Are you having trouble with deciding what to say first when you have to speak? Here’s the tip of the day: Go directly into your content. No preamble, no pleasantries, and no “Thank You”.
The first words should be about your content. Start with a relevent story or question to engage the audience right away.
Avoid pleasentries “Thank you”, “Glad to be here” or “Mister Toastmaster” and use your content to connect with your audience right off the bat.
Comments
Great point. I usually like to put the pleasantries in about 30-60 seconds into the speech. Longer if it is a keynote presentation.
You can’t do this all the time, but there are times when it’s absolutely the right thing to do. Sadly, I’ve seen people penalised for not using the “right protocol”… (which is one of the things I dislike about TM, I’m afraid).
Sometimes, though, it’s handy to give the (relatively unimportant) pleasantries first, to give people time to settle down, handle latecomers and wait until your audience’s attention levels are higher before you give ’em the real stuff.
S