Jump In!

I am often asked by participants in my "UPFRONT" presentations skills class, "how do you want me to start?" I answer "just jump right into it!"

A good compelling open should be without any preface - just start telling the story! Do not lose the advantage of surprise and interest you hold at the beginning of any presentation.

Avoid happy-to-be-here, i-am-not-sure-why-I-was-asked-to-speak, I-just-found-out-about-this-yesterday, boy-am-i-nervous, ok-let's-get-started...ok-lets-get-started...ok-hello-my-name-is....

You know what I mean - drop all that stuff.

Jump right into the story like a good first line of a novel: "It was a dark and stormy night..." well, how about "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." or just: "I was talking to Bill, here in the audience, just now, and he said...."

Everybody will want to know what he said and what it has to do with you. Now you got'em.

Peter Jeff writes pointedly about your opening being a "a splash of cold water" for your audience. While that sounds uncomfortable, it is accurate. Your open should be compelling, grabbing the audience's attention from the get-go, getting them to quiet down, end conversations, put away PDA's, look and listen to you. Shock them into attentive submission.

I am asked if we should start with a joke, a story, a graph? The answer is whatever makes a clear benefit statement to your audience, that is also connected to your content. The goal is to raise the audience's curiosity, their desire to hear more from you. A joke that has nothing to do with your topic may be funny, but does not take advantage of the high attention you have in the first 15 seconds. Use that time to grab their attention, hold it, and preview the value of your topic.

Jump right in! The water is great!