Open Your Presentation: How to Hook your Audience with a Great Start

Open Your Presentation: How to Hook your Audience with a Great Start

Open your presentation with a powerful introduction to hook your audience. I’ll start you off with the structure that many business writers, journalists, and authors use time after time.

Get our Presentation Skills Toolkit, which accompanies this course
https://managementcourses.gumroad.com/l/presentationskillstoolkit

Watching this video is worth 2 Management Courses CPD Points*.
🔎 See below for details

PRESENTATION SKILLS
This video is part of course module 2.2.1
Program 2: Manager as Communicator
Course 2: Presentation Skills
Section 1: Preparation

Other videos in this section include:
🎬 Define Your Presentation: Defusing the B.O.M.B. https://youtu.be/-MHhwQxE3yg
🎬 How to Craft a Compelling, Persuasive, and Powerful Presentation https://youtu.be/AKtI5QgLFX0
🎬 How to Craft a Compelling Presentation Structure https://youtu.be/cwdhUk2IZPQ
🎬 Five Simple Structures for a Compelling Presentation https://youtu.be/fqTA6Kybw0E
🎬 Closing: How to Finish Your Presentation with Real Impact https://youtu.be/7UCMi5JYSuM
🎬 How to Make the Key Points of Your Presentation Memorable https://youtu.be/fHDLO6f2Syc
🎬 How to Create Excellent Visual Aids for Your Presentation https://youtu.be/jP2Q5Kdq_Ww
🎬 Preparation is Key: How to Review and Rehearse Your Presentation https://youtu.be/_9bOgcBNaeU

LESSON NOTES
The three-part Structure: Situation, Complication, and Question.
Situation
– Start by spelling out briefly the situation.
Complication
– Then set up a complication: why does this really matter to your audience?
Question
– Step up your intro with a question.
Answer
– Finally, answer the question with your Central Idea.

AIDA Formula for Grabbing Attention
Attention
– Something surprising, shocking, curious, or relevant
Interest
– Pique their interest by showing how it can benefit them
Desire
– Create desire by showing what they will get if they listen to you
Action
– Let them know what they need to do next

Here are some of my favorite ways to open a talk.
1. State something familiar – then undermine it.
2. Make a bold claim – that you can deliver on.
3. Assert something surprising.
4. Make a provocative remark.
5. Make a paradoxical statement.
6. Ask your audience a question.
7. Take a poll (show of hands) of your audience.
8. Ask for someone who fits a description – the characteristics will be relevant to your talk.
9. Tell a story – real life or allegorical.
10. Describe a common experience that will get your audience into a mood or emotional state.
11. Describe a scenario and ask: “what would you do?”
12. Challenge your audience.
13. Describe a current or recent news story – that you will show is relevant.
14. Quote a quotation.
15. Make a demonstration – call for a volunteer first to really get them on edge.
16. Draw an analogy between something familiar and your topic.
17. A humorous observation – but be very careful with jokes unless you are very accomplished.

RECOMMENDED EXERCISE
Next time you craft a presentation:
1. Select either the SCQA framework or AIDA format and write an opening to hook your audience (2 MC CPD Points)
2. Use one of my 17 ways to really grab attention (2 MC CPD Points)

DOWNLOADS
Free Resources
🧰 CPD Tools – https://gum.co/MC-CPD
Paid resources
🧳 Management Courses Onboarding Kit – https://gum.co/MC-ObK ($3)

RECOMMENDED READING
My top recommendation is my own book:
📖 How to Speak so people Listen – https://geni.us/HSPL
Other Recommendations:
📖 The Presentation Book – https://geni.us/6sqr
📖 Presentation Zen – https://geni.us/mrvmeh
📖 The Pyramid Principle – https://geni.us/9cbjvBs
📖 The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs – https://geni.us/KJpG

⭕️ Links to our book recommendations are affiliated through Amazon and help support our free videos

Managers Need a Basic set of kit to do your job well. Here are my top recommendations: https://kit.co/MikeClayton/manager-s-work-kit (the links are affiliated)

BUT…
I have also created a Presenter’s Kit to accompany this course:
https://kit.co/MikeClayton/presenter-s-kit (the links are affiliated)

MANAGEMENT COURSES CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT (CPD) POINTS
You can record your Management Courses CPD points on our free, downloadable CPD record log.
📓 Download it at: https://gum.co/MC-CPD
Each video has two levels of MC CPD points. For this video:
– If you simply watched the video, record 2 MC CPD points
– If you also carried out all of the recommended exercises, score a total of 6 MC CPD points

CHAPTER MARKERS
00:00 – You need to Hook your audience
01:10 – Situation – Complication – Question
02:43 – Your central idea
02:55 – AIDA Formula
04:52 – The need to grab attention
05:15 – List of attention-grabbers
07:19 – Why your opener is so important
07:39 – The two things you most need to practice and develop…

#ManagementCourses #PresentationSkills #HookYourAudience

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