This vlog is about using an alternative way to open your presentations to grab your audience’s attention – using a hook as an introduction.

Using a hook as an introduction to open up a presentation

Here’s the summary if you don’t have the opportunity to watch the video.

The first thing you say

When we open up a presentation, I always recommend my clients think about a hook so that the first words that come out of your mouth are deliberately chosen and have been practiced. This is so that you know what they’re going to sound like and that they are chosen in order to grab hold of the audience’s attention straight away.

We call them hooks.

What about an introduction?

When I share that with people and we have a practice and we look at the different ones, the question that often comes back is:

‘But where do I do my introduction?’

For example, where should you tell people who you are or what your company is or why you’re there in the first place?

And there are two answers to that.

Be introduced

If you’re speaking at an event, it may be that you don’t even need to introduce yourself because somebody has done that for you. For example, ‘Ladies and Gentlemen let me introduce Catherine Sandland, she, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.’

So you don’t need to do that. But there are people still compelled to do it. They might say ‘Hi. Well, as Jane was telling earlier, my name is and my company is..’ and so on.

It doesn’t start your talk off in an especially powerful way.

So if you can get someone to introduce you, then that’s fabulous.

But that isn’t always the case and it’s not always possible. So, what’s the other alternative?

Introduce yourself

You can still introduce yourself. You just do it after the hook.

So, if you were thinking of an order or a sequence for the beginning of your talks, it would go something like this:

Pause

Hook

Pause

Introduction.

For example; Pause, “a question, a story, an imagine, a big hairy statistic,” Pause. “Good morning. My name is Catherine Sandland. My company is White Hart Training..” and then the reason why they need to listen or why it’s relevant to them, or even an overview of what you’re going to say.

But the first few stages are pretty set in terms of process.

Remember

Using a hook as an introduction should go something like this:

Pause

Hook

Pause

Introduction.

Give it a go and let me know how you get on.

If you’d like to know more about hooks, this video explains why we need them in presentations.

And of course, if you need any help, please get in touch.