You never get a second chance to make a first impression… Not always true for every situation, but a great start to your presentation can capture your audience’s attention and keep them interested throughout. Screw up the beginning and the audience may have a hard time staying alert and following along.
So you need to get their attention and here’s how.

I guess this could be a little misdirection, like something a magician does. I’ll have to ask my friend Charles Greene III, the Presentation Magician.

Anyway, the trick is to start your presentation by telling the audience you will NOT begin with the topic they expect. Instead, you tell them you will begin with something else.

But here’s the misdirection…

The other thing you tell them is actually just a better way to tell them about the topic they originally expected. Ideally, you will tell a story that is directly related to your original topic.

To get the full run down, please watch the video or read the video transcript below.

If YouTube is unavailable in your area, please click the following link to watch or right-click to download: Presentation Quick Tip #3 – Start With Misdirection

Length 1:03

 

Video Transcript

Hi, it’s Carl Kwan here and this is Presentation Quick Tip #3.

In this video, you’re gonna learn a great way to start a presentation and get the audience’s attention.

So what you’re gonna say is, “I was going to tell you about A, but instead, I’m going to tell you about B.”

Now B must be related to A and it should also be a kind of a story about A.

So for example, “I was going to tell you about the human genome, but instead, I’m going to tell you a story about a boy who lived down the street from me who was really sick.

So the rest of the story is gonna be how the boy was sick and how the human genome was able to help him.

The human genome project, that is, of course.

So how that was able to help him is gonna be a much more interesting story than just talking about the human genome.

So again, what you’d say is, “I was going to tell you about A, but instead, I’m going to tell you about B.”

And that is Presentation Quick Tip #3.

If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below this video.

Thanks again.

Talk to you again soon. Bye-bye.