Comments on: The Power of a Shocking Opening http://mytoastmastersblog.com/2008/07/10/the-power-of-a-shocking-opening/ Helping Toastmasters and Speakers Improve Everyday Tue, 06 Jan 2009 10:54:59 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: Bob Jensen http://mytoastmastersblog.com/2008/07/10/the-power-of-a-shocking-opening/comment-page-1/#comment-1479 Bob Jensen Tue, 29 Jul 2008 08:57:46 +0000 http://mytoastmastersblog.com/?p=54#comment-1479 I live and die on the "shock opening". I've noticed I have two seperate and distinct techniques. First, the opening sentence technique, Hook 'em from the first two sentences: "A knock on the door....at 11:30 on a rainy Friday night...is never good news". Another grabber was "How did YOUR family handle the news that you were going to become a *gasp* Toastmaster?" Second technique is the "180 degree turn". Mushy, pedestrian first paragraph and then you turn the volume all the way up and go off in an unexpected direction. I have a speech where I congratulate someone (random) for their recent speech about the joy of skydiving, but then get all agitated and start talking about how dangerous parachuting is and how I'm living proof of it My all-time favorite opening is doing the mushy "goal-setting is important" blather that everyone has heard 100 times before. In paragraph 2 I kick it up a notch by saying I used these goal-setting techniques to date a Hollywood actress "and here's exactly how I did it". Guaranteed attention-lock. I live and die on the “shock opening”. I’ve noticed I have two seperate and distinct techniques.

First, the opening sentence technique, Hook ‘em from the first two sentences: “A knock on the door….at 11:30 on a rainy Friday night…is never good news”. Another grabber was “How did YOUR family handle the news that you were going to become a *gasp* Toastmaster?”

Second technique is the “180 degree turn”. Mushy, pedestrian first paragraph and then you turn the volume all the way up and go off in an unexpected direction. I have a speech where I congratulate someone (random) for their recent speech about the joy of skydiving, but then get all agitated and start talking about how dangerous parachuting is and how I’m living proof of it

My all-time favorite opening is doing the mushy “goal-setting is important” blather that everyone has heard 100 times before. In paragraph 2 I kick it up a notch by saying I used these goal-setting techniques to date a Hollywood actress “and here’s exactly how I did it”. Guaranteed attention-lock.

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