One of the first words you should say in a speech, and what are the last words you should say in a speech
Now tomorrow, I don't know how many of you are speaking, but I guarantee if you go to conferences
19 out of 20 speakers will start in one of these ways number one
My name is Connor Neal. I'm from tango and this talk is about the latest trend in monitoring strategies
Now all of you are sitting with a piece of paper in front of you. That says I'm Connor Neal
I've come from Ireland, and I'm going to talk about tango 0-4 and this
So by repeating what you already know? I'm giving a signal that it's a time to get your BlackBerry out
I've just signals that this talk is
Opportunity to reconnect with blackberry make sure the office is ok, maybe get some plans together for the weekend
Another way to start
The lights and some of the mics working and how much time have I got
Ok right
ok
Is it is it plugged in?
and
You laugh, but I guarantee tomorrow. There's going to be some moments
They get a little bit up
And
Why because this is for some of you the first time you see this individual. They're here as a leader in their industry and
Your kid at school presenting on giraffes does a better job
That's sad I
Think there's only three ways of starting a speech
And it's the same if you went into a bar
and there's a group of people as a networking event much like you were at before you walked into this room and
Maybe I came up to a group
There's group of three people who are having a little conversation. I walk in and I say hi. I'm Connor
I'm Irish 38 years old I have an interest in sailing. I like running
And they've walked away
How do you get people to engage with you when you're networking I
Say in networking the best thing you can do is walk up. I think we know someone in common
Try and walk away when someone comes up and says that to you
Hopefully, you've done your research, so you do know that you've know someone in common, but with LinkedIn
You can find out who knows who on anyone you want?
So how to start a speech?
first way
With a question that matters to the audience
How do you phrase a problem that the audience faces in a question
So that'd be the third best way of starting a speech
The second best way of starting a speech with a factoid that shocks
There's more people alive today than have ever died
More people alive today than have ever died
There's a lot of speeches that can follow on from there
Every two minutes
The energy reaching the earth from the Sun is
equivalent to the whole annual usage of humanity
All the energy all the cars everything moving all the lighting all the air conditioning of the world in
One year is equivalent to two minutes of Sun
Does that change how you think about energy
So what's a fact that shocks the audience into rethinking?
and
Google has transformed your ability to get at these facts
Given two or three minutes you can find out one whether anything I've said is true
But you trust me because I
Look the part, and I'm from ESA
those are in fact two true facts
I Usually get someone come up to me and are you sure but how do they measure dead and alive
But it's true, and it's not even close
But the best way to
Start a speech and the way that I hope all of you use from now forward
is the same way
We start a story to a child
Now how do we start a story to a child?
And I say oneth
once upon a time
And what happens when you say once upon a time I can tell you what happens when I say once upon a time my daughter
leans forward
gets ready to hear
engages
and
We were all trained as kids
to know when a story's coming
We also know when a teacher is about to deliver a 40 minute boring lecture that has no impact on our lives
But in business
You don't hear him Jack Welsh saying once upon a time
Steve Jobs doesn't heart start his speeches once upon a time, so there's a grown-up way of saying once upon a time and
If you listen to the conversations that are interesting around you at a dinner table in
A networking event if you listen to the people that are gathering the group of eight that are listening to them
The way they're talking is different the way they start is different
The way you tell stories as an adult is in
October was the last time I was in this room there were a hundred and twenty people in the room
And I was having a little conversation with one of the world experts on public speaking and he said something to me
He said something to me
This had me thinking ever since
He said something to me that changed
What I think about what's important in speaking?
Now I can pause for about 30 seconds two or three minutes, and you want to know what he said
So in
Speaking in sales, we assume
self-interest
So if you can tell a story from your own life that
Connects you to why this topic is important to you. Why you first joined the company when you first saw someone
benefit
And you saw how their life was changed, and I think here
exploring what quality of life means for you in your business
How do you affect quality of life for a customer?
Because that's where the stories that will start to connect you to the audience will come from
Because stories are about people
They're not about objects they are not about things. It's about the people behind the things
If you want to tell a good story about Tango don't talk about the software talk about the people who built the software
What they do how they are what's important to them what they sacrifice?
And in your own life
What does quality of life mean? What sacrifices have you made to achieve something that was more important and
If you can tell stories and the audience connect with those stories then
They want to hear what you have to say
And all the reasons and all the benefits. They're all written in the document and in the PowerPoint
But they need to trust you
And they need to care about you as a person to engage with you and then decide that they will act