What to do when your opening “bombs”
The opening of your speech is important. It sets the stage for the rest of your speech and helps your audience decide if they want to listen to you for the remainder of your speech. But how much time do you have before they decide? And what if your opening bombs? Are the remaining minutes of your speech an exercise in futility?
If you listen to some “experts”, they’ll tell you 2-3 minutes. Some will even say “60 seconds”. I say “it depends”. On what? It depends on how long your speech is and what you want your opening to accomplish. In my opinion (and I know others see it differently), you have as long as it takes for you to segue from your opening to the body of your speech. If your audience isn’t convinced they should listen to you by the time you segue, then you’re pretty much a dead duck. In the clip of my recent speech, it took me more than eight minutes before I segued from my opening to the content. The speech was just under 75 minutes, so taking eight minutes to set the stage was fine.
What you will also see in my clip is probably my most humbling moment as a speaker. Every time I watch it, it hurts. To put it mildly, the opening of my opening bombed … BIG TIME!! In setting up my ancient sound system, I made the mistake of not plugging in my speakers (you’ll see it all play out here).
It took more than a minute to finally figure out what went wrong (so I guess my opening was really 7 1/2 minutes). If you believe that you only have 60 seconds, I would have been toast before I ever figured out what went wrong.
I can’t even tell you what was going through my head at that moment, but none of it was good … NONE OF IT! I was speaking to some of the best speakers in Canada, and I was blowing it! I hadn’t even prepared a one-liner to recover. I tried to appear calm, but then I felt my hands shaking. I also felt the mood in the room change.
So what did I do?
I kept going. I delivered my speech the way I had planned it (although my mouth refused to cooperate at the beginning) and gave the audience content they could use right away. They loved it!
What’s the moral of this tale of woe? There are a few.
Your opening is important in terms of gaining the interest of your audience, but the content (if it’s good) is what your audience will remember most. Don’t be fooled into believing your opening and your close will be remembered most.
If things don’t go as planned at the beginning (or in any part of your speech), keep going. If you’ve planned your speech properly, you’ll be able to get back on track and finish strong. Your audience will respect you for it.
Don’t rush your opening. Take the time you’ll need to set the table so your audience is able to digest the meaty content you’re going to serve.
How to Make Your Speech Sound Like Music to Their Ears - Humbling Moment: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Tags: Content of Your Speech, Mistakes During Your Speech, Opening Your Speech, Planning Your Speech, Presentation Skills, Public Speaking, Speech Writing
26. January 2008 at 7:04 am :
[...] music and public speaking. I mentioned one segment [part 2] last week. The rest of the series [part 1, parts 3 and 4] is worth watching [...]
17. May 2008 at 9:09 pm :
That’s very brave, John, to put a video of a humbling moment up on your blog. Although you think you bombed, I don’t think you did at all. You did look calm and as you said, you did carry on and the rest of the presentation went well. So I think it’s a good reminder to less experienced speakers to not let things that go wrong rattle them too much and to let go of the idea of perfection when it comes to a presentation!
22. May 2008 at 12:00 pm :
Thanks for the encouragement, Olivia. I think it’s good to show new speakers that unexpected problems can happen to anyone. The key is to keep going regardless of how it feels at that moment. It’s still painful for me to watch the video (it’s been a long time since I have), but I do hope it bolsters someone else’s resolve. Thanks again for your comments!