things happen,then we want to know how to make good things happen and how to prevent bad thingsfrom happening. If the why is implied or well understood, then you can open with ahow question.

Simon Sinek demonstrated the most effective powerful question opening of anyTEDTalk that I have encountered. Here is how he began a talk that ultimately provided
http://www.ted.com/talks/richard_st_john_s_8_secrets_of_success.htmlhttp://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action.html


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people with a how-to framework for being an inspiring leader or an effectivecorporation:

How do you explain when things dont go as we assume? Or better, how do you explainwhen others are able to achieve things that seem to defy all of the assumptions? Forexample: Why is Apple so innovative? Year after year, after year, after year, theyre moreinnovative than all their competition. And yet, theyre just a computer company. Theyre

just like everyone else. They have the same access to the same talent, the same agencies, thesame consultants, the same media. Then why is it that they seem to have somethingdifferent? Why is it that Martin Luther King led the Civil Rights Movement? He wasnt theonly man who suffered in a pre-civil rights America. And he certainly wasnt the only greatorator of the day. Why him? And why is it that the Wright brothers were able to figure outcontrol-powered, manned flight when there were certainly other teams who were betterqualified, better funded, and they didnt achieve powered man flight, and the Wrightbrothers beat them to it. Theres something else at play here.

A single opening question is sufficient. But, Mr. Sinek instead chose to bombard hisaudience with a string of why questions. This approach, an extended why-tease, isextremely effective but most be done carefully. To successfully string multiplequestions together in an opening, they must all have the same answer. Simon evenmixed how and why questions together, a bit like playing with matches and dynamite;

however, both types of questions were rooted in the same underlying reason. I would just leave you confused if I opened a speech with Why is it that the sky is blue? Andwhy is it that that a rolling stone gathers no moss? And why is it that elephants areafraid of mice?

Opening #3: The Shocking Statement

Though shocking statements most frequently rely on statistics, they can also express

strong opinions that challenge conventional wisdom. The important thing is that yourpoint must trigger a range of audience emotions. If you share a what, then people willhave a burning need to fill in the gaps on why, how, when, and where. In his TED2010talk, celebrity chef and child nutrition advocate Jamie Oliver used exactly this recipe inhis opening. Listen to how he started:

Sadly, in the next eighteen minutes when I do our chat, four Americans that are alive will
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/jamie_oliver.html


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be dead from the food that they eat. My name is Jamie Oliver. I am thirty four yearsold. I am from Essex in England and for the last seven years I have worked fairlytirelessly to save lives in my own way. I am not a doctor; Im a chef. I dont haveexpensive equipment, or medicine. I use information and education. I profoundlybelieve that the power of food has a primal place in our homes that binds us to the bestbits of life.

Chef Oliver captured his audience by sharing what is happening people are dropping like flies from the food they eat. And, they are not half way around the world in adeveloping country; they are in the same modern nation as his audience. You shouldhave little doubt that most of the audience is wondering if they will survive lunch! Suchis the power of a shocking statistic that is deeply and personally relevant to theaudience. Remember the magic four needs: physical health and safety; love andbelonging; desire and self-interest; hope in a brighter future. Jamie went primal, life anddeath, and had his audience waiting with bated breath to find out why this is happening and to learn how to stay alive.

Try It Out

Your opening should have caused your audience to consider the benefits of your talk inan implicit way. Rather than starting your speeches with a whimper such as Hello

ladies and gentlemen or In the next 45 minutes, I am going to share with you ,start your next talk with a bang. You can do that by telling a personal story, asking apowerful question, or sharing a shocking statistic. Just make sure that your opening completely supports the primary theme or objective of your speech.

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1 Comment

Craig Hadden

Great tip about starting in the MIDDLE of a story, to intrigue the audience. Id notthought of that approach!

I loved how Jamie Oliver opened, and also his use of a prop, which I wrote about here:http://remotepossibilities.wor...

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