5 Days of 5 Ways to Lose Your Audience's Attention
An audience's attention is precious. They remember best what they hear first and last in a presentation. It's important for the speaker to not blow it in the first 30 seconds of a speech by having a mind-numbing opening.
For the next five days, we are going to discuss 5 different openings that bore an audience in 30 seconds or less and how to fix it.
Day 1: The Dictionary defines…
…this opening as one of the dullest ever. Honestly, the audience probably already understands how to define whatever word you are going to talk about. There is nothing about a dictionary definition that compels the audience to listen to you!
This clip from Community explains it best.
[youtube_sc url=”http://youtu.be/BCy0iCQyGQU” title=”Community%20-%20the%20Jim%20Belushi%20of%20Speech%20Openings”]
Instead of telling us the definition of word – tell us why you are speaking on the topic. What meaning does it have for you? If we know why the topic is meaningful or important to you, it will draw us into your presentation. The dictionary shouldn't define the meaning of your presentation; tell us why it is meaningful.
Day 2 will bring the funny…or not.
