Stop introducing yourself! One simple way to improve your presentations.

I recently reviewed two dozen customer presentations, webinars, and talks from different companies. They all had one thing in common. 

A thread... 🧵👇

The presentations I reviewed all started like this:

Hi, my name is Justin King, and my title is “VP of blah blah” and I work for “Company blah blah.” 

Is this a problem? Not a problem, however, I think we can do better. Maybe even be a bit less boring...


Our brains are fascinating. Our brains love to predict what is coming next. When the predictable happens, we naturally start to build conclusions about a movie, conversation, or meeting before the conversation even happens. 

In other words, we decide what is worth listening to in the first 30 seconds. 

If you are the same as everyone else - you become predictable, and maybe even not worth paying attention to.

In the movie, Batman Begins, the movie starts with bats screaming across the screen, then a brief scene of a young Bruce Wayne playing with Rachel, and falling down a well. The scene cuts to an older Bruce waking up from this nightmare in a foreign prison.  


Instead of predicting what might come next, our brains start asking questions about the outcome of the movie. 
- Why is he in prison? 
- What does falling into a well as a child have anything to do with this older Bruce Wayne? 

In other words, we want to know more. 

We have already committed to watching the entire movie in the first 2 minutes.

What does this have to do with our presentations?

Our audience will decide whether to pay attention in the first 1 - 2 minutes.

By simply changing the beginning of our presentations, we can jar our audience into paying attention.

Consider using this method for your presentations. Instead of introducing yourself, start your presentation (no matter how small) differently.

Here are a few starter suggestions:

• A quick case study

• A story about the customer or industry

• Something humorous - self-deprecation or a funny story

• Something from the news

• A few industry stats

An example of using news as a starter in my company:

STARTER - No intro, just go into it...
“This morning, fresh off the presses, Kroger and Bed, Bath, and Beyond launched a new marketplace. 

This new marketplace represents a larger trend where retailers are launching their own marketplaces to expand their catalog offering to their customers and perhaps compete directly with marketplaces like Amazon. 

While this is obviously a big deal, launches like this show the ever-changing landscape of the digital shelf. We have new marketplaces and new retailers every single week. And the existing retailers and marketplaces are changing themselves at a rapid pace. 

This volatility creates opportunities and challenges for brands like you - and I am very excited to share with you how to take advantage. Hi, my name is Justin King and I help brands win on the Digital Shelf."

END STARTER

Substitute the above with a story, an anecdote, research about your customer, a case study, or even a statistic.

This simple method creates more questions than answers. And it is different. 

If you are presenting in any format - internally or externally - then someone believes that you have something important to say. If you have something important to say, then I think it is worth your audience paying attention.

Don’t do what everyone else does. Change up your intro, and demonstrate why you are worth paying attention to.

This is just a start - a simple way to dress up your presentations and be memorable.

You can read the unrolled version of this thread here: https://typefully.com/justin_king/UADOtw0