Nuts + Bolts

Ep.1 | Introductions

Hosted and Curated by Craig Smith

IN THIS EPISODE

• The quality of your introduction can make or break your talk | 0:35
• Orient your audience to the topic at hand + stir up interest in that topic | 1:12
• 3 Practical Keys for writing a great introduction | 3:30

INSTANT TAKEAWAYS

1 | ORIENT YOUR AUDIENCE TO THE TOPIC + Stir Up Interest

You want to point your audience to your topic, right off the bat. Don’t waste too much time beating around the bush, within the first piece of your speech or presentation, your audience show know the central theme or idea or topic that you will be speaking on for the remainder of your time.

Your introduction should help stir up interest in the topic so there is anticipation moving forward. You want the audience to be aware of what you’re speaking about, while their attention grows. You want them to come along for the ride with you! However, make sure that you don’t give away your Secret Sauce.

2 | THREE KEYS FOR WRITING A GREAT INTRODUCTION

1. WRITE YOUR INTRODUCTION LAST

Until you have a really good idea of where your message is going to land, you can’t orient people to where you will be going.

2. GET YOUR AUDIENCE TO ASK THEMSELVES THE QUESTION THAT YOUR MESSAGE ANSWERS

Once you have your message developed, ask yourself, “What need does this message address?” Take the big idea of the message and have your audience sit in wonder of how the topic is going to be answered. They’re going to anticipate the closure that your message will give them upon answering this question.

3. KEEP IT BRIEF

In general, if your intro takes longer than 3 minutes to get through people are going to start losing interest. They’ll start thinking, “Just get to it already!”, and that’s not what you’re looking for at the beginning of your message. They won’t mentally stick with you until the end.

SHOW NOTES

We are so excited to get into our mini-series, “Nuts + Bolts”, which we have batch released wherever you get your podcasts! This is our intro to this channel, so you can get a great feel of what we’re going to accomplish on Clarity as we get into the interview episodes coming up this fall. In the meantime, if you could review us and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Also, if you have any questions, click the button below to send us an email today, or check out our Show Notes.