How You Start, Finish, and Move

• Author: Faith Dianne Pincus
• Profession: Attorney and former Federal Law Clerk
• Pages: 45-66

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CHAPTER FOUR

How You Start, Finish,

andMove

In Chapter Three, I discussed the basic steps to creating a memorable mes-

sage. Now I’m going to focus on what happens in the first few minutes and

the last few minutes of your presentation, and how you get from Point A

to Point B in all the time in between. But let’s start at the very beginning:

the introductory portion of your speech.

Why Does Your Introduction Matter?

Introductions serve a vital purpose. By “introduction,” I don’t mean how

someone introduces you to the audience. Instead, I’m talking about the first

part of your speech, where you introduce the subject you will be addressing.

How you choose to start your speech is, in fact, one of the most important

parts of your presentation. Why is that?

Simple. Your introduction is where you establish your own credibility

and communicate your ethos. This is your opportunity to connect with

the audience and establish a rapport. It is the moment where you can grab

their attention and pique their curiosity and interest.

In these moments, you also provide a road map of the presentation—a

preview, where you “tell them what you’re going to tell them.”

When I coach clients and speak at seminars, one of my jobs is to help

people reframe their thinking about presentations. Most people who aren’t

trained in public speaking skills focus the bulk of their time on creating

and honing the body of their presentation, and they give their introduc-

tions and conclusions short shrift.

This is a bad idea.

Think of your introduction as a first date. You might be able to rescue

yourself from a bad beginning, but why start out at a disadvantage if you

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46 Being Heard

can help it? Similarly, when delivering a presentation, you only have a few

moments to make that all-important first impression. If you don’t pay strict

attention to crafting an effective introduction, you may lose your audience

before you even get to the core of your speech.

Simply put, it is impossible to establish your credibility, connect with

your audience, grab their attention, and pique their curiosity if you don’t

carefully think about how you want to start off to accomplish these goals.

So good introductions are critical to the success of your presentation.

Now that you know that introductions actually serve a purpose, let’s

look at what goes in them and how to deliver them.

What Should Go into Your Introduction?

Your Attention-Getter

The most effective introductions start with a compelling story, a thought-

ful quote, or a startling statement to grab the audience’s attention. Some

people use rhetorical questions (or real questions) effectively. A staccato

list of shocking statistics can also work. An anecdote and humor can start a

speech off right, if done appropriately and well (i.e., if it is not an offensive

or clichéd joke with no relevance to your topic).

I’ve described each of these tools as well as others and illustrated how

they work below. It is important for you to choose which of them best suits

your introduction and then also think about how to employ these methods

at the right time throughout your speech.

Stories, Examples, and Anecdotes

If you decide to start with a story, you will, naturally, want to present

something that is compelling and interesting, something that will tug on

your audience’s emotions. Keep your story brief and to the point; don’t

ramble on forever or digress into minute details. Keep it relevant. Make

sure that the subject matter of the story is directly related to your speech

and the overall message you want to communicate. It can have a moral, if

you like, or it can just be a story that illustrates an issue, problem, challenge,

or success related to the message in your presentation.

The key to telling a story is keep it simple and use your voice and

body language to tell it well (see Chapter Seven, “Pitch-Perfect Delivery,”

for tips on that). Provide just enough detail to keep your listeners interested

without overwhelming them or losing them.

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