How to create the best introduction for your speech.

Hey, everybody! We're back this week with the idea of improving our speech introductions, especially when we are speaking in public. Let's dive in!
How can you create a good introduction? What is the keyword here? Creating. You must make it yours, personal, and that's the basis for the three points you should remember when focusing on this first part of your talk.

• Be yourself for real:
  • Though you'd better be confident in yourself, also adjust the tone of the introduction to your nature. If you're rather quiet, keep it in a low tone; if you're shy or private, don't tell a personal fact or anecdote; if you're somebody who likes to clown around, tell a joke.

 

• Prepare it keeping your audience in mind:
  • The introduction will catch your audience attention or make them fully disconnect. When you compose it, include words or expressions that will captivate them. You should consider as well which image of yourself you want to display and what you want you audience to receive from your talk. All this will affect how you create the introduction.

 

• Make your first words edgy, sharp:
  • Again, the introduction is key to the success of the speech, so, imagine the importance of the very first sentence(s)! Think of something that will strike the audience. You might use one of the following figures of speech:

        1. Provocative question:
E.g.: Did you know that there are more than nine million bicycles in Beijing, the capital of China

        2. Joke:
E.g.: Don't worry, I'll try to keep my talk brief. They say it's better to leave your audience before your audience leaves you, right?

        3. Shocking fact:
E.g.: There are more possible iterations in a game of chess than there are atoms in the known universe.

        4. Evoke an image:
E.g.: Imagine/What if there was a zombie apocalypse(?).

        5. Quote/Proverb/Saying:
E.g.: "Like father, like son", they say.

        6. Anecdote:
E.g.: "Truth be told I never graduated from college, and this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation". (Steve Jobs, Stanford University, 2005).


​What do you think? Now, won't you be able to create your own, personal and powerful introduction for your speech? So, go and sing high as a Starling!