What should be the starting lines of a speech

Here are seven effective methods to open a speech or presentation:. Apply to YPO now. Here are seven effective methods to open a speech or presentation: Quote Opening with a relevant quote can help set the tone for the rest of your speech.

How different would our everyday lives be? What would happen if we said what was on our minds, all day every day? It puts your audience members directly into the presentation by allowing each member to visualize an extraordinary scenario. Framing the speech is so important! Preparing and practicing will keep you on the right course. It will also help you be relaxed and calm. You need to talk naturally! Just watch a couple of great speeches on TED talk and other platforms.

You could also tune in to political speeches — maybe even hear the president talking. The one thing these great speakers all have in common is natural flow! A speech opening needs to be in direct relation with the rest of the talk. If you come speaking about something random and then shift your focus on a completely different subject, people will lose interest.

One more thing: speeches need a bit of drama. Delivering the solution will amplify the message you had for the listeners. You can ask your friend, mom, dad, or even your grandmother for support. Seeing a friendly face in the crowd will give you the courage and confidence to deliver an amazing opening line and make a great first impression.

Using props, videos, and other additional materials to start a speech should be a judgment call. They just expect a speaker and nothing else. People heard his point more clearly because he used a unique prop. Now you probably have an idea of how to start a speech, but we just want to amplify some opening lines you should definitely avoid are. When it comes to public speaking, you should never :. Here are some tips from a well-known public speaker Ken Robinson.

He often speaks about education and creativity, but he also talked about public speaking and presentation. His tips are:. Unfortunately this speech suffered from a common affliction that writers face; in getting focused on the precise words of the speech in this instance, Eve Ensler read her speech , we can get disconnected from the full power of the material.

Whilst the words were powerful, we would have enjoyed the rest of this speech more if Eve had given herself permission to find the right words in the moment, rather than needing to be perfectly scripted. You want it to be perfect.

These are common and perfectly understandable reasons why people opt to script their speech and read it word for word. More than anything, people want you to be human and to speak from the heart. It takes confidence to ditch your notes, but with some simple techniques, you can prepare and remember your speech in a way that allows you to deliver a clear, compelling and authentic talk. How to start a speech with power and confidence How to remember a speech without notes Public speaking pitfall: over preparing Becoming a naked speaker.

Jamie Oliver manages to balance preparation statistics, stories, well-developed ideas with heart in his TED talk. This speech opening line both makes our jaws drop to the ground in shock at such a statistic and opens our hearts to the human side of the story.

Powerful stuff. Opening your speech with a hard-hitting fact can quickly add credibility to your talk and demonstrate the scale of an issue. Resist the urge to stuff the rest of the speech with stats. Try to stick to a few powerful facts and bring them to life with real examples. The key to presenting data…is not to present data How to make a powerful point with your speech. D: Pamela Meyer: How to spot a liar.

We love talks that balance humour and connect us to the subject matter in hand — and Pamela Meyer does this perfectly in her TED talk opening line. Great job. Setting up a problem at the start of your speech immediately creates a reason for listening and a direction for your talk.

For instance, if you are addressing a school crowd and you make a joke about workplace communication mistakes. Step 2: Puns? Self-deprecating humor? Or Funny Anecdotes? Identify the types of humor and figure out which one suits your personality in the best way. If you are not sure what types of humor are there and wish to seek a step-by-step guide on including humor in your presentation, make sure you read A Guide To Using Humor In Your Speech.

Step 3: Step out and do a pilot survey! Try out the opener on a few folks who are similar to your target audience. Examine their reaction and, if required, adjust the joke. Step 4: Keep in mind that once you begin your speech with a pinch of humor, your audience will be expecting a few moments of laughter throughout the rest of your speech too.

So, make sure you save jokes not more than that for the remainder of your speech to meet those expectations. This TED Talk right here is the perfect case in point for you to witness all the four steps to humor as discussed in the previous section in action.

Known for his great performance in doing justice to a number of family roles in Bollywood films, the actor Shah Rukh Khan, in his TED Talk used the power of humor to make himself sound more human to align his talk with his perceived personality. It has been raining. Thank you for your prayers. Since Ellen DeGeneres was hosting the Oscars Opening Ceremony, nobody expected her to be all serious in terms of her talk. The audience is expecting a more relaxed and chill vibe from the speaker. So, starting her talk with a piece of humor not only sounded like a safer bet but also the most effective one.

So, make sure that you are addressing the right element of surprise to the right audience to make them chuckle. And Hasan Minhaj did it absolutely right! And the only people in there is a bartender and an old man nursing a beer. And he orders a pint, and they sit in silence for a while. I built this bar with my bare hands from the finest wood in the county, gave it more care and love than my own child.

But do they call me McGregor the Bar Builder? I built that stone wall with my bare hands. Found every stone, placed them just so through the rain and the cold. I built that pier with my bare hands, drove the pilings against the tide of the sand, plank by plank. But do they call me McGregor the pier builder? When humor is combined with effective storytelling, a great laugh is expected from the intrigued minds sitting in the audience.

Remember how we used to tell small anecdotes as kids while telling any joke? Build up the curiosity with the help of a story and end that story by bringing in an element of surprise to make your audience chuckle.

Unexpected humor is always welcome! As we approached our teenage years and adulthood, we switched to narrating anecdotes from our lives to our friends, family, and colleagues. Step 1: Pick a story from your life or narrate something that happened to someone you know or simply form a gripping story. Whatever it might be, just make sure you are not exaggerating to come off as a relatable speaker. Most importantly, the story you choose has to be related to the theme of your speech.

Step 2: Now that you have the story in mind, pick a narrative to design the structure of your story. Step 3: Use simple language while writing your story and be descriptive enough to help them imagine. To form a connection with the overall theme, she goes on to narrate how one bungee cord leap taught her the biggest lesson of her life.

While the previous example on storytelling taught us to build a connection with the overall theme of our speech, this TED Talk by Ashley Stahl teaches the significance of body language and voice modulation in effective storytelling.

Observe how she narrates this story with effective pauses and uses inflection to create a sense of drama and suspense. Storytelling is only effective when conveyed properly with the help of facial expressions, body language, and vocal tonality. This is all done to appeal to the sentiments of the audience because eventually, it is what will make our talk all the more persuasive.

Nothing fancy, nothing over the board but still manages to captivates the interest of the audience because of the following reasons:. By narrating a story that most of the audience members can relate to, Matt won the hearts of a majority of his audience members and established his credibility as a speaker.

This is the power that the speaker used here. He narrated a story of how being a parent changed his life and eventually, relates this experience to the topic of his speech, which to be honest, is fascinating to witness!

So we were up on top of our bunk beds. And on one side of the bunk bed, I had put out all of my G. Joe soldiers and weaponry. A descriptive story narrated using stylistic language has the strength to move the audience and immerse them into a fictional world. Option 1: Go up on that stage, say something totally unexpected and blow the minds! Once you are done speaking your opening remark, provide your audience as to why you said what you said and what more are you going to offer through the rest of your content.

Look at the first example in the next section to see its application. Option 2: Another thing that you can do is to tell your audience something completely unknown related to the topic of your speech. Option 3: Tell something unknown not about the culture you are talking about but about yourself. Of course, the audience would be interested in knowing something shocking about your life.

But through the content of your speech, do remember to build that connection with your speech. Now, after listening to her opening remark, do you want to know why is she still using a flip phone in the 21st Century? At least, I do. After generating this needed curiosity in the minds of her audience, the speaker focused the remainder of her talk telling these reasons to the audience, one by one. We can safely say that starting our speech with an unpopular opinion is an elegant yet simple way to kick-start our speech.

Are you thinking how exactly is she a troublemaker just like me? If yes, then the speaker has successfully inculcated this curiosity in us. But what we all are also wondering is what does that have to do with the theme and the speaker does establish this connection in her follow-up statement right after her opening remark. So, make sure the next time you are out there presenting a shocking remark, do follow it up with context, always.

Also, the person to your left is a liar.