How to Win Over Your Audience in 7 Seconds
Do you know the most important part of your talk? The first 7 seconds.
I know, this is the shockingly small grace period… and most speakers waste it with what I call throat-clearing—thank yous to the person who invited them to speak, sharing their job title, or—my personal pet peeve—asking the audience if they’re excited to be there and then telling them you can’t hear them.
Do you know how long seven seconds is? It’s the amount of time it takes to stand up and walk out of the room.
Don’t do that!
Let me show you what I mean.
Here’s a typical opener:
“Hello, I’m Beth from Compliance. Jen has invited me here today to talk to you about the new safety cable we are adding to all parachute harnesses, which have become mandatory after a recent incident, which I’ll get into later. But first, let’s look at this diagram. I’ll try not to be too boring.”
Did Beth make the most of her seven seconds? She did not.
Here’s what I tell my speakers: In 9 out of 10 cases, your audience already knows who you are and what you’re there to talk about—so find the most exciting part of your talk or story and start there.
And Beth has a “most exciting part,” but she’s doing what journalists call “burying the lead.”
Let me read it again:
“Hello, I’m Beth from Compliance. Jen has invited me here today to talk to you about the new safety cable we are adding to all parachute harnesses, which have become mandatory after a recent incident, which I’ll get into later. But first, let’s look at this diagram. I’ll try not to be too boring.”
Right!!? What was that incident, Beth???
She’s clearly allowed to talk about it since she’s already said she would, so we know it’s not a clearance thing.
If Beth were one of my TED speakers, I’d ask her to try and START there. Let’s try it.
“Emily was 5,000 feet above ground and falling at a speed of 100 miles an hour when she realized her chute wouldn’t open.”
Both openers are about parachute safety, but which one do you want to listen to, right?
Think about your opening like an airplane. It takes A LOT of fuel just to get it off the ground. But once it’s up there, it’s much easier to maintain its altitude.
In other words, if you really blow people back in their seats in the first minute of your talk, they can just sit back and enjoy the ride.
Check out Anna’s YouTube channel where she offers more advice like this for speakers! AND if you have a talk you’re working on, get in touch. Anna works with speakers all over the country who are looking to find and refine their message for the stage (or conference room!)
