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“I’m not accustomed to speaking. So please bear
with me since I'm a little nervous.”
Ugh!
Instead of starting your presentation with an
apology, start with a simple relevant statement
that goes to the heart of your message. For
example, “Today,
we’re going to focus on how to make everyone
here extremely rich with very little effort.”
Now that’s a good beginning.
Apologies, on the other hand, make the audience
nervous. Here’s what goes through the listeners’
minds when they hear an apology at the beginning
of a presentation: “Oh no! This person is a
terrible presenter and I have to sit here and
listen to this.”
We recently heard a presenter who had been
invited back as the keynote speaker for the
second year in a row at a major convention in
Atlanta. He started his presentation with a
long-winded recap of what he said the previous
year and made a point of apologizing for any overlap in
this year’s presentation.
It was as if he thought the audience had all
taken notes last year and were wondering how he
was going to elaborate!
The best way to begin is to just dive right in.
Get on with it. Just start! “I’d like to start
this afternoon with a gee whiz fact . . .”
So skip the apologies and you’ll get off on the
right foot with your next presentation.
At Speechworks we help our clients learn how to
communicate in a way that connects and
persuades. If you’re interested in becoming a
great communicator give us a call at
404-266-0888 or check out our website at
www.speechworks.net |
