This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 140.
Three pro tips on how to start your presentation in English with Carl Kwan.
Welcome to the All Ears English podcast where you'll finally get real native English conversation and fluency for business and life.
We believe in connection, not perfection when it comes to learning English.
Now here are your hosts.
Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer and former IELTS examiner Jessica Beck, coming to you from Portland and Boston, USA.
In this episode, master presenter Carl Kwan is back.
Today, he'll teach us three wonderful ways that you can begin your next English presentation.
All three will hook your audience and help you start any talk or presentation with total confidence.
Listen in today.
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Hey, Jessica, are you ready for this episode?
Because Carl Kwan is back.
I'm excited.
I know.
Heck yeah.
Carl Kwan is the best, you guys.
I hope you have heard him already.
He was on All Ears English episode 79 and 80.
And in those episodes guys he talked about when you are presenting, we are talking about mostly business English here.
Right,
The skills that you need for your career.
He talked about the importance of knowing your audience.
And that's not just for presentations.
That is for all of the business you conduct with other people, I would say.
Oh, my gosh.
It's so important.
Yeah, you always have to know who you're talking to, right?
Yeah.
So definitely go back to episode 79, guys, because there's a lot of great guidelines in there.
And then, funnily enough, he already talked about ending your presentation in episode 80.
And so finally today, we'll talk about how to start it.
Yeah.
Now, Jessica, I'm going to ask you a question.
When you present, right when you give presentations at conferences or wherever that is, do you find it harder to start the presentation or to end it?
Well,
What's harder for you?
Oh, definitely starting it.
Right.
Because there's so many unknowns.
You know, you have to.
Get into it.
You have to give yourself a couple minutes to really engage with your audience.
And by the time you get to the end, guys, the hard part's over.
Like you have done all you can and you're just.
There's a sense of relief at the end of the presentation.
You're kind of loose and relaxed and you're like, hey, guys, thanks for being here with me.
That was awesome.
Yeah.
Beginning, guys, that can be intimidating.
Well, I think it's hard, especially because you have to win the audience.
Exactly.
That's the whole point.
And that's probably what we're going to talk about today a little bit with Carl is that you have to win the audience.
If you don't, there's honestly no point in giving the rest of the presentation.
There's some pressure there, let me, let me, let me uh, correct what i just said.
Let's say the presentation doesn't go well, then the end is also bad.
So yeah right, so it all starts with the beginning.
It starts with a start, as they say.
Right, Exactly.
So guys, let's get to Carl's first professional tip here on how to begin your presentation.
Okay.
Okay.
So this is what we're going to start with.
First of all, as you know, episode 79 talked about, it's really important to know your audience.
What would interest them and what do they care about?
Because all of that, if you know that, then you can then create your you know, sort of a what do they call it?
A memorable or you know very highly.
You know opening to your presentation, because without knowing your audience you cannot do any of the stuff that i'm going to teach you.
You know in these three tips.
So make sure you know that first.
Right, know your audience first.
Now, all of these three tips are based around this kind of problem and challenge type of a presentation and then offering a solution.
Most audiences will want to know How are you going to deal with their problems.
Because people are thinking about themselves and they'll think well, you know.
Can you actually help me with what I'm going through right now?
So that's what sort of the theme, I guess, of all three of these tips is going to be.
Okay, so the very first one is to use a surprising or interesting fact and then tell people what it means or what they should do after they learn about this.
Now as an example here by some estimates there are between 500000 to over 1 million words in English, but you only need about 3000 words to be functional.
Ooh, I like this.
That is a surprising tip.
Isn't that?
Exactly, right?
So you've started this thing.
You said, okay, well, guess what?
There are all these words and you only need this much to do something.
Now you've got their attention.
You've presented this fact to them.
So now you're going to say and here are three ways for you to learn those 3000 words in only three months or months, you know whatever it is.
I love it.
Yeah.
That really hooks them.
I like it.
Yeah, exactly.
So it's better than say, for example, saying, okay, hi, my name is Carl.
Thank you for attending my presentation.
I want to talk about this.
Yeah.
Most people that come to your presentation, they're already going to know your name.
Um, They're already going to know what your general topic is going to be, because that's why they came to your presentation in the first place.
Right.
So you don't necessarily need to start with saying your name and what you're into okay, here's something that you don't know, up there between 500000 blah blah blah, blah and go through this fact and then say okay, and here's how you can then use this fact, or here's what you can do, what you can do now that you know about this particular statistic or Okay, I love that.
That is so true.
It can be a waste of time to restate information that your audience already knows, right?
Like if it's, let's say it's a smaller group And let's say it's coworkers, right?
They already know you.
They know your name.
They know what you're going to talk about.
Like you don't have to say these things at the beginning.
Oh my gosh.
It's huge.
And even beyond that, right?
Information that you know is common knowledge.
Like, yeah, it's interesting.
Last night I was attending a meditation talk, right?
Online.
I go to this thing every Sunday night.
Normally it's in person, but we've been online lately, right?
And someone came in, someone who actually teaches meditation to corporations.
And she came in and she knew that this group is very, very different.
This group goes much deeper into meditation.
And she had to start her presentation completely differently.
She couldn't say things that were very, very common knowledge for this group.
She had to completely change the way she hooked us.
Otherwise, it would just sound ridiculous.
I think that's kind of part of what Carl is saying.
You have to know your audience.
Exactly.
Exactly.
No, that's, yeah, exactly.
That's so funny to me to picture the different ways of presenting that she would have to utilize right.
Because it's not like, this is how one breathes.
Like you guys, you're beyond that. for sure.
But I do like his example here of starting with a surprising and interesting fact.
And I just want to add that Yeah, he says like you don't have to state your name in the topic.
Now, guys, take that with a grain of salt, right?
I think it depends on who you're talking to.
Yeah.
Often it is a good idea.
To introduce yourself and outline what you will talk about, what the problem is you know, so the audience knows what's happening and they know what to expect.
But you can still use this hook, this interesting, surprising fact at the beginning, right?
Even if you're introducing yourself.
So this is a great way to grab your audience's attention and – teach them something at the same time.
And I like the idea of a surprising fact, not just interesting, but something that might challenge their assumptions right away.
Totally.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah.
I mean, he's like there are 500000 to a million words in English, but you only need 3000 to be functional.
That's good.
Now, I'm not even sure if that's true, but I'm interested.
I want to know-
Why did he tell me this?
Why do I need this?
This is fascinating.
Okay, so that's the first way guys, to tell a surprising, interesting fact to grab your audience's attention.
Now let's get to his second way to introduce your presentation.
Okay.
The very popular, I've seen this a lot in different presentation courses, right?
Starting by telling a story, right?
Yeah, but not everyone knows how to do this, right?
So that's the key.
That's why we have Carl here to help us out on how to actually do it.
He's going to break it down into three different steps in this clip, right?
Okay.
Exactly.
Exactly.
All right.
Let's get to Carl for how to tell a story.
Right.
You know, that's what people think of.
Right.
And there is a real basic format that you can use.
And so what I'm going to teach you is sort of three step a story in your presentation at the beginning.
So what you're going to do is you're going to talk about what you were doing at a certain point in time, when you maybe thought about your topic that you're going to present in your presentation.
As an example, recently I had a conversation with a friend about learning languages.
Right.
Nice.
Right. indicate some sort of a time reference.
So either say like I said recently, or you know two weeks ago, or like you know yesterday, when I was going out for a walk whatever,
So use some sort of time reference to give people an idea of when this happened.
Then the second step is to talk about a situation and then the action that was going on at the time.
So I said in the example, I had a conversation with a friend about learning languages.
So that's what was happening.
I was talking about learning languages.
So you would use when to then introduce the idea or the thought that you had about your topic or whatever it is that you're going to continue talking about in your presentation.
Okay, this is such a cool, easy structure to use.
Because, like you said, it is difficult for a lot of people to like yeah, someone just tells you okay, tell a story at the beginning of your presentation.
You're like, how long?
What about I don't?
Where do I start?
It's true.
It's so nice to have a structure and a template, right?
Yeah.
Exactly.
So what is his structure?
Like what are these three things to include?
So the three things are time phrase and then what you were doing and when.
So let's build out some examples around that, Jessica.
Yeah, totally.
Okay, so here's another example, right?
You got one from Carl, but let me give you one more, all right?
Remember, guys, time phrase, what you were doing at the time and when, right?
So I could say...
About two months ago, I was running in the park when a dog ran across the path dragging a leash behind him.
I couldn't see his owner.
It was just a dog dragging his leash.
And that's when I came up with this idea for a non-slip leash handle.
You know what this makes me think of is Shark Tank.
This makes me think of Shark Tank.
I love it.
This is exactly how a lot of successful entrepreneurs who eventually get funding, right, will do that.
They'll build a story.
I was doing this and then boom, light bulb moment.
It's rooted in real experience.
So that's why it's good.
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I love it so much because you are presenting the problem and saying you have the solution, right?
That's the whole point of this story.
And it's like, it's a personal way to engage your audience.
So I love this really simple three-step formula.
I mean, it's two to three sentences at most.
And boom, you're accomplishing so much in just the short amount of time.
And it's also a cool cliffhanger, right?
Because it makes your audience want to know what is that solution?
You know, what is this non-slip leash you're talking about?
Why do I need it?
Yeah.
I mean, I think the key here is being real with your audience.
You don't need to make something up.
You don't need to make up a story or a lie.
Use real experience and bring them into your world.
Right.
And I really want you guys to write this stuff down because this is gold from Carl today.
Okay well, it's actually funny.
You said that because well, we will all know why that's funny after we hear Carl's third little input here.
Oh, interesting.
Or you could make it up.
Okay.
Sure.
I mean, you could even, you know, be a fiction writer in some way, and you don't have to really have had that experience.
But you can just pretend that you did and use that as your introduction.
Okay, Lindsay, do you see why it was funny?
Well, I see now.
Well, you also can make it up if you want to.
But, you know, the key is to sell it, right?
You can't like.
It doesn't seem like some fantasy, sci-fi story, like it has to be something that could be believable, right?
So you can make it up if you want to.
Um, and here's the funny thing, he actually told us off mic.
He told us that he made up that story about talking to his friend learning languages gosh.
Well, the key is that he's believable, right.
We believe him.
Absolutely.
Bring them into your world, whether it's a true thing that actually happened or whether you are embellishing something right.
Creating something that's actually really fun to listen to.
So people aren't sitting there thinking, is this true or not?
They're pulled in.
Right.
Exactly, guys.
Just keep it short and simple, right?
This is what I love about these three different methods for starting your presentation, guys.
None of these are fancy.
None of these are overly complicated.
All of them accomplish your purpose of engaging your audience immediately and getting them to listen to you right.
And that's it.
So just keep that purpose in mind.
And you could use any of these three options that work for your personality and your material right.
As long as it's a hook, right?
Something that's memorable.
That is a great intro.
Yes, that is so good.
So do we have anything else that Carl would want to contribute here?
Anything else we need to know from Carl?
Yeah, for sure.
So of course, guys, maybe you can't make up a story, right?
I mean, that second tip might be out of bounds for some people.
And I understand that.
So does Carl.
That's why he has this third option.
So let's hear what else you can do.
Okay.
So the third one is a really great way to start it, and it's to use a question to talk about a problem and then your solution to that problem.
And again there's a really simple format that you can use and it begins with the question have you ever something?
And then, right.
So once you've told them, have you ever whatever?
Once you've asked them that question, have you ever?
Then you're going to say well, here's the.
And then you're going to explain it.
So, as an example, have you ever tried watching or listening to CNN to learn English, but found it too hard and gave up?
Well, here's a five-step process for how you can finally use CNN to quickly improve your English skills.
Okay.
That's awesome.
Again, so simple.
Yeah.
I find this one to be a bit more simple, kind of the simplest option, right?
Have you ever something.
Yeah, exactly.
All right.
So we want to give you guys one more example of this, right?
So going back to my, apparently I'm selling dog leashes now.
Let's go back to this example.
I would buy a dog leash.
I am always looking for a better solution than what I have for my dog.
I know.
I just bought a new dog leash last week.
That's not a lie.
So here's how I would use this method to start my presentation about my fancy new dog leash.
I'm selling
Okay, I would say...
Have you ever been walking down the street with your dog, enjoying the day sun on your face, when suddenly you realize the leash has dropped and your dog is heading towards a busy street?
Here's how you can make sure this scary situation never happens again.
Oh, my God.
For any dog owner, that's a terrifying situation.
My worst nightmare is that.
You know my dog getting off the leash and, oh God forbid, I just don't even want to think about it.
So he's got my attention here, right?
Exactly.
I know.
I think I saw this happen to someone like yesterday.
James and I were driving down the street and we saw this guy jump out of his car and his dog didn't wait for him.
And his dog just like leaped out of the car and started running down the sidewalk.
And we like stopped because we were so worried because we love dogs so much.
We stopped and we're like, oh, my God, can we help you?
Oh, for sure.
For sure.
You always want to help in that situation.
So anyone that's ever owned a dog is going to feel this, right?
You're really pulling them in with the have you ever way of starting this.
So good.
Exactly.
Exactly.
So that's how you present the problem, right?
Talk about something that your audience has experienced.
When have they experienced this problem? paint that picture, right?
And then immediately say, I have the solution, right?
That's why we're here.
Listen to me.
I got it.
And it's powerful here because you don't need to go and tell a story and then try to explain how difficult that situation is, because your audience has already been in that situation.
So they would immediately understand, oh, this solution is important.
Exactly.
Exactly.
Okay, guys.
So, to summarize his three ways of starting your presentation today guys, and remember, none is better than the other.
You choose what works for you, your personality, and your material, right?
So the first way, guys, is to start with a surprising fact.
This is usually what we think about as a hook.
A surprising fact about the topic usually has some numbers in there.
I would say a percentage, a majority, and then say how your topic connects to that surprising fact and what you will do about that in your presentation.
What's the second way?
Okay, so the second summary tip, guys, is tell an interesting story that hooks your audience.
And we talked about, you know, doesn't have to be a true story, but you need to make it feel true.
That's the key, right?
You have to feel real.
And then the third tip that Carl shared with us today ask a question starting with have you ever seen?
Have you ever had?
Have you ever experienced?
And then automatically say how you're going to fix this problem, because the audience already knows that that's a problem.
I love it.
I'm going to go ahead and say that third one's my favorite.
I feel like that's the easiest and quickest way to connect to your audience and to create even from the beginning.
So guys, for more of Carl Kwan's information, you can check out his YouTube channel.
Just look up Carl Kwan.
That's K-W-A-N.
You can also come back to the All Ears English blog, allearsenglish.com.
This is episode 140.
And remember to go back and listen to his other episodes, 79 and 80.
You can also do that on our website.
All right, perfect.
Thanks for hanging out today, Jessica.
And I'm so excited to have Carl's insight today.
It is so important the way that we present, right?
It's everything.
It's everything.
It's everything.
And guys, keep in mind, this isn't just to a group of people like a lecture.
This could be a sales meeting with one person.
It's all presenting.
Yes, I got it.
Excellent.
Love it.
I'll see you in the next one, Jessica.
Thanks for hanging out.
All right.
Bye.
Take care.
Bye.
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