Casey Brown at TEDx Columbus Women

"Know Your Worth and then Ask for It"

In an eight-minute presentation, you need to grab the attention of your audience, establish rapport and deliver your message clearly.

Casey Brown succeeded in meeting those three criteria in this presentation. Watch her presentation and notice these powerful techniques in action.

Grab Attention

Notice how she grabbed attention with the first words of her opening. “No one will ever pay you what you’re worth.” (pause) Then she repeats the phrase. After another pause, “They’ll only pay you what they think you’re worth.”

All of that was delivered with a calm and clear manner with a (I’ve got a secret) smile.

That opening grabbed attention, and piqued the curiosity of the audience to listen for more. That’s the purpose of an effective opening. There were no wasted words in her opening.

Establish Rapport

The best ways to connect with your audience are to demonstrate that you understand them and that you are like them.

She was speaking to a predominantly female audience. She pointed out that women are generally underpaid compared to men. She quoted statistics to back up that statement. She identified herself as a female business owner and single parent of two beautiful daughters. Those statements are likely to connect with the women in the audience and many of the men.

Most importantly she used the one powerful technique to connect with the audience – she confessed that she was flawed and afraid. She was hesitant to take her own advice. Many of us appear wiser when we give advice but we often seem to ignore our own advice.

Deliver the Message Clearly

Her message was “You’ll only be paid what they think you’re worth. That was in her opening statement and repeated in her close.

She illustrated that concept in her personal story and in a story from one of her clients.

Casey Brown delivered on these three presentation criteria. Watch the video below.

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Open your presentation with a startling fact...

Notice the precise choice of words in his opening. They grab attention and set the context of his presentation. Nicely done.

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Open your presentation with Pizzazz

Open Your Presentation With Pizzazz

 

Howto win the audience at the beginning of your presentation

Why is the opening so important?

When you speak to an audience you have seconds to make a good first impression. That first impression must persuade them to listen and believe you. Get it wrong and you lose. You might have an important and valuable presentation prepared but if they’re turned off and tuned out at the beginning, everything you’ve prepared was wasted.

The opening to your presentation is critical to your success. You shouldn’t be surprised that poor speakers have poor openings. When you speak, you can recover from many mistakes during your presentations – but a weak opening isn’t one of them.

Questions that this book will answer for you

What can you say and do to grab the attention of your audience, build rapport and convince them to believe you?

How can you write a powerful opening faster?

How can you create one of the most engaging openings – a story?

What common mistakes should you avoid?

What is the three-part ADR formula that helps you focus your opening?

What are the five keys that foretell a successful opening?

What are the non-verbal actions you need to employ before you speak?

What magic words and phrases can you use to have them with your first words?

Review and order this ebook at Amazon now

Follow the guidelines, use the tips, examine the examples and play with the templates offered to write, prepare and deliver your opening with pizzazz.

Who is The Author?

George Torok was a shy and introverted student who learned how to present. He wasn’t a natural. That’s why he simplifies and explains clearly how to become a better speaker.

As The Speech Coach for Executives he coaches executives, entrepreneurs and leaders to deliver million dollar presentations.

Through his training program, Superior Presentations, his company trains managers, professionals and sales teams to deliver Superior Presentations… because inferior never wins.

George Torok has delivered over 1,500 professional presentations. He has coached and worked with hundreds of executives. He has written over 500 articles and 2,000 blog posts. As the host of the weekly radio show, Business In Motion, he interviewed over 600 entrepreneurs, executives and experts.

 Read this ebook now on your Kindle



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Don't Neglect Your Opening and Closing

The speaker understood the concept of beginning – middle – end. But he didn’t practice that in the delivery of his speech.

As the owner of an advertising agency, he explained that every ad follows a storyline and every story has a beginning, middle and end.

However, he clearly didn’t see his presentation as a story with a beginning, middle and end. He failed to deliverer an effective beginning and end. Ironic.

His opening line was, “So what I’m gonna try to do…”

Would he start an ad with such a limp phrase?

In the middle of his speech he delivered some fascinating insights and examples of advertising stories. He shone at this point because he was talking about ideas and examples about which he was passionate and knowledgeable.

The closing line to his speech was, “Enjoy your conference. Thank you for your invitation. Any questions? Am I supposed to take questions?

That’s a weak and sloppy close.

My guess is that he wouldn’t have been so caviler if he was speaking to a client instead of a university group.

You can Open Your Presentation with Pizzazz. Get your copy of this book on Amazon Kindle now.

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Lousy opening to your presentation

Lousy opening to your presentation

The purpose of your opening is to build interest in your presentation. Your opening is like the opening paragraph of an article or the first chapter in your book. The question it should answer is “Why should the audience listen to your presentation?”

Sometimes we need to experience a bad example to really appreciate the difference. Here is an example of a bad opening---

The speaker said:

Good morning, good afternoon or whatever.

Guess I’m a little jet lagged. Ha.
Glad to be here in Toronto.

I’m the founder of…

We are based in California.
We have offices around the world.

Where’s Robert?

There he is.
He is my local licensee.

We’re running 15 minutes late and I had planned to speak for one hour and fifteen minutes and I plan to use all of that time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The purpose is to build interest in listening to the rest of the presentation. Nothing he said in his opening did that. From that opening one might surmise that this speaker would be a pompous braggart and an inconsiderate boring speaker.

The audience makes those decisions during your opening.

We know what he didn’t do. Let’s dissect his opening to recognize what he did wrong.

 

Paragraph 1: Good morning

That’s cliché and boring. He started speaking at 4:00pm yet he didn’t know the time of day. That demonstrates lack of awareness and disregard for his audience. We don’t care about his alleged jet lag. That was his way of bragging that he travelled to get here. Glad to be in Toronto sounded insincere and it was cliché.

 

Paragraph 2: I’m the founder

The place for that information was in his introduction. It was in the introduction and for some reason he felt that he needed to repeat that. Why? Was he insecure? It seems those things were important to him and perhaps his mother?

 

Paragraph 3: Where’s Robert?

At some point Robert and his relationship might become significant. At this point, who cares?

 

Paragraph 4: 15 Minutes Late

Did he just criticize the organizers? Then he added that he was unwilling to adapt and didn’t care about the audience time expectations. He implied that the time of the audience was unimportant to him. It was more important that he exercise his desire to speak as long as he likes.

 

If you heard this opening -

Would you like this person?

Would you feel interested in his presentation?
Would you want to do business with his company?

 

Check the opening to your presentations. Avoid these mistakes.

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Your Speech has Three Parts

Opening – Body – Close

There are three parts to a good presentation. Guess which part bad speakers focus on? The Body. Guess which parts are the most important? The Opening and the Close.

Why are the opening and the close of your speech so important?

The opening is important because this is the first impression you make on your audience. This is your opportunity to grab their attention and establish rapport. Your credibility was established in your introduction (if it was done well).

The close is important to your speech because it is the last image and words they have of you. Thus it is what they are most likely to remember about you.

Picture this opening that I painfully witnessed. The speaker received a boisterous welcome thanks to the enthusiasm of the MC. When the speaker arrived on stage he needed to take the microphone from the MC. They obviously had not talked about nor rehearsed this part. The microphone was a headset. The speaker was clearly unfamiliar and uncomfortable with this type of microphone. As the speaker struggled to get the microphone on he complained that he did not like this and called out to the audience, “can everybody hear me?” He appeared unhappy that the reply was in the negative.

As the speaker struggled with the wire and his jacket, someone called out, “Take it off.” So he removed his jacket while fighting with the wire.

Finally he returned to center stage and mumbled “I wish I could start over again.”

It was a lousy opening to his speech - unprofessional, uninspiring and weak.

What about his close?

It was equally weak – but much shorter.

The speaker announced that he just “got the hook” while he made the cut gesture across his throat. He stated, “Well, that’s it” and left the stage.

A weak opening and a weak close; what a lousy speech - let’s hope that isn’t you.

The opening to your speech is the first impression and your close is the last impression. Make them powerful. The only way you can do that is with proper preparation, and deliberate delivery.

Remember three parts to your speech: Opening – Body – Close. Prepare and deliver all three powerfully - especially the Opening and Close.


George Torok
Speech Coach for Executives