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Today I want to talk to you about how to

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start a speech and we're going to go

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through five things for you to

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have an effective opening to

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your speech . But before we get into

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that , I want to preface

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that in the most important part

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of starting a speech is being

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comfortable and confident

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and concise in

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your opening . No

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matter what , if you want to use one

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of these techniques or not , you

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need to make sure that your opening

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is very crystal clear and you know exactly

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what you're going to say in that

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opening . You don't want to go up there and just

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wing the opening or

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try something new or anything like that

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. You want to have it down , pack exactly

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what you're going to say in the opening

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of your speech , because that is the most

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crucial part of

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your speech , since people are

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going to start judging you right then , and there they're

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going to wonder what it is that you're talking about and

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they're going to see who you are

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and what your character is just

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from you starting that speech . So the

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opening of your speech is very

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important . So

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let's go ahead and get into the

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first way that you

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can open your speech , and that

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is to start with a question

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. This is something that , while

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it seems simple , there are some complexities

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to this , because you could ask

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something like hey , how's everybody's

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day going ? That's not a great

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question . So when I talk

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about start with a question , what

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I mean is to start with a question

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that sets the tone . It

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sets what it is that you're going

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to be speaking about , what

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it is that you're going to be speaking

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about . So , if you're going to

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be speaking about construction and delays in construction

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, perhaps , and how we can avoid

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those delays , a question you may ask

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is who here has

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dealt with a delay in a construction

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project ? I guarantee most

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of you will relate with that

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. Or if you are in the construction space

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, you will relate with that , or you could relate

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a little bit , even if you're not in the construction

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space , with a delayed project

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perhaps , or something that was delayed in

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your life . And so , depending on the audience

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is how you're going to ask that question and

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, of course , what it is that you're talking about

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, talking

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about , and so something I like to do with that , so to go on with that , not just

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ask the question hey , who here has had a delay in their construction

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project ? I will also mention

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with that . So , hey , who here has

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had a delay in their construction

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project , and hopefully you get a show

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of hands or some people saying yes or

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whatever . You say , well , today we're going

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to speak about how to avoid those delays . And so , right there , you've asked a question

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. You say , well , today we're going to speak about how to avoid those delays . And

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so , right there , you've asked a question , you've gotten

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buy-in from the audience and now you've

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told them the direction of

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your speech . So this is a very effective

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and very quick way

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for you to get engagement

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from the audience and also let them know

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what it is that we're going to talk about today

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, because letting them know at the beginning what

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we're going to talk about is very important

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. It lets them know whether they should tune

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in or not . The second

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way that we can open up our

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speech is with a powerful

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quote . Now I want to let

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you know that this is something that can

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be a little detrimental , depending

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on the quote that you use , or the quote

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that you try and use . If you use it from

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a very popular person

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such as somebody like , maybe , john Maxwell

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or Ed Milet , or some

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of y'all may not even know who Ed Milet is , but

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in my world , at least the people I'm around

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seem to really know Ed Milet and these other

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people , but let's go with

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, maybe , like Gandhi or other

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people of that nature that are very

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well known throughout the world . If

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you're using a quote by them , and one

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that is used repeatedly

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by a lot of people , if

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you misquote it , it could

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go the wrong way , but

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if you quote it correctly and

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you get a quote that is related

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with your speech and this is important , just

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like the question you want to make sure that you have

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a quote that is related with your

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speech , because it will set a powerful

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tone to your speech

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and help you open that way

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precisely , and you can use multiple

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quotes if you want it , just like multiple questions

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. I like to stick with one question , one

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quote , but if you wanted to , you could do

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a couple of questions to have people be

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thinking about that , but then you can also use a

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couple of quotes as well

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to get people thinking on the subject

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of which you're going to be talking about

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, and so , similar to the question

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, the quote , you would do the same thing . You might

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say one or two quotes and

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then you'll go on into that and

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how I use this . Actually , recently I

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was in front of my church

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and I mentioned about how

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people don't leave

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the church because of God , people

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leave the church because of people

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, and I actually repeated

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that same quote twice and then I

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started talking about that and I

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won't go into the details of what I was talking

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there , but when I said that quote that

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was part of the sermon I had

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was essentially that people don't leave

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church because of God , they

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leave it because of people . And so I started talking

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about the character of people , what the church is

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and things of that nature . But I used

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that quote to relate

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with my sermon or relate with my

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speech . The same thing for you . It could

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be something on business or life or whatever

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it may be , but you use a quote

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that will spring you in

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to your speech . So

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number three for us on how to

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start speech is to tell an interesting

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fact or statistic

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, so similar really to the quote as

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well . A quote could possibly be a statistical

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data or could be factual , but

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you want to have some kind of statistic

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or fact that maybe , as

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you're doing research for your speech , that

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you learned about and you realize , oh , that's

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pretty cool , like , oh , I didn't know about that and

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you then bring that up

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and just to go back

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and use because it's top of mind the

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sermon . One thing that I found out

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was that the Bible doesn't actually

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talk about in the New Testament , if

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you're a Christian , that it doesn't

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actually say you have to go to church

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. It gives examples of going

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to church and attending

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church and all of this stuff

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and church being a building , things of

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that nature , but it doesn't say you

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have to go to church X amount of times per

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week , month , year , whatever . It

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just gives examples of that . And

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I mentioned about how the

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only thing I could come up with was that that

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was about free will and that's why

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there's nothing that says you have to go to church

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every Sunday or

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whatever , because God

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wants us to have free will . And so I used

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that fact in my

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sermon , and so it wasn't necessarily

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in the opening that I used it , but I did use it later

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on . But I could have used that at the beginning and that

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would have been very alarming If

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I would have said did you know that you

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don't have to go to church ? The Bible

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actually doesn't even tell us that . That

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would have been very eye-opening . For

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a lot of church-going

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people . It's like what you mean

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. One , you're saying that on the pulpit

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and then two , what

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are you saying there ? Now I really want to listen

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in , because this is something that's completely

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different . So you can do this with any

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kind of fact , another one being

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they say that 70% of

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statistics are made up , and I

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just made up that number . We've

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heard that from , I think there's a movie that talks about that and everything , and that's

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really just a joke . But when you create a statistic or talk about a statistic and

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you could really just make it up and make it into a joke

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as well but using

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a fact or a statistic at

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the beginning of your speech , that is

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alarming . That gets you on point

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with what you're going to talk about will

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really capture the audience's

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attention . And so the

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fourth way that we can start a speech

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is to tell a story , and

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I love to start a speech with telling

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a story , but there is

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a little bit that we need to be careful

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of , because if your story gets to be too long

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and you don't get to the punchline

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, then people get drowned out

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. It's kind of like when

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you start telling your life story , and this

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is who I am and what I do and

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what I'm about and my family and this

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and that and the other , and you don't get

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into your speech . People

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will tune out because now , well , I

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didn't come here to hear all

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about Philip . I came here to learn

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about speaking and communication

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. So if I came on this podcast and

9:09

every single episode I talk

9:11

about me for the first five minutes after

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a while , you're going to tune me out

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. And so you want

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to make sure , when you're telling a story , that there

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is a punchline and there's no

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. Okay , it needs to be one minute or 30

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seconds or five minutes . There's no clear

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timeline on that . The

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more engaging that story is

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, the longer it can go . But

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if it's less engaging , it needs to be shorter

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. But at some point you need to get to a punchline

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that goes into what

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you're going to share for the day

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. So a story is

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very impactful . It can really

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draw people in , get them emotional

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right from the beginning and get them right

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where you want them . So they're on

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the edge of their seat , they're listening in and

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they're ready to hear your message

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. So that's probably one of

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my favorite ways . If I can find a way

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, it's probably one of the harder ways to

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start a speech , but

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it's probably one of the most effective ways because you can create

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emotion within your audience

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and get them bought into your speech

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and who you are right away , get

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them laughing , get them sad or wherever

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you want them to be at to be able to really

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listen into your speech , and so it's

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probably the most powerful way to start your

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speech . However , it's probably one of the

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most tricky ways because you

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can overdo the story , you can make it too long

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and now you've lost your audience . Or

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if you make it too short and nobody understands

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the punchline much like a terrible joke

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. If they don't understand the joke , it's

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like oh , hold on , let me think about it

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. Oh , like

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that was funny . No , it

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really wasn't funny , especially if it took me

10:50

10 seconds after you finished the joke for

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me to realize what it is you were saying

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. It's the same thing with the story . You want to make

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sure that it's clear , concise , it draws

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the emotion , but you get to the punchline

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and everybody understands what

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it was and how it related with

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your speech . And number

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five here is share

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a visualization . And

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I saw a speech one time . It

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was a Toastmaster speech . I

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think this guy won . I don't even remember

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when he won , but it was really cool to see

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because he essentially acted

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out . So you could have like actual visualizations

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, whether it be a presentation , whether it be

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some kind of prop . Maybe I bring my phone and kind

11:30

of talk about how the effect

11:32

that phones have on us , how we can't stop looking

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at them and we're always wanting to be on them and

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everything . But if you have

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some , if you don't have any physical props

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, what you could do is have

11:43

your hands , use your hands and stuff like that

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. And so this Toastmaster that I

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saw one time he was talking

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about I forget exactly

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, but he was talking about like how things kill us and

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stuff , and you saw me and he actually had a cigarette

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. So if you don't have one , you can just do

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the typical like two fingers , you

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got cigarette between there , and act like you're smoking . You could even I don't know if

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you can hear that if the mic's picking that

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up , but you can act like you're breathing in or inhaling the smoke at the time

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or the cigarette and everything when

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you are doing that and visualize that

12:17

, and so things of that nature will

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create this visualization for

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your audience to not only hear what you're

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saying , but they'll see what

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you're saying as well , which is a very

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impactful way to get people bought in

12:30

. So if you're talking about the number

12:32

one , let's just say the number one killer

12:34

of people right now is smoking . Oh

12:38

, that feels good , yeah , but

12:40

then all of a sudden , you die . When

12:43

are you going to take your last puff before

12:45

you die ? You can have something like that , and

12:47

so you're showing this

12:49

visualization with that . Or

12:51

maybe you're running like hey , I

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was on this run the other day and you're

12:55

showing , you're running . Or this

12:57

embarrassing moment where I was

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just outside , I was watching , I was looking

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around , and then all of a sudden , this

13:04

was like back in junior high and this guy just

13:06

pants me . I don't know , I'm just giving

13:08

you some things there . So , there , I just threw my hands

13:10

down , like simulating that somebody

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grabbed my shorts and pants to me at

13:15

the time so you could talk about that . Do

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not pull your shorts down on

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stage now , but

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make sure that you're like showing visualizations

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like that and as you're doing this whether it's

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a story , whether it's just you doing a little

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visual , as you're speaking right at the beginning this

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is another powerful way to really get that

13:33

buy-in , because the more people can

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see , they can hear , almost

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feel like they're touching , they're tasting

13:40

, they're having memories

13:42

themselves or thinking about people

13:44

. Because of you imitating smoking , you imitating

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pantsing somebody , whatever that

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is , you're going to get them bought

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into your speech as well

13:52

. So that's the fifth powerful

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way . So the five ways

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you can start a speech One start

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with a question . Two start with a quote . Three

14:02

talk about a fact or statistic . Four tell a story . Three talk about

14:04

a factor statistic . Four

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tell a story . And five

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start with some kind of visualization

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. And you can do all of these

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individually or not . The pro tip

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, though , is not just to do these

14:17

individually . It is to take

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multiple , all of them if

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you can , whatever that looks like

14:23

for you . If

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you're just getting started , you're a beginner , start with one , start with a question

14:34

, start with a quote . Those are easy ones to do , but as you get further in your speaking

14:36

career , I strongly recommend that you start intertwining

14:38

these , not just doing one , doing multiple

14:40

. It could be a question and a quote

14:42

, it could be a quote and a fact , it

14:45

can be a story that starts out

14:47

from a question , or you end with a question

14:49

on the story , using visualization

14:52

as you're going through this . But combining

14:54

all of these or combining multiple

14:57

into the start of your speech

14:59

will help make your speech

15:01

most effective . But

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just start with one of them and as

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you get more comfortable with one and

15:08

you feel like this one you've kind of

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mastered , start trying to play with

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them , because the opening

15:14

of your speech is so important

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. It's what draws your audience in to

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listen to you . The rest of the way

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, if you want to learn more about

15:23

speaking in general , please reach

15:25

out , leave a comment , leave us

15:28

a review , whatever that looks like , to

15:30

get in front of us to let us know what

15:32

it is that you want to learn more of , because we are here

15:34

to support you on your public

15:36

speaking and communication journey

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.