This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 1.
Give your English presentation a catchy opening.
Three tips. Welcome to the Business English podcast from All Ears English.
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For a presentation, a meeting, or your office party, this is Real Business English with your favorite American hosts, Lindsay and Michelle, coming to you from New York City and Colorado, USA.
Hey, Michelle. Happy Monday. How are you doing today?
Hey, Lindsay. I am good. How are you? Oh, really good.
Really good. And I am so excited to start today's episode by saying a huge thank you to our awesome listeners who have left reviews in the iTunes store.
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I know. I want to say thank you to M Yuan from Australia, to Abdal987 from USA.
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We really we read these reviews and it means so much to us also.
Just thank you. Yes, exactly. Michelle, thank you.
Awesome. So, Michelle, you are our presentation expert and we're going to talk a little bit about presentations today.
Michelle, why do you think people get so nervous when they give presentations?
Oh, man, public speaking is a huge fear.
Have you ever heard? I'm not sure exactly where this comes from, but people are like more afraid of public speaking than death.
I know I've heard that statistic. Isn't that crazy?
The number one fear in the world, I think, is it just in the US or worldwide?
I'm not sure. I'm not sure where that comes from, but I've heard it.
I've heard it. They say it's before death.
Yeah. People are more afraid of getting up in front of a group and speaking in public than dying.
Yeah. Oh my gosh. You know, it's so funny to me.
Ever since I was little, so I grew up performing and I did a theater degree in college.
And I'm just, for some reason, it's weird because I'm not, I'm a little bit shy.
But when it comes to presentations and acting and performing, I just never was shy.
Even job interviews, I like have this freaky, I get this sick sort of enjoyment out of them.
That's so interesting. So you're able to turn over a new side of your personality when you're on stage, quote unquote, on stage, right?
That could be an interview or on the stage, literally.
Well, that is pretty cool. So I think you have some really cool things to offer our listeners.
You know, I mean, I get nervous public speaking.
You know, I can imagine I can remember some times where I've had to stand in front of a group and I've been nervous.
So we want to learn from you, Michelle, here.
And we're going to be, you know, going deeper into presentations later.
But for today, I want to ask you, Michelle, one question you know how can we grab the attention of the crowd from the beginning because we know that in order to give a good presentation we have to start off with a bang right how can we do that michelle right right that's a great question because i think that um that's one of the main things you want to grab the attention from the beginning think of when you're reading or even when, yeah, when you're reading or when you're writing a paper or anything, if you're not interested from the beginning, you're going to, you know, you're not going to listen.
And for the public speaker, you know, you have to be aware of that.
You don't want your audience to zone out, right?
So having a catchy introduction. One thing, zone out, great expression.
Can you tell us what that means? That's a great phrase, great phrasal verb.
Yeah. Actually, I think this one came up recently, too.
I don't know. I guess it's a really good one.
It's a really frequently used one. Zone it out is just kind of not pay attention.
You kind of your mind is in the clouds. You're not really actually you're kind of looking with your eyes, but not actually paying attention.
I know I do that all the time. Do you? Oh, yeah.
Actually, it just happened today. Yeah. All right.
So we want to make sure that our audience doesn't zone out.
So how can we do that? Do we have a few suggestions for our listeners of how to do that?
Absolutely. All right. I'm going to tell you all of them and then you want to talk about each one.
Yeah, absolutely. What are they? I have three main ones.
OK. If you don't want to have a boring presentation from the beginning, you can, number one, ask a question. to begin.
Okay. Number two, tell a story or an anecdote.
And number three is shock the audience. Ooh, I'm looking forward to that.
Shock them. But let's go back to number one.
So let's give our listeners some real phrases.
Let's imagine that our listeners are having to give a presentation or get on stage and give a talk in English, right?
So it's And what are we going to do? So ask a question.
What are some phrases that our listeners can use to ask and start that question?
Sure. Sure. Well, OK, let's think of a few.
So the first one you could do is I'd like to start today with a question for you.
Oh, yeah. Or yeah, we could say at the end for you or we don't have to.
We can say I'd like to start today with a question.
Right. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Either one would be good.
And then just go ahead and ask a question.
Right. Yeah. Good. OK. OK. And what's another thing we can say?
The second one would be let me ask you a question.
Yeah, very nice. Let me ask you a question.
Good. So it's good to set up your question by letting the audience know that you're going to ask, but you don't have to.
You could just go right into the question, right?
As soon as you get up. I mean, do you prefer that, Michelle?
I kind of like that because... I don't know.
It's just kind of very interesting to me when somebody just immediately poses a question.
But at the same time, I also see there's a certain benefit of framing the question.
Why? Because I think that it kind of gets the audience to listen.
Okay. Oh, I'd like to start today with a question for you.
And this makes the audience think, oh, well, what is it?
Right? Yeah. I think there's a benefit to either one.
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OK. OK. I think I think you're right. I think you're right.
I think it's good to have these reference markers.
Right. We talked about last time we talked about kind of, you know, mapping out our speech and letting people know what you're going to do next is really important for people feeling like everything is under control.
But if we're more spontaneous and the style is a little bit more relaxed, then, hey, ask the question.
Right. Right. Right. Exactly. What's another thing that's similar to a question that we would want to do at the very beginning?
Well, I think it's really great when somebody starts off by taking a poll of the audience.
What does that mean? So basically, it would be asking your audience to raise their hands.
Maybe, oh, well, how many of you think that this and who thinks this, right?
Or to understand, you know, experiences that people have had.
How many of you have been to France? Right.
Wasn't the cooking, wasn't the food amazing, right?
You know what I mean? So, but to say this, you can begin in one of two ways.
You can either say, to start off, I'd like to take a poll, right?
And then you could say, or you could say, how many of you have ever, right?
Right. So in that case, you're just going right into the question, right?
Or so to start off. Yeah. So to start off, that's another phrasal verb.
We're just dripping with phrasal verbs today.
And so what's the difference, Michelle, between to start and to start off?
Like, how does that change that phrase when we add off?
Hmm. I think it makes it sound a little bit more.
It makes me think of being at the starting line of a race.
I don't know. It's a little bit more interesting than just saying to start.
Yeah. It's kind of like there's an event coming after this.
Exactly. There's an event coming. Yeah. To start off.
Kind of like get ready. Get ready to start off.
I'd like to take a poll. OK, great. So that is the first way that we can grab the attention of the listeners and catch them to keep them from zoning out.
Right. And you can say and you can say raise your hand for how many of you have ever.
Right. And then ask them to raise their hands.
And it's really great because it involves the audience.
Yeah, I think that's really good. And that's something that's, I think, kind of cultural, too.
Like it's very common. It's considered very good presentation tactic.
It's considered a very good presentation tactic to ask people to participate in the U.S.
But I think in different cultures, it's not the same.
So if we're giving a presentation here in the U.S., we need to know that often audience members want to be involved or should be involved.
Not in every presentation. Depends on the field, right?
But we can talk about that more when we go deeper into culture and presentations.
Right, right. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. Okay.
So, Michelle, you also told us that another way to do it is to tell a story or an anecdote.
I mean, what's an anecdote? That might be a new word for our listeners.
An anecdote is kind of like a short example from your life.
A short story. Yeah. Yeah, it's a short story.
Okay. So how do we start off, right, if we're going to tell that story to grab the attention of the crowd?
Okay, great. Yeah. So, well, as we were talking about in the first one, you have a couple of options.
You can frame it, right? So, you can let them know that there's a story coming up.
You could also just tell the story, make it a little bit more of a mystery.
So, they're thinking, well, what's going on, right?
So, you can either just tell the story. That would be the first way.
Or you could say, let me tell you a story about...
Okay, that's a good way to start. Let me tell you a story about, right?
And then your story comes or whoever it's about, whatever it's about.
Another phrase we could start with? We could say, here's a quick story.
Good. That's nice. That's nice and succinct and interesting.
And notice my intonation, right? Because I'm leading into something, I'm saying, for example, let me tell you a story about, and here's a quick story, right?
Nice. You're kind of doing a question answer, right?
Yes, yes. So your intonation rises a little bit, right?
It's like a slight rise and a little fall.
Yeah. Here's a quick story. You're right.
Good point. So it's kind of like you're stretching it out a little bit.
You're moving that intonation up. Here's a quick story.
Let me tell you a story about, right? So you're really, you are leading into what's coming next.
I like it. I like it. It's like a very, it's like a quick rise with like the tiniest fall.
I don't know. Yeah. Interesting. Anyway.
Okay. The next one, you could say, I'd like to open with a personal anecdote.
Nice. So that's a little more, it sounds a little more formal.
I'd like to open with, right? So maybe this, again, this goes back to understanding our audience, knowing how formal our audience is.
And that's another thing that we can talk about when we go deeper into presentations, how to form your phrases, depending on how formal or casual your audience is.
Okay. So I'd like to open with a personal anecdote.
Anything else we could say, Michelle, to tell a story?
Sure. Well, you know, you could frame the time, right?
So, you could say a long time ago or many years ago or a few days ago or even you could say just recently, blah, blah, blah, right?
Ah, okay. I like that. I like that. Yeah.
Again, it goes back to... making people comfortable by understanding where you are in time.
I think that's really important. You know, you put your audience at ease by giving these reference markers, right?
When did this story happen? Did it happen yesterday, five minutes ago, or hundreds of years ago?
Right, right. Exactly. And about the kind of story you would tell just to, you know, I'm not going to, we'll do more on this later.
But, you know, it can be a personal story.
It can be a story about someone you know.
It can be a made up story, right? Yeah. Totally.
You can make it up. You know, of course, if that's appropriate, if this is like a presentation based on fact, you probably aren't going to make up a story.
But or you could even tell kind of like a legend or a tale or something like that.
Right. So but we'll get more into that. So, yeah, let's move on to the third thing.
Okay, good. So what was that third thing that I was really excited to hear about?
What are we going to do? Okay, well, the third idea is to shock the audience.
Whoa, shock them. What does it mean to shock someone?
To surprise. But to surprise, like, wow, wow, right?
Whoa. And how would you do this? I mean, how would you open a presentation by shocking them?
Well, I can give you an example. Okay. Tell me a story.
Okay. All right. I'm going to tell you a personal anecdote.
Okay. Actually, so in my master's degree, I was doing – this is a little crazy –
I was doing a presentation about language and the media and how we've kind of become desensitized to certain language and certain things on TV and in the media in general.
And so it was really about curse words. OK, so I actually started out by casually, you know, I'm kind of like a little girl.
People don't really expect it from me. Yeah.
So I started asking people about their weekends and then I would make commentary using very explicit curse words, which I will not say in the show. show I can imagine and I was just going around this language and then I told them you know what my presentation was about and you know I'll talk more about that next week but but yeah so it was about language and so instead of just going up there and saying I'm going to talk about curse words today right I I shot to them by actually using them I was actually really scared to do it but it got people talked about it for a long time afterward and Especially because coming from you, right?
They don't expect that, right? Exactly. And certainly not in an academic setting where the teacher is sitting in the room.
So I absolutely loved that. That was so much fun.
And that really got them to listen, right?
I had them after that. There was no losing that audience, right?
Well, I'm not saying you need to go up and curse.
It depends on the topic of your presentation, right?
Absolutely, right? But in some situations, it might be good to think about a way to shock the audience.
Maybe it's a crazy statistic, right? Maybe it's some sort of crazy fact that, oh my gosh, I didn't know that, right?
So it doesn't have to be what I did. I wouldn't necessarily... Don't try that at home, right?
But I would say that there are different ways to shock them, either with some sort of crazy fact... interesting bit of interesting statistic or something like that.
Right. Or like a physical demonstration of something.
Yes. Something like that. So we got to get a little bit creative here.
But I think the moral of the story here, I mean, thank you for sharing that, Michelle.
And I'm still kind of laughing thinking about kind of swearing in front of your class and your master's degree.
Oh, yeah. But I think this is good. The moral of the story, guys, is when you're giving a presentation or you're out there speaking in public, we want to grab our audience to make them so we can actually own them for that period of time.
We have their attention. Otherwise, it all goes downhill from there.
Right, right. And, you know, you definitely want to think about that.
The most important thing is, you know, because the audience is going to decide very quickly if they want to listen or if they want to zone out and you don't want them to zone out, right?
No, that's right. That's right. Totally.
So awesome. This is great. And guys, if you want to practice a little bit more with presentations, I know that there are some people on italki, some teachers that specialize in presentations.
So go on over to allearsenglish.com slash I-T-A-L-K-I.
Register there. You'll get $10 off your second lesson at italki.
And then go in the search bar at italki and look for a presentation expert.
You You can also come back to allearsenglish.com and type in Carl Kwan because we had Carl on a few years ago, a year ago, and he also talked about how to open a presentation and how to conclude your presentation.
So we're going to be talking more about presentations and public speaking.
If you guys have specific questions, please email me at lindsay at allearsenglish.com so we can answer your question.
Michelle, any final thoughts about opening a presentation?
Just make sure you know your audience and you know what's appropriate and you know how to grab their attention.
Yeah, there we go. All right, let's wrap it up.
Thanks for your wisdom today, Michelle. We appreciate that.
Oh, thank you, Lindsay. Have a nice day.
Take care. Bye. Bye. Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional.
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