You must have heard the saying: “The first impression is eternal, and you can never get a second chance to make a good one.” This saying also applies when talking about public speaking, so when writing a speech, you need to focus all your efforts on creating a good first impression on your audience.
In our article today, we will focus on how to create a good impression on the audience through several ways to start your speech. Here are 15 ways to start an interesting speech:
1- I thank the organizers and the audience.
You can begin your speech by thanking the audience for coming and the event organizers for inviting you to give the speech. And do not hesitate to extend a special thank you to the person who introduced you to speak or to one of the distinguished members of the organization who contributed to the organization of the event. Starting your speech with phrases like these will make your audience feel happy and proud, connecting you to them like an electrical plug is plugged into a socket.
2- Start with a positive statement.
You can begin by telling your audience how much they will enjoy and benefit from your speech.You can start your speech like this:
“You will have a lot of fun with me this evening.” “Today I am going to share with you one of the most important ideas that have been discovered in this field, and you will be amazed at the information that I am going to give you.”
Remember that recitation is an art, so be an artist and take complete control of your performance; you are the star of the party!
3- Praise the audience.
Praise the audience sincerely and with great respect. Smile at them as if they are old friends you haven’t seen in a long time, and express your gratitude for being with them and that they are important people in the field you are going to discuss. You can say the following:
“It gives me great pleasure and honor to be with you today. You are the elite and best in this field.”Very few of the best in this field are willing to take the time and make some sacrifices in order to attend this conference.”
4- Begin the speech by talking about current events.
You can use the press releases published on the front page of the newspaper as an introduction to the topic of your speech and a way to clarify and support your point of view. You can also hold the newspaper in your hand and point to it at the beginning of the conversation. Reading excerpts from a news story attracts the audience’s attention and encourages them to hear more.
5- Tag a well-known person.
You could begin your speech by quoting a famous person’s quote that has had an impact lately. This person could be an influential author, actor, politician, etc. But of course, make sure that this quote is related to the topic you are going to discuss. For example, if you are going to give a talk about self-development and personal development, you might start as follows:
“In the 21st century, knowledge and continuous learning have become one of the most important keys to success, as famous basketball coach Pat Riley says: If you are not getting better every day, you are getting worse.”
6- Refer to a conversation you had recently.
This is another great way to start a speech, where you can refer to a recent dialogue or conversation you had with an audience, or during a phone call, where you can say, for example:
“A few minutes ago, I was talking to (so-and-so) in the lobby of the hall, and he told me that this period is one of the best times to invest in this field, and I agree with him on that.”
7- Begin with a shocking statement.
Pick an important statistic, a surprising story, or other shocking idea related to the topic you’re going to talk about. For example, you can start like this:
“Based on a recent survey, there will be more change, competition, and opportunity in the industry over the next year than ever before, and 72% of today’s attendees will be working in another field over the next two years if they don’t adapt to these changes.”
8- Quote from a recent research or study
If you find research that is relevant to what you are going to talk about, quoting some interesting information from it and using it in the introduction of your speech will contribute to the interest of the audience and increase their interest in what you have to say to them. For example, you might start with a statement similar to the following:
“Based on a recent Businessweek article, there were over 10 million millionaires, most of them self-made, in the USA in 2013.”
9- Be entertaining.
In order to make the intent of this method clear to you, let us take, for example, the famous speaker Bill Gove, who in his speeches used to walk to the stage immediately after his presentation while he finished his speech with someone next to him. As if he stops talking to this person in order to deliver his speech to the audience, resulting in the appearance of a long, continuous dialogue.Not only that, but he was often approaching the edge of the stage, then lowering his voice, saying in a whisper, “Come close to me; let me tell you a little secret,” then moving his hands in a sign from him to urge the listeners to come closer.
The amazing thing is that the entire audience involuntarily leaned forward to hear this “secret,” then suddenly realized what they were doing and burst out laughing. Do not just deliver the speech; also make sure to use your other abilities, such as a sense of humor, body language, and others, to attract the audience from the first moments.
10- Ask a question
You can start the speech with a positive, upbeat statement and then follow it up with a question to the audience, which the audience will answer by raising their hands. This method engages the listeners more and makes them more prepared to know what you will say in response to your question.
11- The letter opened by posing the problem.
This method is especially effective if the problem is general and affects most of the audience, as you will immediately gain their attention once you bring it up. For example, you might start the letter like this:
“63% of workers are heading towards retirement without having an adequate source of income that guarantees them a decent life after retirement.” It is a very important contemporary problem, and we must address it in order to search for appropriate solutions that guarantee each person a decent life for the rest of his life.
12- Open up strongly and ask stimulating questions.
Another way to start your speech is to start with a strong and influential fact or statement, then follow it up with a question, which you answer yourself, followed by another question, and so on, which motivates the audience to focus on what you say and listen to every word. Here is an example of this method:
“Twenty percent of people in the world earn 80 percent of all the money available today.” Are you in that elite group? If not, would you like to be in the top 20 percent or even the top 10 percent in the world? Well, in the next few minutes, I’m going to give you some important ideas that will help you become one of those who achieve the highest gains in our societies, so what do you think of this as a goal for our meeting today together?
13- Tell a story
Nothing is more enjoyable for the listeners than hearing a speech that begins with “Once upon a time…” As soon as you hear this phrase, you will find that the silence has settled and the audience has fallen silent and leaned their bodies towards you, just like a group of children huddled around a campfire waiting to hear the story. So, do not hesitate to choose an interesting short story related to the topic you will talk about and start your speech with it, as perhaps the “story” technique is the most powerful and successful way to master the art of speech.
14- Talk about yourself.
While some may think that starting a speech by talking about yourself may be a bit arrogant, we find that this method is a very successful way to build bridges of communication with your audience. As one of the speakers in the field of entrepreneurship says, he would often start his speeches with sentences introducing himself and his background, such as: “I started my career without obtaining a high school diploma, and my family did not have enough money, so all my success was by my own effort without any little help from others.”
And this speaker was very surprised by the number of people who came to him after this speech to tell him about their own experiences and how similar their stories were to his own. Rather, he felt that they were more receptive to hearing his speech after knowing this information about him, as they felt that he was close to them and lived the same experiences as them and was not a superhero who achieved his success easily. The bottom line here is that you try to start your speech by building bridges with your audience and showing that you are close to them so that you can attract them to your side.
15- Have the audience talk to each other.
You can start your speech by asking the audience to ask the person next to them a question or discuss an idea with them. The audience will respond to whatever you ask of them as long as your requests are reasonable and you express them with confidence. Not only that, but in this way you make them feel important by including them in the speech, which makes them more eager to hear more and focus with you until the end.
You can select the method that best suits your topic and speech, and you can sometimes combine more than one method to provide a strong start to the speech.And with the previous advice on how to write a speech and ways to speak in front of an audience without fear, we guarantee that you will attract the attention of your audience from the first moments, and it will not take long before you become a successful speaker who fully controls the stage on which he speaks.
Are there other things that you feel would be more interesting if you began your speech? Please share it with us in the comments.
Read also: What are the nine types of intelligence?
