ARE YOU INFLICTING BOREDOM?

As humans, there are many things that are a part of our internal programming. Saying please and thank you, responding to a sneeze with “God bless you,”  yawning when you see someone else yawn, applauding at the end of a performance, holding your breath under water, putting toothpaste on your toothbrush before brushing, and protecting your children from harm are all things we do automatically, because we have been programmed to do so.

There are many other things that have been written into our internal programming, however, that don’t always serve us best. Some of those programs take over when we have a presentation to give. We say what we have heard others say, because after hearing it over and over again, it’s comfortable for us to do the same in a high stress situation, such as speaking in front of an audience. Plus, if everyone else does it, then it must be correct, right? WRONG! Are the words of your mother echoing in the back of your head as they are mine? “If everyone jumped off a bridge, would you follow?”

If you are like most people, you want to make a great impression. You would like your presentation to be seen as professional and effective. And most importantly you want to capture your audiences attention in the first few moments of your talk. Here are some sure fire opening snoozers that are overused and cliche. Use these and risk losing your audiences attention, and ultimately means failure, before you begin.

1. One of the worst ways to begin a presentation is, “My name is ___________ and today I will be talking about ____________.” I hate to break the news to you, but your name is usually not relevant to your presentation enough that you should open with it. And it’s likely that you have been introduced by name or your audience already knows who you are. If you feel it’s important to introduce yourself, you can certainly do that, just don’t begin with an introduction. It’s okay to communicate what you will be covering, but don’t do so at the beginning. That’s when you should be connecting with your audience and building rapport.
2. “Thanks for having me here today.” Yes it is important to thank people. Yes it’s polite to do so. And yes you should be gracious at some point; just not as an opening. It’s boring and uninteresting, You can add it right after you open and simply say you are “glad to be here’ and thank whomever invited you by name.
3. The number one worst way to begin a presentation is with an apology. This may seem like a no-brainer, but I have heard people open with an apology multiple times. Never begin by setting your audiences expectations low. While on the surface, you may believe an apology will help you appear better than the low expectations you set, it will work in just the opposite way and your audience will see and hear you in the way you have set them up to expect. Some of the more infamous of the worst openings apologetic openings I have heard are: “I was just asked to speak yesterday so I apologize if…”, “I wasn’t prepared to speak today…”, “I was hoping I wouldn’t be asked to present…”, and “I’m not the best person to present to you today.” UGH! Are you kidding me???!!!

Please don’t fall into the trap which so many do and allow preconditioning to guide your opening. Make a statement to begin that will be ultimately be an incredible set up to your presentation.

HOW SHOULD I OPEN?

Look for next week’s message when I go over a few great ways to begin a presentation.

Bearj Jehanian is a Maximum Potential Speaker and Trainer.  Through a combination of inspiration and online tools, Bearj inspires his audiences to build a foundation of belief, to support a decision to act on any idea and bring it to completion. Believe, Decide, Act.  You can find out more about Bearj here.