will cause your audience either to listen in and want to hear more of what you have

to say, or to instantly grab to their pocket and pull out their iPhone or their Android

device and start using Google or Facebook or social media. Your opening is so important,

and you want to create an opening that shocks the audience, that grabs their attention and

that's memorable once they leave the presentation. So today I've got four tips on how to create

a memorable speech opening.

Hi, I'm Ryan McLean and I'm PublicSpeakingPower.com, where we teach people like you how to become

powerful and effective public speakers. Creating a great speech opening isn't easy, and the

way that we feel to naturally start our speech is never usually the best way to start our

presentation. Often we're taught in school you start your presentation by telling people

exactly what you're going to tell them about, and then you go and tell them. So you say,

"Today I'm going to talk to you about blah blah blah, and this is why you should listen

to me." But that is boring. So we want to create a speech opening that is more memorable,

more exciting, and something that will cause your audience to listen in. So here are my

four tips.

Tip number one is to use the art of misdirection. The art of misdirection is when you lead people

along a path and then suddenly abrupt that path with something that was unexpected. The

reason that this works successfully is because it peaks the audience's curiosity as to why

you changed the direction that the speech was going in. If we want to talk about the

greatest speakers of all time, we can look at people like Martin Luther King Jr., Winston

Churchill or Nelson Mandela, or Kermit the Frog. Kermit the Frog? What do you mean Kermit

the Frog? How is Kermit the Frog one of the greatest public speakers of all time? Exactly.

By using the art of misdirection and by going down a path of talking about great public

speakers. Yeah, Martin Luther King Jr. Yeah, Winston Churchill. Yeah, Nelson Mandela. Huh?

Kermit the Frog? Why are you talking about Kermit the Frog? And that peaks people's curiosity,

it peaks their interest and gets them to listen to more about what you have to say, because

they have never thought about Kermit the Frog as being a great public speaker.

Tip number two is to tell people something they didn’t know but thought they did. So

here's something for you. Did you know that when Christopher Columbus discovered America,

the people at that time actually knew the world was round? So the story goes that everyone

thought that the world was flat, but Christopher Columbus knew the truth, that the world was

round, and he sailed to the other side of the world and found America. Well, the truth

of the matter is that people at that time, it was a commonly held belief that the world

was round, and when Christopher Columbus was arguing with the Queen of Spain, they were

actually arguing about the size of the earth. So Christopher Columbus thought the world

was a lot smaller than it actually is, which is why he thought that by going in the opposite

direction, he could find a shorter trade route to China. Obviously he didn't find China,

he bumped into America, and the story goes on from there. But something that we believe

to be true - which is everyone at that time thought the world was flat - but by revealing

to you that people actually didn't believe that the world was flat, that peaks your interest,

because you want to correct your beliefs and you want to understand the other side of the

story. So that's tip number two, is to teach people something they didn't know but they

thought they did.

Tip number three is to look at something in a more interesting way, or to come at something

from a different angle. Jerry Seinfeld made public speaking as the number one fear a very

common fact, or fact that people thought was a fact. And he did this by looking at it in

a different way. If he was to come out and say, "Public speaking is the number one fear",

no one would really remember that and they would probably argue with you whether or not

it would be the number one fear. But by saying, "Public speaking is the number one fear, so

when you're at a funeral, more people would prefer to be in the coffin than they would

to give the eulogy". So by creating this funny context and something that you wouldn't usually

think of, by coming at the topic from an interesting angle, he made public speaking as the number

one fear very memorable. So try and think of ways that you can come at something from

a different angle that may be a little bit unexpected.

And tip number four is to use stories which people can put themselves in. So Jesus Christ

did this really well. Whether you believe Jesus was the son of God or not doesn't matter,

but he used stories very effectively to get his point across. Jesus spoke about things

that were relevant to the people at that time. So he spoke about shepherds, he spoke about

kings, he spoke about taxes, he spoke about working the land. All of these different things

that people could relate to at the time. He told stories where people could put themselves

in the situation and understand the story better and therefore they could understand

the message that he was trying to deliver better. When Jesus tells the story of the

shepherd who had a hundred sheep and he lost one, the people of that time can imagine what

it would be like to lose one of your one hundred sheep. And he then goes on to tell the story

about the shepherd who left the ninety-nine to find the one, and that's how important

God thinks you are. So by using these stories that are relatable to the people in your audience,

you can then tie in your core message into this story, and you've then got this story

that people can remember. I go to church, I've been to a lot of church sermons over

my time, and it becomes very hard to remember anything that the speakers preach about. But

what I always seem to take away is their story. Recently we had a pastor come and speak to

us and I remember clearly how he spoke about his daughter who contracted cancer and eventually

died from cancer. I don't remember a great deal of anything that he said apart from that

and the points that he gave, but I do remember his story because it had emotion attached

to it, and I, a father with a daughter, could put myself in his shoes and understand how

traumatic that must have been. So stories are a very effective way to create a memorable

speech, and also to peak people's curiosity so they listen in and they listen to the rest

of your presentation.

So there you have the four ways to create a memorable or shocking speech opening. I'm

Ryan McLean and if you want more videos, more podcasts, more articles just like this one,

then head over to PublicSpeakingPower.com, and we release a new one every single day.

So until tomorrow, I want you to go out there and I want you to be powerful, be strong,

pretend you're a superhero, and be a great public speaker. I know you're going to nail

it.