How to generate curiosity at the beginning of your presentation

This vlog talks about how to grab and keep your audience’s attention from the beginning of your presentation.

The beginning of your presentation

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

When we switch off

When we go to a presentation and we listen to a speaker, if we think that we already know what they are telling us, or we have heard it before or we’ve heard the method, the style before, then why would we want to listen to anymore?

We tend to switch off. We tend to at very best just sit back and allow it to be a passive process.

That is not the way to inspire people, that is not the way to motivate them, and that is not the way to connect with them.

The key, the magic key that unlocks all of that engagement, that interest, that connection, that desire to do something with what you’re talking about, is curiosity.

So let’s start to think about how you generate that right from the very get go.

How can you generate curiosity at the beginning of your presentation?

Using a hook

So first of all, we need to get hold of their interest. We need to grab hold of their attention, give them a focal point, both physically to look at, but also mentally to listen into as well.

And that’s what we call the hook. Making sure that the first words that come out of your mouth aren’t necessarily. “Good morning. My name is, and today I’m going to tell you all about,” but instead is something that might be a question, or a story, or a statistic, or a fact, or something that grabs hold of their interest.

Create intrigue

The second thing is to intrigue the audience. Typically, we’re often said tell them what you’re going to tell them at the beginning, but the problem with that is that they then know what you’re going to tell them. And there’s no curiosity. So by all means,

give them a taster, a flavour, a little tiny anticipation of what’s coming because that is curiosity. And again, think about the hook that you’re going to use.

• Could you get them to imagine something?
• Could you share the beginning part of a story?
• Could you set a puzzle for them?

That way, they’re drawn into wanting to hear more.

Make them want to listen

And thirdly, make sure that there is an invitation in your opening for them to want to listen to more. By that, I mean that your content is absolutely relevant to them and you’re demonstrating that, but also there’s some real value in listening to the rest of what you’ve got to say. So there is a benefit to continuing to pay an active part in your presentation.

Curiosity, curiosity, curiosity

So in summary, you need to be in a state of curiosity and the way that you structure your opening gambit also needs to be geared to generate that curiosity on the part of your listeners.

So have a go let me know how you get on and any questions, of course, please get in touch with me and I’d be happy to answer them.

And if you’d like to know more about using hooks, watch this vlog.