1.                    Make a question about what the audience cares about. You have done your research – you have written a speech in a way which will take into account what you know about your audience, so frame something they care about in a question.  

 That says – we are all in the same boat – we all are asking ourselves the same question, right? 

This creates a connection, and stops them carrying on showing their mobile pictures to a friend about their weekend picnic.

They pause, and postpone doing that, hopefully.

The more specific that is to your particular audience, the more likely they are to pause, of course.  Saying generic things which applies to everyone won’t work – or maybe it will, if you are about to address a universal problem, and the billing says so.  If your audience came to hear you talk, having looked at the universal problem billed as the subject of your talk - then by all means, address exactly that problem.

2 Tell them something that they know, but somehow the way that you put it is slightly shocking. 

‘We now look at our mobile phones for more minutes in three days, than the time it took all the people in Asia to eat hot dinners in a month.” 

I don’t know if it’s true. 

But it will most likely make them sit up.  You have got their attention. 

It will probably make them look away from their mobile phone, looking for that button which shuts off the ping. You know that movement? The one which puts it on silent, before looking up at you?  That is a result.

 3.                    But most often start by telling a story.  Talk about a real person, a real event involving something which matters to you, and how it changed your thinking. 

It has to start ‘once upon a time’ for everyone to lean forward and expect to engage with you – remember the last time your child did that?-  and there are adult ways to say those words. 

‘Now here’s the story . .. ‘

‘So, as I walked out one sunny (or rainy) morning . . . ‘

‘Two investment managers met in a pub - one said to the other ..... ‘

That is when you see them put those phones into pockets, or into handbags, after shutting off notifications. 

Okay – now you have got them in the ‘here and now’.  Tell your story.

4. What should you talk about in that first couple of minutes?  Anything will do

o   Talk about any two people having a conversation on a bus or a train - that is two lines, followed by your topic

o   Talk about what you thought when someone said something in a networking event, and then elaborate as to why it matters, in relation to your topic

o   Talk about friendship or enmity, power or helplessness, pain or passion – but not in the abstract – tell a story involving a real person, which then has a natural link to your topic

Then, what seems like eventually, they may be moved to doing what you hope they will do – because they first have to have an important thing to recall – they have to remember that when they listened to you, they felt that they could trust you.

That is the beginning of any relationship - a feeling of trust.

It is the beginning of a journey which might lead to anyone taking action – an action you were hoping for, when you started putting your words together to face a new crowd.