(BAD ADVICE)
Your Director of Communications: “Start by thanking your hosts or order of rank.”
Your Marketing Director: “Be sure to weave in our branding slogan in the first 30 seconds. Then tell people about all of our locations.”
Your director of new business: “Tell people about all of our locations and branches.”
Your mother, “Tell people how humbled you are by the nice introduction you received.”
Your inner voice: “Good morning. As you heard, my name is ___ and my title is ___. I’m happy to be here today. Thank you for that lovely introduction. Before I begin today, let me tell you about the incredibly boring history of my company starting back to its founding in 1923. Next, I’d like to tell you about all of the cities we are in (that you couldn’t possibly care about, because you aren’t in those cities.)
(GOOD ADVICE)
Listen to your audience: “Stop boring us to death! We don’t care if you are happy to be here; we don’t know you well enough to care yet. We already know your name and title; the person introducing you told us–we aren’t stupid!!! Stop talking about you, you, you. We don’t care about you at this stage of our relationship. Instead, tell us something interesting and relevant to us. We care about ourselves. If you address our needs, we’ll be more likely to pay attention to the rest of your speech!”
