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How to Tell a Story in a Presentation, with Examples

July 26, 2018 - Dom Barnard

Keeping your audience engaged whilst trying to clearly deliver your key messages can be difficult. A helpful way of doing this is by telling stories where you take your audience on a journey and appeal to their emotions. In this article we discuss storytelling techniques you can incorporate into presentations.

The benefits of storytelling

Storytelling is used in every culture, passed down through generations, to help with understanding because  humans like narrative structures . It’s now becoming more popular for business presentations – this is the case for Cisco Systems who switched from fact-heavy presentations to presentations incorporating stories and consequently became more successful in promoting their products.

Research suggests that humans are hardwired to listen to stories, for example, after conducting a fMRI study, neuroscientist Uri Hasson concluded that storytelling causes the neurons of an audience to sync with the storyteller’s brain. This suggests that your brain in responding like the storyteller’s so you are experiencing the same emotions.

Storytelling has multiple benefits:

• Grabs attention
• Evokes emotion, especially empathy
• Uses the audience’s imagination
• Relatable e.g. humanises a person, company etc
• Maintains attention because stories are so engaging
• Builds anticipation by having heroes, challenges, adventures and journeys
• Changes beliefs
• Very persuasive

Different ways of storytelling

Monomyth (the hero’s the journey).

In a monomyth, a hero goes on a difficult journey or takes on a challenge – they move from the familiar into the unknown. After facing obstacles and ultimately succeeding the hero returns home, transformed and with newfound wisdom.

Using a monomyth is a useful way of showing the audience how you obtained the knowledge/wisdom that you will be sharing in your presentation. When you deliver your presentation you can hold the audience as the hero – they can come on the journey, you encourage them to walk through it and get passed the obstacles. Your ideas delivered in the presentation can guide them to the rewards/wisdom they seek.

An example of a monomyth: professional snowboarder  Amy Purdy delivered a speech  where she talks about losing her legs to meningitis, re-learning snowboarding and finally receiving a medal in the Paralympics.

• Engages the audience by accessing their imagination and taking them a journey
• Universal appeal – has a recognisable and simple structure
• Demonstrates the benefits of taking risks
• Quickly evokes empathy
• Shows how you learned a lesson and how you got your wisdom
• Your audience sees the value of your product, service etc

Rags to riches

This essentially is a story where the main character has various hardships in their life, usually hits rock bottom but then achieves great success.

• Relatable as we have all faced difficult times
• Provides hope

In medias res (into the middle of things)

In this type of story you launch right into the action – providing a snippet/teaser of what’s happening and then you start explaining the events that led to that event. You’ll be familiar with TV shows frequently using this technique.

This is engaging because you’re starting your story at the most exciting part which will make the audience curious – they’ll want to know how you got there.

Don’t give away too much of the action when you start the story; you’ll want to explain it in more detail when you reach it chronologically. Consider hinting at something unexpected or strange occurring – just provide the audience with enough information to get them interested.

• Attention grabbing
• Creates suspense
• Focuses attention on the fundamental moment of the story

False start

When delivering a false start, you begin by telling a supposedly predictable story and then unexpectedly reveal something before starting the story again with an altered perspective. This can be used to surprise the audience and it will get them engaged as it disrupted their predictions.

It’s useful for talking about times where you experienced a failure and then you consequently had to start again and what you learnt from this, including whether you had a special way of solving the problem.

• Changes the audience’s perspective
• Relates to the audience by sharing a failure
• Displays problem-solving

The mountain

This is similar to the monomyth – the mountain initially starts by setting the scene, it goes on to include a series of small challenges and a build-up of action, finally ending with a climatic finish. Typically something else will be introduced to the story to overcome the final challenge.

• Highlights how you overcame a series of challenges
• Builds suspense gradually – used in a lot of films
• Provides a satisfying conclusion

Practice Impromptu Storytelling

Practice telling a story with plot twists along the way. Learn More

Sparklines are when you contrast this world to an ideal world. You highlight the problems this world has and suggest what it could be like. It’s very persuasive because it gets the audience to want to make changes. A well-known example is Martin Luther’s “ I have a dream ” speech.

• Emotional appeal
• Evokes hope
• Often leads to action

Your whole presentation could follow the structure of a sparklines story:

1. Presentation beginning  – describe current life as this helps create a connection between yourself and the audience because they will agree with what you’re saying. Go on to introduce what the future can be, for example:

• What is: Our competitors have eaten up 30% of our revenue this year
• What could be: But what if we could fight back with a completely new product line in the same market? We’ve got the in-house expertise and resources to do just this.

2. Presentation middle  – now you have shown what the issues is continue to reflect on the contrast between the present and what the future could be like, for example:

• What is: We missed our revenue target by 30%.
• What could be: We’ve got to perform better next year otherwise we’ll have to start letting people go.
• What is: We’ve conducted early product trials with some of our customers.
• What could be: Over 90% said they would purchase the product when developed.

As you keep switching from what is and what could be the audience will find the possible future more appealing.

3. Presentation ending  – You want a call to action that is motivating, you want to show the audience the benefits of taking on your ideas. For example:

• Call to action: It will take additional work from several of our departments to get the new product line built in time for the launch date and to make up the revenue number for next year.
• The result of adopting your ideas: I know everyone’s working incredibly long hours, we really appreciate it. This is our opportunity to work together and give the company a massive boost. We’ll fight back against the competitors and you’ll all earn bonuses after a successful launch.

This makes it clear to the audience that everyone will benefit from your plan.

Nested loops

In nested loops, three of more stories are layered within each other. An example would be a character in your first story tells another story and a character in that story tells another story etc. The core of your message is in the centre and the stories around it explain this message or elaborate on it.

Each nested story should end in the order it was introduced, for example, the story you begin with is the last story you finish with, the second story you start is the second to last story you finish etc.

• Shows how your wisdom was obtained through a series of interactions/showing how wisdom was passed to you
• Explains how you came to a conclusion

Converging ideas

Converging ideas shows the audience how different people’s thinking came together to produce one idea. This is a good way of showing how a movement started or how an idea was created from various people working towards the same thing.

Converging ideas are similar to nested loops but with converging ideas you can show how stories with equal importance came to one significant conclusion.

• Demonstrates collaborations between people
• Can show how relationships formed
• Demonstrates how a development occurred

Petal structure

The petal structure consists of telling multiple stories from multiple speakers that relate to the main message. This is useful if you have unconnected stories that relate back to the central concept. You can overlap the stories as one story, after it has been completed, introduces the next story.

• In showing the audience how these stories are related they understand the significance of your message
• Provides the voice of multiple speakers
• Provides lots of evidence or emotional appeal around a central idea
• Shows how multiple situations lead back to one concept
• Allows a group of speakers to discuss a main message

Example of captive storytelling

Donald Blake from the Scottish Storytelling Centre tells a tale about being hungry for stories. Great example of how to tell a story during a presentation.

Watch the full video here:  ICH for Everyone: The importance of storytelling

Storytelling tips

Storytelling is used by the  top public speakers , here are their tips:

Understand your audience

You first need to find out who you’re presenting to:

• Know their pain points, values and opinions
• Topics of interest
• Try to find similarities, including any shared experiences, you have with the audience because they can relate and empathise with you. Consequently they will care about what you say.

Frame your story

Think about taking the audience on a journey and work out where to start and finish.

To find a place to start ask:

• What do audience already know about the topic?
• How much do the audience care about the topic?

If a speech is received poorly it’s usually because it was not framed well – the speaker misunderstood the level of audience interest or they didn’t tell a story.

Know your message

Ensure that you understand what you’re trying to tell the audience and how your story is linked to your call for action.

• Think about how you want the audience to feel about your message.
• For example, you might need to share facts and figures but try to deliver this is an engaging way so they will be remembered.

Ensure that you choose a story relevant to the idea you want to support or the point you want to make. The story must be  tailored to your audience  so it relates to them and meets their needs.

Be authentic

• Tell real-life stories to garner trust.
• If your story is not genuine this will work against you and the audience will judge you as dishonest.

Use a conversational tone

When telling your story speak in a conversational tone as this will sound more natural and friendly. To help with this pretend that you’re telling the story to friends or family and avoid technical terminology.

Remember that the audience is the hero

• The audience often needs to view themselves as the hero.
• Let people see and feel what the journey of achieving the goal will be like.

Visual aids increase engagement  and memory retention. Use relevant images, videos, props etc as supplements to your story.

Evoke emotions

By evoking certain emotions in the audience, they will feel more connected to the story which will help with their engagement and persuading them. Emotions also increase memory retention.

Sell your story not your product

Focus your story on the outcome that the audience is looking for and not on your product.

There needs to be conflict, contrast or action in the story; in traditional tales there would be a villain. In a  business presentation  there might be a problem that the characters must overcome. This ensures audience engagement because they want to know what happens next. To increase suspense:

• Tell a story chronologically so you can build to a climactic conclusion
• Consider telling a predictable story and then shock the audience by going a different direction to what was predicted (false start).
• Consider using in media res.

Stories need a beginning, middle and end to create drama and anticipation. Sometimes you don’t have to complete the story as this can be a useful way of making a point in the presentation.

Tell personal stories because the audience will enjoy seeing your human side. Consider telling a story about a mistake you made, for example, perhaps you froze up during an important presentation when you were 25, or maybe life wasn’t going well for you in the past – if relevant to your presentation’s aim.

People will empathise and relate to you as we have all experienced hardship. The more the audience relates to you, the more likely they will remain engaged. These stories can also be told in a humorous way if it makes you feel more comfortable.

Ensure that you plan the stories thoroughly beforehand and make sure they are not too long.

How you tell your story

The way you tell a story is important, if you do it effectively the audience won’t forget it. Consider:

• Using every word and image to help create a clear picture in their mind
• Using visuals to supplement the story
• Providing sensory details – using all five senses
• Using precise verbs and nouns and vivid adjectives.
• Providing short but effective descriptions

Imaginable characters

Create characters that the audience can imagine easily. Characters are significant because it’s their struggles that make the audience react. You must provide enough detail on the main character and identify their unique characteristic, such, as, perseverance.

A common technique for presenting characters in business presentations is to start with “This is…” followed by the character’s name and their job role and their important characteristics/backstory. For example, “This is Sally, a hard-working but over-worked marketing manager etc.”

Shock the audience

Build up to a dramatic event that they won’t forget – this can be a provoking image, shocking statistics etc. For example, in a  2009 speech  Bill Gates, after providing statistics on the issues of malaria, opened a jar of mosquitoes in the presentation room and said “There’s no reason only poor people should have the experience.”

Satisfying resolution

End with a resolution – this can be a piece of advice or wisdom that will help the audience.

Telling stories is a compelling way of presenting because humans relate to them. Stories engage the audience, evoke empathy, increase trust and motivate action. By working on your storytelling skills you will be more effective at persuading the audience the value of your ideas. Make sure you spend the time refining these skills so you can set your company apart from the rest.

Presentation Storytelling Examples & Techniques (2024)

Learn techniques for telling a story in a presentation . Get narrative presentation examples and learn to apply storytelling in business presentations .

Joanne Camarce

8 minute read

Short answer

What should a presentation storytelling structure include?

Introduction

Rising Action

Falling Action

Storytelling in business presentations matters (a lot)

Stories convey a deeper meaning, idea, or lesson. They make us feel, experience, identify, and understand.

Most importantly for storytelling in business presentations, telling a story in a presentation makes people more likely to remember the message.

Researchers Dean and Chip Heath found that after a presentation, 63% of attendees could remember the story told by the presenter.

However, only 5% could recall specific statistics from the event.

Because stories allow audiences to visualize and imagine an idea or message, stories also make them better able to make decisions.

In other words, stories bring buyers, stakeholders, and decision-makers to better understand and remember your message. Which in turn enables them to make a decision and increases the chance they’ll act on it.

What is presentation storytelling?

Presentation storytelling is the art of using a narrative structure to convey information instead of dry facts. It delivers a story with a clear beginning, middle, and end that aligns with the presentation's objectives, making the content more relatable and memorable.

Storytelling in business presentations involves 2 complementing aspects: (1) textual presentation narrative, and (2) visual storytelling.

What is a narrative presentation?

A narrative presentation is a style of delivering information where the content is structured as a relatable story. It typically includes characters, a setting, a conflict, and a resolution, and weaves complex ideas, processes, and metrics into the narrative.

What is a visual storytelling presentation?

A visual storytelling presentation tells a story or multiple anecdotes using visual elements like videos, animations, and interactive content.

Modern storytelling presentations apply scrollytelling design which combines visuals and text seamlessly to let readers interact with the presentation as they scroll down the content.

How to use the 4 storytelling archetypes

Storytelling is the art of describing vivid ideas, beliefs, experiences, and life lessons through stories and narratives.

These stories stimulate a listener's imagination as you take them on an emotional journey. There are many ways to tell a story.

These story structures have been shown to work for narrative presentations and corporate storytelling, and they will work for you.

The Hero's Journey: Communicates a transformation from struggle to success

The Story Mountain: Builds tension and anticipation

Story loop: Joins multiple perspectives into a single narrative

In-Media Res: Grabs attention quickly

There are timeless narrative frameworks that have worked for storytellers throughout the ages from the methodologies of old, through Shakespearian plays to Apple commercials.

1) Hero's Journey

The hero's journey narrative archetype involves a hero who goes on a journey and returns as a changed person.

This storytelling template consists of three distinct parts, or "acts," that include a setup, confrontation, and resolution. It makes for a well-structured and engaging narrative.

2) The Mountain

The mountain storytelling structure strategically maps the tension and drama in a story. This archetype is represented visually as a mountain, with each section building to a complex obstacle that characters need to overcome.

Think of the protagonist at the bottom of the mountain. They must climb the mountain to reach their goal (your business goals in this case). They face obstacles along the way, and they must overcome those obstacles before they can reach the top.

3) Story loop

The story loop structure contains stories within another story. However, they aren't standalone stories.

Your first story is the most important. It's the core of your message, and you use the other stories to elaborate or explain your central point.

But you stop some of the way through it, leaving the audience in suspense. Then, you share part of the second story before moving on to the last.

Eventually, in the end, you bring it all together to make one cohesive point. The purpose of this storytelling technique is to provide context, background, or a different perspective to a central narrative.

Types of anecdotes you can use in your story loop presentation

• Customer success stories
• Personal experiences by clients
• Inspirational stories
• Fictional or hypothetical stories
• Historical or factual stories

Here's a short video explaining how to use a story loop:

4) In medias res (begin from the middle)

In medias res is Latin for "in the middle of things." With this storytelling archetype, the narrative begins in the middle of a scene. It skips over the background of the story and gets straight to the action.

To choose the right type of story for your presentation, consider your audience, the purpose of the presentation, and the emotional impact you want to create.

No matter what narrative structure you choose, include visuals, sensory details, and precise language to bolster your message.

If you want to learn more about this storytelling archetype, check out the video below:

Effective presentation storytelling structure

A well-structured story can engage and persuade your audience, making your corporate presentation much more effective and memorable.

Stories can be applied in any type of business presentation, such as a pitch deck, sales presentation, white paper, report, or business proposal.

A single document can include multiple stories that make up a joint narrative.

5 basic elements of a story structure:

1. Introduction

• Sets a relevant context with background information.
• Introduces the protagonist (business or product) and the current problem or challenge.

2. Rising Action

• Builds tension by detailing the obstacles and complications faced.
• Engages the audience with the steps taken to address the challenge.
• The turning point where the main tension or conflict peaks.
• Highlights the moment of greatest challenge and the decisive action taken.

4. Falling Action

• Shows the aftermath of the climax.
• Begins to lead towards the resolution, detailing the business solution and results of actions taken.

5. Resolution

• Wraps up the story with the outcome of all actions.
• Provides a clear ending, showing how the challenge was overcome and what was learned.

After developing your story structure, be sure to connect it to your core message by creating parallels and reinforcing it with examples.

Most importantly, don’t leave your audience with the realization that they need to take action without offering them an immediate way to act.

Effective storytelling techniques for presentations

The beauty of storytelling is that the possibilities are endless. There are so many ways to tell a story in presentations. It's just a matter of finding the right one for your unique needs and goals.

1) Build your stories around your audience’s pain points

Stories establish connections. But don’t confuse your story with your audience’s story.

Your audience doesn’t care about your story, and they don’t care about your product.

But they will care if they feel you care about them.

Understanding the audience's pain points, values, and opinions can help you weave a story into a narrative that aligns with their interests. It gives you the chance to be part of THEIR story.

Stop talking about yourself. Do this and see engagement blow up, conversions increase, and greater brand loyalty .

2) Establish common ground with your prospects

One effective presentation storytelling technique is to find common ground and share experiences with your audience to establish a connection and make them care about what you say.

These commonalities are what resonate strongest with your target audience.

Common-ground stories tell your audience a satisfied client of yours overcame a particular challenge they are experiencing themselves, and offer the lessons learned while overcoming it.

3) Tell stories that foster peer envy

Peer envy is one of the strongest motivators you can flame in sales presentation storytelling.

Simply put it just means telling the story of a known industry player that achieved remarkable results with the help of your product or service.

A peer envy story should present the initial challenge, the journey to overcome it, and the final enviable outcomes. Yet the reader should feel they can attain similar or better results by following a similar journey.

Here's a fragment of a podcast where Michael Bosworth touches on this very topic:

Business presentation storytelling examples

Here are some examples of famous brands that incorporated personal stories to convey a powerful message in their business presentations.

Zuora sales deck

The Zuora sales deck was aptly named the best sales deck ever . It is truly a best-in-class example of a transformation narrative set within the story mountain framework.

It masterfully narrates the shift to a subscription economy, emphasizing evolving consumer behavior.

And by highlighting the challenges businesses face in this new economy, Zuora positions itself as the essential solution.

The deck's use of data, visuals, and testimonials weaves a compelling story of transformation, urging businesses to adapt and thrive with Zuora or stay behind and decline.

Mign sales deck

Mign’s sales deck highlights the digital shift in musculoskeletal injury recovery, emphasizing the transformation from mass production to personalized care.

Mign applies the hero’s journey story framework and positions itself as the trusted guide in this transformation.

The deck contrasts "winners," who embrace new technologies like additive manufacturing and virtual care, with "losers," traditional manufacturers stuck in outdated processes.

Tinder pitch deck

Tinder's pitch deck effectively narrates the universal challenge of meeting new people and the fear of rejection.

By introducing a hypothetical user named "Matt," Tinder gives the reader a peek into the mind of their target user - an everyday nice guy scared to approach a girl he's interested in.

This concrete personal experience gives life to a basic human need that investors can understand intuitively and even relate to.

Tinder leverages this emotional understanding to make a compelling case for its solution - a platform that eliminates the fear of rejection.

The deck also applied great data storytelling showcasing Tinder's impressive statistics, emphasizing its global reach and popularity among Gen Z.

They also nail the one-liner. Their slogan "It Starts With A Swipe™" encapsulates the simplicity and effectiveness of the app, positioning Tinder as the modern solution to traditional dating challenges.

Brothers Pub restaurant pitch deck

Brothers Pub's pitch deck presents a captivating local business story, emphasizing the need for a fresh, community-focused social pub venue.

The deck tells the story of the owners’ journey, from the initial concept to securing a prime location in Northampton, highlighting their dedication and vision for the future.

The deck outlines the challenges faced by traditional pubs, with 7000 closures in the last decade, and positions Brothers Pub as the innovative solution.

LKE proposal

Legends Kratom Co. (LKE) creates a narrative around the origins and benefits of kratom. By telling the exotic tale of the medicinal tropical evergreen tree and its transformation into a beneficial supplement, the deck creates a vivid backdrop.

They take the reader on their discovery journey to Indonesia to find a supplier for the coveted plant.

This adds authenticity and allure, while their commitment to education and community showcases a heartfelt mission.

Testimonials provide real-world validation, making LKE's story relatable and positioning them as a trusted leader in the supplement industry.

Genius Workshop Event pitch deck

Genius's pitch deck for their storytelling workshop is a masterclass in selling an experience. The deck introduces Gabrielle Dolan's expertise, setting a foundation of trust.

The workshop's structure is presented as a narrative journey, guiding attendees from novice to storyteller.

The deck mixes video, scrollytelling, and vivid language to give rich detail to the experience it promises to provide.

The 90-day follow-up program adds an element of continued growth, while alumni testimonials serve as real-world success stories.

By framing the workshop as a transformative experience, the deck engages and entices potential attendees, showcasing the power of storytelling in action.

Barbie recruitment pitch deck

Barbie's recruitment deck immerses candidates into Barbie's vibrant world. With playful greetings and whimsical descriptions, it sets a creative tone.

The deck focuses on Barbie’s story as a human being (doll in her case), her values, and her experience, instead of focusing on the recruiting company.

The deck lists attributes and responsibilities that align with Barbie's ethos, such as "spreading positivity" and "rocking a pink wardrobe."

Nokia brand guidelines

Nokia's brand guidelines deck uses visual storytelling to effectively communicate the essence of the brand. It lets the visuals tell the story since they speak louder than words.

The deck begins by anchoring the audience in Nokia's mission and values, creating a narrative foundation.

It then unfolds the brand's visual identity, from color schemes to typography, weaving a cohesive story of what Nokia represents.

By providing clear dos and don'ts, Nokia ensures that its brand story remains consistent and impactful across all touchpoints.

This storytelling approach not only educates but also engages, making it easier for stakeholders to internalize and adhere to the guidelines.

nSure one-pager

nSure's one-pager effectively uses visual data storytelling to convey the benefits of their AI fraud protection for digital gift card purchases.

Introducing the challenge of ambiguous transactions, nSure lets the numbers tell the story.

With impressive numbers like their AI solution’s 98% approval rate. They can afford to.

The deck's visuals, combined with endorsements from industry leaders like AXA, make a compelling narrative that instills confidence in nSure's expertise.

Healthy.io proposal

Healthy.io's proposal uses video storytelling with real practitioners who tell the story of their experiences using Healthy.io’s solution.

The video testimonial from a practice nurse adds a personal touch, showing the positive impact on patient care. This brings the user's experience to the front and adds credibility to the proposal’s claims.

The proposal uses a transformation narrative to showcase Healthy.io’s remote kidney screening solution.

They highlight the challenges of legacy ACR testing against their modern home-based test using a smartphone app.

Principles of visual storytelling in business presentations

Storytelling allows you to simplify complex or abstract information and address any objections or resistance. As a result, listeners can better retain and remember the message, which improves the decision-making process.

Here are the main principles that can transform your narrative:

Authenticity

Authentic visuals resonate more with audiences. In an era where people are bombarded with staged and polished images, authentic, candid photos that reflect the reality of your work can make your message stand out and be memorable.

Your visuals should evoke a sensory experience. The goal is to cut through the noise and trigger a stronger emotional response.

For example, you can make the experience more immersive by adding interactive clickable elements, embedding videos, or images that highlight details or visual textures.

Scrollytelling can also play a crucial role here, allowing the story to unfold through interaction, as the audience scrolls through the narrative, engaging them in a multi-sensory journey.

You can see the difference that interactivity makes below. Which presentation would you rather read?

The stories told by your images must be relevant to your audience. Personalized visual storytelling, supported by data to understand what motivates your audience, can turn your story into an experience that resonates deeply.

Every story has characters that fit certain archetypes, such as the caregiver, the explorer, and the creator. Identifying with these archetypes helps your audience connect with the story on a deeper level, making your organization's mission more relatable and memorable.

Make your own storytelling presentation

We've curated an extensive collection of templates to help you achieve effective storytelling for whatever business presentation you need to make.

The business storytelling presentation templates below have been rigorously tested across various devices and refined with insights gleaned from real-world feedback.

They were designed with interactive storytelling at their core. They’ll serve you as handy visual storytelling aids to make your presentations engaging, memorable, and highly converting.

Grab a template!

Why the human brain loves storytelling presentations

According to neuroscientist Uri Hasson , storytelling fosters deep social interactions through brain-to-brain connections.

He found that when we hear stories, our brains mirror each other, helping us understand what the storyteller is feeling.

Called neurocoupling or mirroring, this process occurs across many areas of the brain, including the ones that are responsible for processing and understanding narratives.

So the human brain loves stories. But why?

The short answer is that ‌neural activity in the brain increases when we hear a captivating story. Our brains are made up of neurons, which are nerve cells that send messages throughout the body.

These neurons release neurotransmitters (brain chemicals) that transmit signals from nerve cells to target cells.

The most common neurotransmitters in the brain include:

When we hear a story, the neurons in our brain light up with activity. And according to neuroscientists, "neurons that fire together wire together."

This means that as we hear stories, the neurons in our brains are wiring together. As a result, we're more likely to remember the information we receive from a story.

Storytelling also triggers the release of dopamine ("the brain's form of candy") and oxytocin ("the love drug"). In other words, stories make us feel good.

Here's an infographic showing how storytelling affects the brain:

This can influence buying behavior because it helps to create an emotional connection with potential customers or buyers.

Telling a story, instead of making a sales pitch , is less intimidating to an audience.

The company or product you're describing is easier to understand, seems less complex, and provides relevant information in a format that's easy to digest and remember.

As a result, the buyer can relate to the product or service and will eventually want to purchase it.

Joanne Camarce grows and strategizes B2B marketing and PR efforts @ codeless.io . She loves slaying outreach campaigns and connecting with brands like G2, Wordstream, Process Street, and others. When she's not wearing her marketing hat, you'll find Joanne admiring Japanese music and art or just being a dog mom.

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How to Use Stories in a Presentation: 6 Tips

by Rob Biesenbach | Presentation/Speech Tips , Storytelling

Worst of all, his talk was nothing but data — endless columns of it, packed onto dense, ugly slides. There was no narrative holding his points together and, in fact, no stories of any kind.

Stories are the centerpiece of any successful presentation. You should begin with story, end with story, and have stories in the middle.

Here’s how to use stories in a presentation. But first, let’s review why storytelling is so important to presenting.

Why Use Stories in a Presentation?

Multiple studies confirm that storytelling is the most powerful form of communication at our disposal:

• Researcher Paul Zak found that stories cause the brain to produce oxytocin, a chemical related to feelings of empathy and a desire to cooperate. Stories essentially soften up an audience, making them more amenable to you and your ideas.
• In a popular TED Talk , storyteller Nancy Duarte describes the many ways stories sweep us up and carry us away, not just intellectually and emotionally, but physically. Listening to a story is an experience, not just a passive exercise.
• And in the seminal book on persuasion Made to Stick , the authors did a study showing that after a presentation, 63 percent of audience members remembered the stories they heard, while just 5 percent could recall the statistics presented.

The bottom line: stories captivate us and stay with us in a way that ordinary information just doesn’t do.

1. Start Your Presentation With a Story

Far too many presenters squander that all-important first minute of their presentation. This is your chance to grab the audience’s attention and make them want to know more.

Here are common ways speakers kick off their presentations, and why they don’t work:

• Delivering a long list of thank yous. It’s boring when we see Oscar winners do it, and it’s boring when everyday speakers do it.
• Walking us through your credentials. Sorry, but a presentation is not about YOU, it’s about your audience and their needs.
• Outlining the agenda — the old “tell them what you’re going to tell them” approach. Nobody cares about what you have to say until you give them a reason to care.

How do you make them care? By telling a compelling story that brings to life a problem they should be concerned about. So think carefully about your audience’s needs, desires and fears, and tell a story that will resonate with them. Here’s quick primer on crafting an effective story.

2. Be Disciplined About Your Storytelling

Some of my clients are uncomfortable starting with a story right out of the gate. They feel they need to welcome the group, acknowledge VIPs in the audience, set expectations, etc.

But that just dilutes the power of your story. So save all that housekeeping business for later and jump right into your story.

It’s far more compelling when your first words are, “I never thought it would happen to me …” or “It was the scariest moment of my life …”

Presentation expert and Hall of Fame speaker Patricia Fripp offers 27 ways to open your speech with a bang. They make great story starters.

(Also, resist the urge to tee things up by saying, “Let me share a story …” or “I’m going to tell you a story about …” Just jump right in!)

3. Make It a Personal Story

Though it’s tempting to use stories about major figures like Winston Churchill or Steve Jobs, audiences have heard those stories thousands of time.

So don’t go “googling for stories.” And avoid timeworn tales like the “ rocks in the jar ” or the truck stuck under the bridge .

It’s much better to use stories that you yourself have actually experienced. In addition to being original, a personal story means you’re going to be more connected to it, making it far more likely that your audience will connect with you.

4. Be Sure Your Story is On Point

Don’t tell stories purely for entertainment’s sake. You’re not there to entertain; you’re there to inform and persuade — to change people’s minds and get them to take action.

So make sure your story is on-message. If your talk is about teamwork, make your opening story about teamwork. Don’t waste an opportunity to reinforce your main point.

5. Include Stories in the Middle (But Not Too Many!)

To sustain attention, you should weave stories throughout your presentation.

How many stories should you use? There is no magic formula. Much of it depends on the length of your speech and the length of your stories.

Let’s say you have five parts to your presentation: intro, conclusion and three sections in the main body. That might call for five stories. Might . It all depends. Five 2-minute stories in a 15-minute talk is probably too many.

Which brings up the issue of story overload . I had a client whose presentation was almost entirely stories. After a while it felt like his stories were a cover for a lack of substance. I kept thinking, “Where’s the beef?”

So be sure your stories are accompanied by evidence, data, examples and your own assertions.

6. Return to Story

Just as you should open with a story, you should close with a story. In fact, one of the most effective techniques is to return to an earlier story by adding a postscript, revealing a surprising twist or telling it from another character’s point of view.

It’s like the callback that standup comics use. The ring of the familiar triggers an “aha” moment and brings the audience full circle on the journey they’ve taken together.

For instance, in the story I told about the worst presentation I ever saw, what if I told you that speaker was a professional marketer? Someone whose whole business is premised on reading an audience and delivering on their needs with stories that sell.

On that day, he utterly failed. Which is an important lesson. Even professional communicators sometimes neglect the fundamental principles of persuasion — and that includes storytelling.

[This post originally ran in Communication World Magazine ]

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How to Start a Presentation with Impact + 12 Examples!

December 1, 2023

In the world of snooze-worthy presentations, your opening is your moment of truth. Knowing how to start a presentation—be it a sales presentation, an investor pitch, a conference keynote, or an internal team update—sets the tone for everything that follows. The best way to open your presentation? Forget about overly complicated introductions, because you’ll want to use your initial seconds to pique genuine curiosity and capture attention. 

Whether it's through a thought-provoking quote, a stunning visual, a brief yet impactful video, an engaging question, or an interactive poll, the goal is to make your audience sit up and take notice, avoiding the common pitfall of starting with an 'about me' narrative. Remember, in these moments, your story is less about you and more about resonating with your audience. Wondering how you can craft an opening that not only grabs attention but also holds it? Here’s how to make sure your message sticks the landing.

How to Start Your Sales Presentation with Impact

The opening of a sales presentation is crucial in setting the stage for what you're offering. It’s your chance to grab the audience's attention and make them eager to hear more about your product or service. We might specialize in PowerPoint design services, but we’re also suckers for punchy openings and clever wordsmithing. Here are five dynamic ways to start your sales presentation to engage your audience effectively. After all, who’s going to buy from you if your presentation isn’t engaging?

Interesting Statistics

Begin your presentation with a statistic that highlights a problem or opportunity relevant to your audience. For instance, if you’re selling a cybersecurity solution, you might start with, "Did you know that cyber attacks are increasing at an alarming rate of 30% per year?" This kind of opening not only grabs attention but also establishes the importance of your product or service. The more attention-grabbing, the better!

Compelling Questions

Asking a thought-provoking question can immediately engage your audience. It encourages them to think and become active participants. For example, "Have you ever considered how much time we waste on inefficient processes?" This approach works well in highlighting the pain points that your product or service can address.

Presentation Storytelling

Stories are powerful tools for connection, no doubt. Start with a short, relatable story that illustrates the need for your product or service. A narrative about a common challenge and how your product provided a solution can be very effective. For instance, "Let me tell you about a client who was struggling with..."

Visual Impact

Using a striking visual can be a great way to start a sales presentation. A compelling image or a brief video that gets your message across can make a strong impression. This could be as simple as a before-and-after scenario, showcasing the effectiveness of your product.

Bold Statements

Kick off with a bold, intriguing statement that makes the audience sit up and take notice. It should be directly related to the benefits of your product or service. For example, "We're not just changing the game–we're redefining it." This kind of opening sets a confident tone for the rest of your presentation.

How to Start Your Investor Pitch Presentation

Presenting to investors is a unique challenge. You need to quickly establish credibility and capture their interest. Here are five effective strategies for opening your investor presentation to ensure you make a lasting impression.

Visionary Opening

Begin with a powerful vision statement that encapsulates the essence and ambition of your business. This could be a glimpse into the future that your company is striving to create. For example, "At the heart of our company lies a vision to revolutionize sustainable energy for generations to come." This approach instantly sets a high-level tone and shows investors the potential impact of your business.

Compelling Problem Statement

Start with a clear and compelling description of the problem your business aims to solve. This not only highlights the need for your solution but also demonstrates your understanding of the market. For instance, "In a world where over 30% of produced food is wasted, our solution offers an innovative way to reduce this drastically."

Success Story

Share a brief story of a significant milestone or success that your company has achieved. This could be about landing a major client, a breakthrough in your technology, or a notable growth milestone. This kind of opening underlines your company's potential and track record.

Surprising Fact or Stat

Kick off with a surprising fact related to your industry that sets the stage for your presentation. This should be something that highlights the market opportunity or the need for your solution. For instance, "In the $2.2 trillion food industry, a shocking 30% of produce goes to waste. Our solution tackles this inefficiency head-on."

Personal Journey

Starting with a brief narrative about why you founded the company can be a powerful way to connect with investors on a more personal level. It adds a human element to your presentation, allowing investors to understand your passion and commitment. For example, "My journey to founding this company began five years ago when I encountered..."

How to Start a Keynote Presentation

Keynote talks are an opportunity to inspire, influence, and leave a lasting impression on your audience. The opening of your talk is critical in setting the stage for your message. These are our favorite ways to hook your audience from the get-go.

Inspirational Quote

Open with a quote that resonates with the theme of your talk. Choose a saying from a well known person that gets the basic idea of your message across. For instance, "As Nelson Mandela once said, 'It always seems impossible until it’s done.' Today, we explore the 'impossible'." This approach connects your audience to something that feels familiar and sets a reflective tone for the rest of the presentation.

Intriguing Question

Pose an intriguing question to your audience that provokes thought and relates directly to your topic. This could be a rhetorical question or one that challenges common perceptions. For example, "Have you ever wondered what truly drives innovation in our fast-paced world?" This strategy engages your audience’s curiosity right from the start.

Personal Anecdote

Sharing a personal story that relates to your keynote theme can create an immediate emotional connection with your audience. It adds a personal touch and makes your message more relatable. Begin with, "Let me share a personal experience that profoundly changed my perspective on..." Remember to avoid going on about yourself, and instead focus on how the experience relates to the rest of your presentation.

These are all effective ways to make presentation storytelling lots more engaging. You can also use the previous suggestions of beginning the presentation with a visual hook or surprising fact to hook your audience from the start.

How to Start Your Internal Team Meeting Presentation

Nobody wants their internal updates to prompt “couldn’t this be an email?” comments from their colleagues. For internal updates, the approach should be distinctively different, focusing on team engagement, shared goals, and collective progress. Here’s what we suggest for your presentation to ensure your team is attentive and motivated.

Celebratory Kick-Off

Begin with a celebration of a recent achievement or milestone. This could be team-centric, like reaching a project goal, or company-wide, such as a notable business success. For example, "I am thrilled to start today by celebrating our team's achievement in surpassing our quarterly targets."

Progress Highlight

Start by highlighting progress on key projects or initiatives. This could be a brief overview of where things stand or a specific success story. It’s a great way to show the team that their efforts are leading to tangible results. For instance, "Let's kick off by looking at the incredible progress we've made on the X project in the last month."

Team Member Spotlight

Open by spotlighting a team member's contribution or achievement. This not only recognizes individual efforts but also fosters a culture of appreciation and motivation. For example, "I want to begin today's meeting by highlighting James' outstanding contribution to our client project last week."

Industry News or Trends

Start with a brief discussion on relevant industry news or trends that might impact your team or company. This keeps the team informed and can start discussions on how these developments might affect your work. For example, "Let's start with some interesting developments in our industry that could present new opportunities for us."

Each of these approaches is designed to create an engaging and inclusive atmosphere for internal updates. The focus is on building team morale, encouraging participation, and keeping everyone aligned with the company’s goals and achievements.

Recap: 12 Examples for Starting Your Presentation with Impact

To wrap up, let's compile three actionable examples for each type of presentation we've discussed. These examples are designed to be directly applicable, giving you a practical blueprint for engaging your audience right from the beginning of your presentation.

Sales Presentations

Statistic-based .

"Every year, businesses lose approximately $1.7 trillion due to inefficiencies in communication. Today, we introduce a solution that turns this challenge into an opportunity."

Question-Based

 "How many of you have experienced frustration due to delayed flights? Our app is here to change your travel experience forever."

"Last year, a small business owner faced a daunting challenge with their supply chain. Our software transformed their process, resulting in a 40% increase in efficiency."

Investor Presentations

Vision statement.

"We envision a future where renewable energy is not a luxury, but a norm for every household. Our technology is the key to this future."

Problem Statement

"In a world where online privacy is constantly under threat, our platform provides an unbreachable shield, safeguarding digital identities."

"Just six months ago, our prototype caught the attention of industry giants, leading to a groundbreaking partnership that sets us on a path to revolutionize our field."

Keynote Talks

"Margaret Mead famously said, 'Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.' This idea is at the core of our discussion today."

"What if I told you that the biggest barrier to innovation is not a lack of ideas, but a lack of action? Let’s explore this further."

Visual Display

"This image [showing a powerful photograph] represents the drastic change our industry has undergone in the last decade. Let's dive into what this means for us."

Internal Updates

"I'm excited to announce that thanks to our team's efforts, customer satisfaction has hit an all-time high this quarter!"

Interactive Element

"To get us started, I'd like everyone to share one word that describes their current project experience."

Industry News

"Recent developments in AI technology have opened new avenues for our projects. Let's discuss how we can integrate these into our workflow."

These examples offer a versatile range of strategies to effectively start your presentations, tailored to the specific context and audience of your talk. Whether it’s a sales presentation, an investor pitch, a conference keynote, or an internal team update, using these examples as a guide can help you grab your audience's attention and keep them engaged throughout. Presenting is not easy, but a good opening will give you the confidence boost that can help you throughout your talk. Here’s to less-boring presentations!

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Start any presentation with confidence: simon’s expert tips and tricks, let’s face it: getting started is half the battle. by following simon’s advice, you'll not only prepare less and stress less but also captivate your audience from the very beginning..

• October 23, 2023
• Employee Development , Leadership Training , Professional Growth
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Knowing how to start a presentation is a critical skill when delivering a speech to any audience or any setting, whether it’s a boardroom, an auditorium, a classroom, or even a rehearsal dinner. Not only does a successful start help settle your nerves, but it also builds confidence. 

Surprisingly, over 70% of Americans fear public speaking more than death itself, as revealed by a study conducted by the National Institutes of Mental Health . This fear can be traced back to our evolutionary past, says The Harvard Business Review , where being watched triggered a survival instinct to avoid predators. However, with the right techniques and strategies, you can overcome this fear and engage your audience right from the beginning. By implementing effective opening techniques, you can capture attention, establish credibility, and set the tone for a memorable and impactful presentation.

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With the guidance of Simon Sinek , a renowned public speaker with more than a billion views, we’ll share valuable tips on how to start a presentation the right way, instantly engaging your audience and winning them over. So, keep reading and get ready to shine!

And if you’re eager to learn everything about delivering an amazing presentation, including advanced storytelling techniques, practical exercises, and expert PowerPoint advice, don’t miss out on Simon’s bestselling course, The Art of Presenting. Click here to explore it further .

Tip One: Transform your nervousness into excitement

Simon emphasizes the significance of reframing our nervousness as excitement, and he is not alone in this belief. A study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology demonstrates that shifting our mindset from “feeling anxious” to “feeling excited” can have a positive impact on our outlook, making us feel more optimistic, confident, and in control.

As Simon explains, the physiological symptoms of both emotions are nearly identical. It is our mindset and how we choose to interpret these physiological responses within ourselves that can make all the difference. By embracing the idea that you are excited rather than nervous, you can harness that energy in a positive way and captivate your audience right from the beginning.

A simple technique to employ is to look into the mirror and say aloud, “I’m excited!” This small action can go a long way in helping you start your presentation and get into the flow.

Tip Two: Always Start with WHY

If we had to guess, you’ve probably endured countless presentations that begin with the same old boring stuff. “Today, we’ll be discussing the KPIs…” Or, “Hello, my name is Bob, and I will be presenting a comprehensive overview of the quarterly sales data.”

But let’s break free from the monotony! Instead of following the crowd, let’s explore a more captivating approach to starting a presentation. So, how do you start a presentation in a way that truly engages your audience?

According to Simon, the key is to artfully incorporate your WHY. In his bestselling book, Start with WHY , Simon introduces the concept of the Golden Circle , which consists of three layers: your WHATs, your HOW, and your WHY. While all three are important, Simon emphasizes the significance of the WHY. Your WHY is the driving force behind your HOWs and WHATs. It’s your purpose, cause, or belief that sets you apart. (If you’re interested in discovering your WHY,  check out our course here .)

By infusing your presentation with authenticity and purpose, you instantly grab the audience’s attention and create an emotional connection. In fact, one study published by Stanford University has shown that “the top 10% of authentic speakers were considered 1.3 times more trustworthy and 1.3 times more persuasive than the average communicator.”

So, let’s leave the mundane introductions behind and embrace the power of starting with your WHY. It’s time to captivate your audience from the very beginning and make your presentation truly memorable.

Tip Three: How to Choose a First Sentence 

According to Simon, there are several effective ways to start your presentation: with a question, a surprising fact, a bold statement, or by telling a story. These strategies instantly capture the audience’s curiosity and motivate them to pay attention, eagerly seeking answers throughout your presentation. So, how do you start a presentation in a way that truly captivates your audience?

Take, for example, author Susan Cain, who begins her TED Talk on the power of introverts with the line, “When I was nine years old, I went off to summer camp for the first time.” By launching into a personal story that illustrates a key point from her talk, she establishes a connection with the audience right from the start, as they can relate to the shared experience of summer camp.

When it comes to storytelling, specificity is key in capturing your audience’s investment in your message. In fact, a study conducted in 2009 revealed that emotionally engaging narratives inspire post-narrative actions. This means that if you can tell a story that resonates with your audience, they will not only remember your presentation better but also be more inclined to act upon your intended message.

So, when considering how to start a presentation, remember the power of a well-crafted question, a surprising fact, a bold statement, or a compelling story. These techniques will help you grab your audience’s attention and set the stage for a memorable and impactful presentation.

Tip Four: How to Start a Presentation the Wrong Way

You’re Using Jargon

To avoid alienating your audience, refrain from using jargon or technical terms that may not be universally understood. The key to effective communication is making your audience feel included and part of the conversation. Therefore, use familiar terms and take the time to explain any unfamiliar ones, ensuring that everyone feels engaged and included in your presentation.

You’re Memorizing Your Material

Memorization can hinder your ability to connect with your audience authentically and make you sound robotic. Instead, focus on deeply understanding the key concepts and ideas you want to convey, allowing for flexibility and natural conversation during your presentation. Studies have shown that being intimately familiar with your material, rather than relying on memorization, better prepares you to speak confidently and effectively.

You’re Relying Too Much on Your Slides

While slides are a common tool in presentations, it’s important not to rely on them as a crutch. Your visuals should support your message, but it’s your responsibility to deliver it effectively. Depending too heavily on slides can lead to failure if technical issues arise or if you forget necessary equipment. Being well-versed in your topic reduces the need to rely on slides to speak on your behalf.

You’re Expecting Perfection

Perfection is unattainable, and it’s important to remember that mistakes can happen to anyone, including yourself. Whether it’s a technical glitch or a momentary lapse, embrace the fact that we are all human and errors are a natural part of the process. As Simon can attest, nobody is immune to making mistakes.

Tip Five: How to Present Your First PowerPoint Slide

Using slides and visual aids can enhance your presentation, as 65% of individuals learn best visually. To make a strong first impression, create a visually appealing slide that provides a clear overview of your topic. Avoid clutter and excessive text, opting for graphics and key points that engage your audience. Remember, knowing how to start a presentation can be daunting, but with the right mindset and preparation, you can succeed. 

DO This: 

Now It’s Time to Take Action!

If you’re eager to become a master presenter, there’s a whole world of skills and techniques waiting for you to explore. Dive deeper into the art of presenting by enrolling in The Art of Presenting with Simon course. This comprehensive program covers everything from preparation and storytelling to creating impactful slides. Embark on your journey towards delivering unforgettable presentations today!

Good luck on your presentation journey!

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Home Blog Presentation Ideas How to Start a Presentation: 5 Strong Opening Slides and 12 Tricks To Test

How to Start a Presentation: 5 Strong Opening Slides and 12 Tricks To Test

Knowing how to start a presentation is crucial: if you fail to capture the audience’s attention right off the bat, your entire presentation will flop. Few listeners will stick with you to the end and retain what you have told.

That is mildly unpleasant when you are doing an in-house presentation in front of your colleagues. But it can become utterly embarrassing when you present in front of larger audiences (e.g., at a conference) or worse – delivering a sales presentation to prospective customers.

Here is how most of us begin a presentation: give an awkward greeting, thank everyone for coming, clear our throats, tap the mic, and humbly start to mumble about our subject. The problem with such an opening performance? It effectively kills and buries even the best messages.

Table of Contents

• The Classic Trick: Open a Presentation with an Introduction
• Open a Presentation with a Hook
• Begin with a Captivating Visual
• Ask a “What if…” Question
• Use the Word “Imagine”
• Leverage The Curiosity Gap
• The Power of Silence
• Facts as Weapons of Communication
• Fact vs. Myths
• The Power of Music
• Physical Activity
• Acknowledging a Person

How to Start a PowerPoint Presentation The Right Way

Let’s say you have all of your presentation slides polished up (in case you don’t, check our quick & effective PowerPoint presentation design tips first). Your presentation has a clear storyline and agenda. Main ideas are broken into bite-sized statements for your slides and complemented with visuals. All you have left is to figure out how you begin presenting.

The best way is to appeal to and invoke certain emotions in your audience – curiosity, surprise, fear, or good old amusements. Also, it is recommended to present your main idea in the first 30 seconds of the presentation. And here’s how it’s done.

1. The Classic Trick: Open a Presentation with an Introduction

When you don’t feel like reinventing the wheel, use a classic trick from the book – start with a quick personal introduction. Don’t want to sound as boring as everyone else with your humble “Hi, I’m John, the head of the Customer Support Department”? Great, because we are all about promoting effective presentation techniques (hint: using a dull welcome slide isn’t one of them).

Here’s how to introduce yourself in a presentation the right way.

a. Use a link-back memory formula

To ace a presentation, you need to connect with your audience. The best way to do so is by throwing in a simple story showing who you are, where you came from, and why your words matter.

The human brain loves a good story, and we are more inclined to listen and retain the information told this way. Besides, when we can relate to the narrator (or story hero), we create an emotional bond with them, and, again – become more receptive, and less skeptical of the information that is about to be delivered.

So here are your presentation introduction lines:

My name is Joanne, and I’m the Head of Marketing at company XYZ. Five years ago I was working as a waitress, earning $10/hour and collecting rejection letters from editors. About ten letters every week landed to my mailbox. You see, I love words, but decent publisher thought mine were good enough. Except for the restaurant owner. I was very good at up-selling and recommending dishes to the customers. My boss even bumped my salary to $15/hour as a token of appreciation for my skill. And this made me realize: I should ditch creative writing and focus on copywriting instead. After loads of trial and error back in the day, I learned how to write persuasive copy. I was no longer getting rejection letters. I was receiving thousands of emails saying that someone just bought another product from our company. My sales copy pages generated over $1,500,000 in revenue over last year. And I want to teach you how to do the same”

b. Test the Stereotype Formula

This one’s simple and effective as well. Introduce yourself by sharing an obvious stereotype about your profession. This cue will help you connect with your audience better, make them chuckle a bit, and set a lighter mood for the speech to follow.

Here’s how you can frame your intro:

“My name is ___, and I am a lead software engineer at our platform [Your Job Title]. And yes, I’m that nerdy type who never liked presenting in front of large groups of people. I would rather stay in my den and write code all day long. [Stereotype]. But hey, since I have mustered enough courage…let’s talk today about the new product features my team is about to release….”

After sharing a quick, self-deprecating line, you transition back to your topic, reinforcing the audience’s attention . Both of these formulas help you set the “mood” for your further presentation, so try using them interchangeably on different occasions.

2. Open a Presentation with a Hook

Wow your audience straight off the bat by sharing something they would not expect to hear. This may be one of the popular first-time presentation tips but don’t rush to discard it.

Because here’s the thing: psychologically , we are more inclined to pay attention whenever presented with an unexpected cue. When we know what will happen next – someone flips the switch, and lights turn on – we don’t really pay much attention to that action.

But when we don’t know what to expect next – e.g., someone flips the switch and a bell starts ringing – we are likely to pay more attention to what will happen next. The same goes for words: everyone loves stories with unpredictable twists. So begin your presentation with a PowerPoint introduction slide or a line that no one expects to hear.

Here are a few hook examples you can swipe:

a. Open with a provocative statement

It creates an instant jolt and makes the audience intrigued to hear what you are about to say next – pedal back, continue with the provocation, or do something else that they will not expect.

“You will live seven and a half minutes longer than you would have otherwise, just because you watched this talk.”

That’s how Jane McGonigal opens one of her TED talks . Shocking and intriguing, right?

b. Ask a rhetorical, thought-provoking question

Seasoned presenters know that one good practice is to ask a question at the beginning of a presentation to increase audience engagement. Rhetorical questions have a great persuasive effect – instead of answering aloud, your audience will silently start musing over it during your presentation. They aroused curiosity and motivated the audience to remain attentive, as they did want to learn your answer to this question.

To reinforce your message throughout the presentation, you can further use the Rhetorical Triangle Concept – a rhetorical approach to building a persuasive argument based on Aristotle’s teachings.

c. Use a bold number, factor stat

A clean slide with some mind-boggling stat makes an undeniably strong impact. Here are a few opening statement examples you can use along with your slide:

• Shock them: “We are effectively wasting over $1.2 billion per year on producing clothes no one will ever purchase”
• Create empathy: “Are you among the 20% of people with undiagnosed ADHD?”
• Call to arms: “58% of marketing budgets are wasted due to poor landing page design. Let’s change this!”
• Spark curiosity: “Did you know that companies who invested in speech recognition have seen a 13% increase in ROI within just 3 years?”

3. Begin with a Captivating Visual

Compelling visuals are the ABC of presentation design – use them strategically to make an interesting statement at the beginning and throughout your presentation. Your first presentation slide can be text-free. Communicate your idea with a visual instead – a photo, a chart, an infographic, or another graphics asset.

Visuals are a powerful medium for communication as our brain needs just 13 milliseconds to render what our eyes see, whereas text comprehension requires more cognitive effort.

Relevant images add additional aesthetic appeal to your deck, bolster the audience’s imagination, and make your key message instantly more memorable.

Here’s an intro slide example. You want to make a strong presentation introduction to global pollution.  Use the following slide to reinforce the statement you share:

“Seven of nine snow samples taken on land in Antarctica found chemicals known as PFAs, which are used in industrial products and can harm wildlife”

Source: Reuters

4. Ask a “What if…” Question

The “what if” combo carries massive power. It gives your audience a sense of what will happen if they choose to listen to you and follow your advice.  Here are a few presentations with starting sentences + slides to illustrate this option:

Alternatively, you can work your way to this point using different questions:

• Ask the audience about their “Why.” Why are they attending this event, or why do they find this topic relevant?
• Use “How” as your question hook if you plan to introduce a potential solution to a problem.
• If your presentation has a persuasion factor associated, use “When” as a question to trigger the interest of the audience on, for example, when they are planning to take action regarding the topic being presented (if we talk about an inspirational presentation).

5. Use the Word “Imagine”

“Imagine,” “Picture This,” and “Think of” are better word choices for when you plan to begin your presentation with a quick story.

Our brain loves interacting with stories. In fact, a captivating story makes us more collaborative. Scientists have discovered that stories with tension during narrative make us:

• Pay more attention,
• Share emotions with the characters and even mimic the feelings and behaviors of those characters afterward.

That’s why good action movies often feel empowering and make us want to change the world too. By incorporating a good, persuasive story with a relatable hero, you can also create that “bond” with your audience and make them more perceptive to your pitch – donate money to support the cause; explore the solution you are offering, and so on.

6. Leverage The Curiosity Gap

The curiosity gap is another psychological trick frequently used by marketers to solicit more clicks, reads, and other interactions from the audience. In essence, it’s the trick you see behind all those clickbait, Buzzfeed-style headlines:

Not everyone is a fan of such titles. But the truth is – they do the trick and instantly capture attention. The curiosity gap sparks our desire to dig deeper into the matter. We are explicitly told that we don’t know something important, and now we crave to change that. Curiosity is an incredibly strong driving force for action – think Eve, think Pandora’s Box.

So consider incorporating these attention grabbers for your presentation speech to shock the audience. You can open with one, or strategically weave them in the middle of your presentation when you feel like your audience is getting tired and may lose their focus.

Here’s how you can use the curiosity gap during your presentation:

• Start telling a story, pause in the middle, and delay the conclusion of it.
• Withhold the key information (e.g., the best solution to the problem you have described) for a bit – but not for too long, as this can reduce the initial curiosity.
• Introduce an idea or concept and link it with an unexpected outcome or subject – this is the best opening for a presentation tip.

7. The Power of Silence

What would you do if you attended a presentation in which the speaker remains silent for 30 seconds after the presentation starts? Just the presenter, standing in front of the audience, in absolute silence.

Most likely, your mind starts racing with thoughts, expecting something of vital importance to be disclosed. The surprise factor with this effect is for us to acknowledge things we tend to take for granted.

It is a powerful resource to introduce a product or to start an inspirational presentation if followed by a fact.

8. Facts as Weapons of Communication

In some niches, using statistics as the icebreaker is the best method to retain the audience’s interest.

Say your presentation is about climate change. Why not introduce a not-so-common fact, such as the amount of wool that can be produced out of oceanic plastic waste per month? And since you have to base your introduction on facts, research manufacturers that work with Oceanic fabrics from recycled plastic bottles .

Using facts helps to build a better narrative, and also gives leverage to your presentation as you are speaking not just from emotional elements but from actually recorded data backed up by research.

9. Fact vs. Myths

Related to our previous point, we make quite an interesting speech if we contrast a fact vs. a myth in a non-conventional way: using a myth to question a well-accepted fact, then introducing a new point of view or theory, backed on sufficient research, that proves the fact wrong. This technique, when used in niches related to academia, can significantly increase the audience’s interest, and it will highlight your presentation as innovative.

Another approach is to debunk a myth using a fact. This contrast immediately piques interest because it promises to overturn commonly held beliefs, and people naturally find it compelling when their existing knowledge is put to the test. An example of this is when a nutritionist wishes to speak about how to lose weight via diet, and debunks the myth that all carbohydrates are “bad”.

10. The Power of Music

Think about a presentation that discusses the benefits of using alternative therapies to treat anxiety, reducing the need to rely on benzodiazepines. Rather than going technical and introducing facts, the presenter can play a soothing tune and invite the audience to follow an exercise that teaches how to practice breathing meditation . Perhaps, in less than 2 minutes, the presenter can accomplish the goal of exposing the advantages of this practice with a live case study fueled by the proper ambiance (due to the music played in the beginning).

11. Physical Activity

Let’s picture ourselves in an in-company presentation about workspace wellness. For this company, the sedentary lifestyle their employees engage in is a worrying factor, so they brought a personal trainer to coach the employees on a basic flexibility routine they can practice in 5 minutes after a couple of hours of desk time.

“Before we dive in, let’s all stand up for a moment.” This simple instruction breaks the ice and creates a moment of shared experience among the attendees. You could then lead them through a brief stretching routine, saying something like, “Let’s reach up high, and stretch out those muscles that get so tight sitting at our desks all day.” With this action, you’re not just talking about workplace wellness, you’re giving them a direct, personal experience of it.

This approach has several advantages. Firstly, it infuses energy into the room and increases the oxygen flow to the brain, potentially boosting the audience’s concentration and retention. Secondly, it sets a precedent that your presentation is not going to be a standard lecture, but rather an interactive experience. This can raise the level of anticipation for what’s to come, and make the presentation a topic for future conversation between coworkers.

12. Acknowledging a Person

How many times have you heard the phrase: “Before we begin, I’d like to dedicate a few words to …” . The speaker could be referring to a mentor figure, a prominent person in the local community, or a group of people who performed charity work or obtained a prize for their hard work and dedication. Whichever is the reason behind this, acknowledgment is a powerful force to use as a method of starting a presentation. It builds a connection with the audience, it speaks about your values and who you admire, and it can transmit what the conversation is going to be about based on who the acknowledged person is.

Closing Thoughts

Now you know how to start your presentation – you have the opening lines, you have the slides to use, and you can browse even more attractive PowerPoint presentation slides and templates on our website. Also, we recommend you visit our article on how to make a PowerPoint Presentation to get familiarized with the best tactics for professional presentation design and delivery, or if you need to save time preparing your presentation, we highly recommend you check our AI Presentation Maker to pair these concepts with cutting-edge slide design powered by AI.

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How to Write an Effective Story For Your Presentation

A tactic as old as time. Storytelling has been around for ages, passed down from generation to generation, to help people understand different things, events, and ideas. Research suggests that we’re hardwired to listen to stories, so it’s no wonder that it’s used in every culture. In fact, neuroscientist, Uri Hasson, conducted a fMRI study and concluded that storytelling causes the neurons of an audience to sync with the storyteller's brain. Crazy, right? This implies that their brain is experiencing the same emotions as the presenter in real-time. The power of storytelling skills is highly underrated. 

Some of the benefits of storytelling include relatability, it’s attention grabbing, evokes emotion, can be more persuasive than the normal delivery of information, builds anticipation, and of course, it’s memorable. Regardless of your message or idea, storytelling techniques really help to drive your point home. If you’re thinking that the above sounds like a fool-proof strategy for presentations, you’re not wrong.

Businesses have started crafting stories around the message of their presentation to better engage their audience. It’s important to remember that when you’re presenting to a live audience, you’re selling your story not your product. As such, writing an effective story can make or break how your presentation is received. With a clear narrative structure, your audience will be more engaged, inspired, and more likely to remember what you’ve said to them after they’re gone.

We know you're all wondering how to be a better storyteller, so here are five storytelling techniques to keep in mind to help you write a more effective story for your next presentation. 

#1. Craft the beginning

How you start your presentation matters as it sets the tone for the remainder of your story. This means it’s okay to ditch that long-winded introduction that puts your audience to sleep. Instead, it’s important to grab their attention from the get-go by explaining life as the audience knows it. Your message should be tailored to them. What do they already know about this topic, and do they care about it? How will it affect them? The beginning should be relatable, and go after their specific pain points that your product, service, or business will solve later in the presentation. You may also want to lead with one of your key points or takeaways— which you can elaborate on later— to hook them early on. However you decide to start your story just make sure it’s authentic, evokes emotion, and builds trust within the first 60 seconds. 

#2. Create a clear narrative

When crafting your narrative it’s important to know your audience. What are their pain points, values, and opinions? If you know your audience you can tailor your narrative to resonate with them, so that they can feel like the hero (or heroine) of the story. Afterall, every story has its own hero, challenge, journey, and ending— so your presentation should, too. Your story should share the journey of your business, the dramatics of how it overcame obstacles, how it fills a gap in the industry, and why it’s the best option for your audience compared to competitors. Telling your story in chronological order with a clear beginning, middle, and end helps the audience to remember and retell the story more easily.

Regardless of your message, a clear narrative will 1) help you feel confident in where your presentation is headed, and 2) keep your audience more connected and engaged. 

#3. Define the main point or key action you want to achieve

The middle of your presentation is the meat of your story. Everything you say should relate back to your main point or a key action you’re hoping to achieve. In your business presentation, your main point might be a problem that the audience has to overcome— the solution being your company. Your story is ultimately building up to your call-to-action at the end of the presentation. How is your narrative supporting that CTA that you’re hoping to achieve? Define these main points and key actions early on and craft your message around them. 

#4. Engage the audience with dynamic animation

An important part of every story is the delivery. Your message may be air-tight, but if your delivery falls short it could jeopardize your entire presentation. Engage your audience and evoke emotion with dynamic animations that help bring your story to life. In Beautiful.ai we have a handful of presentation slide templates with customizable, dynamic animation options to help liven up your message. Using visual aids will help keep the audience more connected and encourage memory retention. 

We know that one size doesn’t always fit all, so we give you the power to decide how your animations will build on each slide . You control the speed, the order, and whether they build automatically or advance with a click. Depending on your content, and talking points, you may select a slow, normal, or fast animation speed. For example, if you want to elaborate on each point before the next one appears, you might consider a slower build so that you have time to narrate as the slide progresses. Regardless of which animations you choose, they’re a fool-proof way to add some energy to your story. 

#5. Close with a powerful ending

How you leave the audience is just as important (if not more) as how you greet them. Forget the traditional “thank yous” and leave them with something more memorable instead. Drop a shocking or bold statistic that will stay with your audience long after they’ve left the auditorium. And don’t be afraid to hit them with a plot-twist at the end of your story. The audience needs to feel inspired to take action before you leave them with your CTA. Make sure the audience knows how much better, or easier, their lives will be if they adopt your product or idea. 

Jordan Turner

Jordan is a Bay Area writer, social media manager, and content strategist.

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Every Great Presentation Needs a Story—Here’s How You Tell One

July 7, 2020

Looking to create your next presentation that can leave a lasting impression? Key to this is understanding the role of stories and how different story structures can be applied depending on your purpose.

In this blog post, we’ll be covering:

• The importance of stories
• Why stories are key to a great presentation
• 5 story structures, when to use them and examples that show them in action

What’s the importance of stories?

Stories turn information into a narrative and narratives get people to act. 

Think of it this way—if information were represented as dots on a page, then the story is the string that connects them together. Without a story, you have puzzle pieces, but you haven’t formed a picture yet. Ever been handed a set of jigsaw puzzles without knowing the full image to work towards? 

Well, delivering a presentation without a story sort of feels like that. It leaves you feeling lost.

The thing is, stories have been around for as long as we’ve lived. On a large scale, it’s how culture gets passed down and how knowledge gets shared. Think family traditions, presidential speeches, and TED Talks. Also, think...what’s the one thing they all have in common? They’re memorable. 

Humans enjoy narratives because the very process of identifying with a narrative means we are showing empathy and emotion towards it. In fact, Uri Hassan (a fantastic neuroscientist) discovered that a great storyteller literally causes the neurons of an audience to closely sync with the storyteller’s brain. That’s basically the equivalent of “getting on someone’s level”.

Why should I think about storytelling when designing a presentation?

“Do I really need to tell a story when I’m creating a presentation to secure a brand partnership? What about for a sales report? To present quarterly earnings?”

Yes, yes, and yes. 

We get that some stories are bigger than others, but at the core of any presentation, you’re trying to explain something .

If graphs indicate that sales have been going down across the board, there’s going to be a story in there about why this is happening, what you plan to start or stop doing, and how things change. Without this narrative context, the data has no way of being interpreted.

On the other end of the scale, some stories are expansive and inspire collective change.

When BMO, a Canadian bank, decided to make massive technology and business transformations across their 900 branches, it needed a compelling reason to answer every employee’s question of, “why should I change what I’m doing?”

So BMO hired a communications agency that built them a 50 slide presentation, delivered by the transformation leader to all of its senior leadership team members. In this presentation, there was a story about time . That it was the right time to make a change. That if the business wanted to improve their customer’s experience, it needed change to respect their time more. That was how the presentation sold the idea to everyone in the room that day.

It’s also important to keep in mind that stories can be told both in spoken form and through visuals. While used for different purposes (words help elaborate on what visuals can quickly communicate), both forms work hand-in-hand to reinforce the same narrative.

5 different types of stories to structure your presentation

Depending on the purpose of your presentation, you may need to explore the use of different types of stories. To help you decide which to choose, here are 5 compelling story types and examples of when they might be most suitable:

1. Future Stories

This story technique focuses on a time when the problem at hand has already been solved and the rewards achieved. 

It places the audience in the mindset of thinking about future possibilities in a motivational way. The more realistic and grounded in reality the story of the future can be told, the more likely the audience will feel the tangible results. 

You can tell future stories in two ways: by focusing on the possibility of a great future and how it can be achieved, or by focusing on the possibility of a bad future and how it can be avoided.

When to use this

• At the start of an investor pitch, state the possibilities that can be achieved with your product/service upfront in order to get the audience hooked on the rest of your presentation.
• To move people into action with a sense of urgency created.

See it in action

Bill Gates begins his talk by describing an impending risk of a deadly global virus killing over 10 million in upcoming decades. Through this, he creates a sense of urgency that allows him to deliver the message of needing to plan and create preventive measures starting today.

2. Converging Ideas 

A presentation that uses converging ideas shows how different people’s thinking came together to form one product or idea. It shows the origin of that idea and the process for how it was formed.

The story starts with the first thought, which is then followed by the second, third, and however many others there are. Then, it ties all the thoughts together and illustrates how they unite and contribute to the final idea.

• To show the strength of a team/partnership.
• To show the idea was built on deliberate thinking and full considerations.
• When Introducing a new product/idea, or when selling it.

John Bohannon’s talk begins by explaining how the idea in his presentation came to him while speaking with a physicist friend of his. Uniting their thoughts together, he describes the power of using dancers to visualize complex ideas (though we know not everyone has a team of dancers ready to work with, we can still apply this idea in accessible ways by using music or visuals to simplify a complex message).

3. Hero’s Journey

Commonly used in folk stories, it follows a protagonist who sets out on a journey. Only after conquering obstacles along the way are they able to return home with new-found wisdom.

This story technique shows your audience how you came to gain the knowledge that’s in your presentation. It explains the process for them, from your perspective, and allows the message to come alive through human experiences involving trials and tribulations.

It’s a humanizing technique that creates a sense of relatability and builds trust.

• When you need to establish credibility with a new audience upfront.
• At the start of a workshop that aims to teach (to show you can “walk the talk”).
• To demonstrate the success of a product/service by featuring someone’s struggle before using the product/service vs. how they feel after.

Nicole Bishop kicks off her elevator pitch by speaking to her own health-related experiences before introducing her AI tool, Quartolio , that analyzes millions of articles, trials and patents that can be used by specialists. Through this, she shows herself as knowledgeable on the topic and intimately familiar with the space:

4. Petal Structure

This style leans on one central message that’s being reinforced by multiple ideas or speakers. For instance, It’s helpful in situations where an audience might need some convincing to believe or take action on what’s being presented. By being shown multiple points of view that support the same message, the audience can feel the importance or weight of it.

• When you have a group of speakers who are sharing the same message.
• To show that multiple people have agreed on something, therefore, it holds weight.

At the beginning of Dave Visan’s pitch for his app, Brightwheel , used to revolutionize early education, he shows how kids, parents, and teachers all struggle with the current system. Even more impressively, when showing how kids are struggling, he plays three clips of different children all saying they don’t know what they got out of school that day. Visan successfully uses the petal structure twice (once reinforced by visuals!) all within a minute to drive his point home.

5. Sparklines 

The name of this technique (which shares a name with small line charts, but used for a different purpose), alludes to the visual mapping of the feelings evoked from a presentation:

By fluctuating between hope and reality, this type of presentation identifies current day challenges and helps your audience envision a world where that challenge is defeated.

Rhythm is important here. Note that there is an up and down motion throughout. This is intended to not overwhelm the audience with too much of a future outlook so that it feels removed from reality.

The last step in this presentation technique is to (literally) end on a high note. To leave audiences with a sense that the future outlook is near and can be reached.

• For longer presentations when you have the time to build up momentum. 
• Long-form speeches that empower you to radically shift the audiences’ way of thinking.
• Large product releases feature a number of substantial changes.

See it in action:

When Steve Jobs introduces the world to the iPod for the first time, he compares a number of features (such as storage space, device size, and download speed) but does so in a way where he goes back and forth between two worlds—where we are (with CD players) and where we could be (with iPods). Only at the very end does he reveal the iPod in physical form, which is received by a delighted round of applause. ‍

Bringing it together: building your next presentation with a story

The next time you create a presentation, think about how the role of a story can elevate it that much more. 

Before you put these story structures into action, there are key things you should know first: 

• Who is your audience?
• What do they know?
• What do they care about?
• How do you want them to feel by the end of your presentation?

When you have these answers down, get creative and explore which story type works best for you. Also, don’t be afraid to combine different stories together (done authentically, this can be really powerful)!

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Need help creating that presentation template or pitch deck for your company? Zacht Studios is a team of skilled creatives focused on company storytelling and fundraising.

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Start Your Presentation Off With a Story: How and Why

When you present in front of a group, you want to communicate as quickly as possible:

• “This is relevant to your problem, needs, and interests…so it’s worth paying attention to.”  
• “This is not the typical dry, pedantic presentation you’re accustomed to.”  

Sending this signal in the beginning not only helps you grab the audience’s attention, it helps shift their emotional state to a more learning-friendly one, and…it helps them bond to you.

Whether you are presenting at a conference, a seminar, or a company meeting, starting out with a story helps you create this effect.

The Pain and Promise Story is one of the best ways to start off your presentation.

It packs a punch because it pokes the listener where it hurts. It reminds them of the pain that plagues them around the problem you are about to discuss. Thus, it grabs them in a very visceral, emotional way.

The Promise component of the Pain and Promise Story paints a picture of what’s possible if the audience listens and applies the  ideas, solution, or product you are about to discuss.

The combination of Pain and Promise also helps them bond to you because it says “I feel your pain. I understand the challenges you face, and…I’m here to help.”

In a way, the Pain and Promise Story is like the “before and after pictures” you see in infomercials or weight loss ads. It makes them acutely aware of the “before picture” of their situation, and then shows them an “after picture” of what can happen if they listen.

In this 3 minute video, you will see an example of a Pain and Promise Story. This was how I opened a program titled Tell a Better Story. Become More Interesting. Grow Your Business . My audience was entrepreneurs, consultants, and small business owners. As you watch the video, ask yourself:

• Why did he start off with this story?  
• What common Pain experienced by most, if not all, of the audience, does the story tap into?  
• What’s the Promise, the “why you should listen to me”?

But Wait…There’s More

When I thought about how to best pique the audience’s interest, I decided to add one more opening story. It was about a recent experience involving someone engaging me in a one-on-one presentation about his business solution. His presentation left me feeling bored and frustrated, because he presented all kinds of intricate details about his product and process—which I didn’t need to know nor cared to know.

What he didn’t do was tell me a story about what important problem his solution helped and the difference it made—i.e. he didn’t tell a Pain and Promise Story.

 Here are two questions for you to add to the above questions:

• Why do you think I included that story in the beginning, rather than only tell the presentation story?  
• What might my telling that story accomplish?

Putting This Into Action

Make a list of Pain and Promise Stories you could use to open up your presentations, whether they are to a group or one-on-one. Then, run them by someone you respect and ask them which ones best communicate the value of your message and are most likely to hook the audience.

Note: for an example of starting off a presentation with a Promise Story and an example that shows teaching stories are everywhere, check out How I Got a Skunk to Start Off My Presentation

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7 Dynamic Ways to Start a Presentation [With Examples]

Of course, we’ve all been there as a speaker. First, we design a powerful presentation. Then, we nervously walk out onto a stage or into the front of the room. The audience stares with skepticism written all over their faces. This stoic crowd has no patience for speakers who waste their time. And their demeanor is showing that fact right now. In a timid voice, we start with a simple, “Good morning.” We get no response from the audience — no warm welcome at all. As a result, our nervousness increases dramatically.

The good news is that your speech doesn’t have to start this way. Your first words will create first impressions.

So, in this session, I’m going to give you the best way to start a successful presentation so you can win over the audience members. Below are a few of my favorite ways to start a speech that will help you capture the attention of your audience and get even the most stoic crowd to want more from you.

Here is the list of effective presentation openers.

7 Dynamic Ways to Start Your Next Presentation.

• Give Your Presentation Summary and Conclusion First.
• Start the Presentation with a Compelling Story.
• Use a Startling Statistic to Start a Presentation.
• A Funny or Motivational Quote or One-Liner.
• Start with an Opinion Asking Question.
• Make a Powerful or Shocking Statement to Start a Speech.
• Arouse Curiosity with a Hook.
• A Bonus Way to Start a Presentation Is to Add Showmanship.

How to Start a Presentation and Help Your Audience Remember Your Content.

(1) give a summary and conclusion at the beginning of a presentation..

As a speaker, you have a lot going against you. The biggest challenge is that most of the people who are in your audience would really rather be somewhere else. So starting with the conclusion gives them a reason to tune in and pay attention to the content.

TV shows and movies do this a lot. The first scene in Titanic is 90-year-old Rose wheeling onto the salvage ship. Immediately, she asked the Captain to see her painting. “Wasn’t I a dish?”

We all know the story of Titanic, but by starting 70 years into the future, we already know that somehow, Rose was going to survive the tragedy. We pay attention because we want to see how she did it.

You probably also recall Netflix series that show a quick introduction and then a flashback to an earlier time.

You can create the same effect in your presentation introduction by making your title a conclusion that you want the audience to draw. Then, lay out each main point that will help them come to that conclusion.

For instance, “My topic today is Five Ways to Get Your Executives to Increase Your Department Budget, and the items we will cover are…” Of course, this technique works best when your title is a result that your audience really wants.

This is an easy way to start a presentation. You can use a single PowerPoint presentation slide as a visual aid to capture the audience’s attention right away! (FYI, you can also use this technique at the end of a presentation.)

More details about this are in Start with a Great Title .

(2) Start the Presentation with a Compelling Story

I taught a private presentation class for Mitsubishi once. And I could tell walking into the room that this was going to be a tough crowd. The culture of the predominately Japanese company is fairly quiet and conservative. Most often, when I introduce myself to class members, people are warm and friendly. Since I’m a guest in their office, most try to make me feel at home.

By the way, the Mitsubishi organizer did this here as well. However, as the participants came into the room, each walked in without saying a word. Each sat down, opened their laptops, and quietly began typing on their keyboards.

I did my best to try to get them to open up. But very few of them were laughing at my jokes or smiling at me as I asked them questions. (Tough crowd.)

So, when I started the class, I knew I needed something that would help the group relate to me. I decided to go into a fairly detailed version of an experience where I totally bombed a speech. I added a lot of self-deprecating humor to the story. Afterward, the mood in the room lightened quite a bit. It was an easy way to get the audience to feel more at ease and become more relatable to them.

Stories are easy additions to any speech. For instance, if you are giving a project report, you can start with a memorable event that occurred on the project since the last meeting. Or, if you are giving a financial report where profit is up, just give a great example of something that caused profit to increase.

(3) Or You Could Use a Startling Statistic to Start a Presentation.

By doing a little research, you can often find a good (and or startling) statistic that can capture attention quickly. You can also create a good introduction by phrasing the statistic as a provocative statement.

For instance, let’s say you are giving a financial presentation where revenue for your company was up 2.5% last quarter. You might look up the statistics for your industry as a whole in the same quarter. Then, you can start your speech with that data. “The electronics industry as a whole was up 3.4% last quarter. However, our company underperformed the industry with only a 2.5% increase in revenue.”

The easiest way to find statistics about your topic is to just do a Google search [Your Topic} followed by the word “statistic”.

Here Are a Few Examples of Using Google to Get Shocking Statistics.

I’ll give some examples. I just did a Google search for “Popular Ted Talks” and came up with an article about the Top 25 Most Shared Ted Talk videos . I just pasted the names of the talks into Google with the word “statistic” added and this is what I came up with.

• Does School Kill Creativity? According to the Adobe® State of Create global benchmark study , 8 in 10 people feel that unlocking creativity is critical to economic growth and more than half of those surveyed feel that creativity is being stifled by their education systems.
• Your Body Language May Shape Who You Are – We receive 82% of information from what we see, 11% from what we hear, and only 7% by all the other senses combined. ( The Body Language Info-graphic .)
• How Great Leaders Inspire Action – 84% of organizations anticipate a shortfall in leaders within the next five years. ( 13 Shocking Leadership Development Statistics .)

So, it is really easy to create compelling statistics to get your audience to think differently about your topic just as you begin to speak.

Bonus Tip: Combine More than One of these Intros for Even More Impact.

You can combine the last two tips for even more impact. Place a statistic along with a story of how you found the statistic at the beginning of your presentation. This is a great way to start your presentation. “I remember watching Jerry Seinfeld do a stand-up bit. He mentioned that the fear of public speaking was the number one fear in America. Then he looked down the list and saw that the fear of death was number five. So, you are five times more likely to rather be in the casket than up giving the eulogy at a funeral.”

The key to each of these first tips is that they increase the retention of information for your audience.

For instance, using the Summary technique, you give your audience an introduction with your presentation topic and key points. Then as you go through each point, they hear each one again. Finally, you summarize the points one more time at the end of your presentation. The audience is now more likely to remember your important points. because of this subtle repetition.

A good story will also increase retention. Stories have a way of creating visual images in the mind of the audience that is more memorable than just facts alone. A startling statistic gets the audience to think, “Is that really true?” so they pay attention more.

Quick Presentation Starters to Capture Attention

(4) a funny or motivational quote or one-liner..

“There are two types of speakers: Those who get nervous and those who are liars.” — Mark Twain

A powerful quote is an effective way to make a positive first impression. It also adds a little humor. You can find quotes like this for your presentations as well. Just like with statistics, you can Google your topic with the word “quotes” to get ideas.

• Does School Kill Creativity? – “Creativity is the greatest expression of liberty.” — Bryant H. McGill
• Your Body Language May Shape Who You Are. – “Language is a more recent technology. Your body language, your eyes, your energy will come through to your audience before you even start speaking.” — Peter Guber
• How Great Leaders Inspire Action. – “A leader is the one, who knows the way, goes the way and show the way” — John Maxwell

Bonus Tip: Reference a quote, and then add your own take to the quote.

Walt Disney once said, “If you can dream it, you can do it.” But have you ever thought to realize that every single invention ever created by man was once just an idea born from someone’s need?

(5) Start with an Opinion Asking Question.

“In a perfect world, if your team was able to present their ideas to your customers more effectively, what would they be doing that they are not doing now?”

This technique is more challenging for a presenter. You have to be able to take whatever your audience gives you and design a killer presentation on the fly. However, if you have done good research before the meeting, you shouldn’t be surprised by the answers you get.

Keep in mind that only the best presenters use this technique. So, when you add open-ended questions to your speech, you will increase your stature as a speaker as well.

By the way, the question should be open-ended, meaning that the audience is giving you their opinions. Rhetorical questions and show of hands questions can backfire. Your audience may think you are trying to manipulate them. So, the important thing to remember is to ask a question that asks for the opinion of the audience members. That way, as they answer, everyone can be correct..

(6) Make a Powerful or Shocking Statement to Start a Speech.

I will then follow this statement with a list of different tips that people try that don’t work really well. (Things like picturing your audience naked.)

The funny thing is that many of the people in the room will question the truthfulness of the statement the first time I say it. It is a bold claim. They don’t confront me, though. However, when I look around the room, I can see the distrust on their faces.

However, as I begin to list the crazy tips one by one, they begin to realize the truthfulness of the statement. Internally, the checklist sounds like this…

• To reduce nervousness, you should pretend your audience is naked. (Man, he’s right. I tried that. It doesn’t work.)
• You should memorize your speech word-for-word. Actually, if you lose your place when reciting the speech, you just get more nervous. (That one is true too.)
• You should practice in front of a mirror or record yourself speaking. Actually, you are your own worst critic. You will nitpick every little thing that you do wrong. (Yup, I’ve done that one too. Wow, maybe he’s right. Those things don’t work at all.)

Another shocking statement I use is to foreshadow a future behavior in the speech. When I lead team activities, I often have them play a game to divide into teams. So, I might start the presentation with, “In less than 15 minutes, some of you chivalrous men who opened a door for a young lady when she came into the room will actually be chicken-winging that woman to take something from her.” Of course, when something like that actually happens, everyone erupts in laughter.

(7) Arouse Curiosity with a Hook.

Talk radio, television news, and reality TV shows do this brilliantly.

I remember years ago watching season one of Survivor. The season winner was an eccentric guy named Richard Hatch, who was a good fisherman, so he fed the group. However, he also did things to keep the other contestants a little off their game. At the start of one of the episodes, Richard was walking along the beach buck-naked with his bottom blurred out by the producers.

I remember doing a double-take when the image came on the screen. (There are some things that you just can’t unsee.) I didn’t particularly ever want to see Hatch’s bare bum ever again. However, I had an eager want to find how the heck this happened.

Talk radio guys do this by saying, “At the bottom of the hour, we’re going to…” The technique is like a cliffhanger. Everyone wants to know how the story will end. Will Ross marry Emily, or will Rachel stop the wedding? Will Jon Snow die of his stab wounds? Ken Jennings has won 74 times in a row on Jeopardy. When will he get beaten? What is going to happen now that DEA agent Hank realizes his brother-in-law broke bad? And finally, who shot J.R.?

How to Easily Add a Hook into the Start of Your Presentation.

This is a fun technique to use when you start a presentation. And there are many different ways to do this, depending on the purpose of your presentation.

For instance, you could tell your compelling story, as I suggested earlier. However, don’t tell the ending. Stop right as you get to the climax. Then tell the ending in your conclusion. (More details about this in How to End a Speech .)

Or, the hook can be a cliffhanger or foreshadowing of something later in the presentation. “As we did this research, we uncovered a single habit that, once we change it, will generate an extra quarter of a million dollars for our company. And I will share that secret with you in my final point.”

I actually do this on my podcast as well. I might start the episode by saying something like, “In the last ten minutes of this episode, I’m going to share with you my best, overall, foolproof presentation opener.”

(Which, by the way, is right now…)

A Bonus Way to Start a Presentation Is to Add Showmanship. (Bonus… Not a Foolproof Way.)

For instance, one time, just after July 4th, my kids had some leftover fireworks. I also had some decorative mailing tubes left over from a failed marketing campaign.

The next morning, I was to speak at a business breakfast. I got to the hotel meeting room before anyone else and filled a trash can with water. Then, I left the can under the presentation table at the front of the room. I stuck one of the sparklers into the top of the mailing tube and waited until my time to speak. The emcee called my name, and I waited at the back of the room. She called my name one more time, and I waited just a bit longer. When she called my name the third time, I lit the sparkler and went rushing to the front of the room.

Of course, the visual aid looked like I was holding a stick of cartoon dynamite. I pulled the trash can from under the table and threw the prop into the can where it sizzled and smoked. The whole audience was looking around like, “What the heck?” I paused and then said, “Do you want to put some sizzle into your presentations?”

Okay, it was cheesy. It was over the top. But it got the whole audience laughing. Everyone in the room remembered who I was and what I did for a living.

A few less over-the-top ways of adding showmanship into your presentation might be…

• Use Boards Instead of Slides . Everyone expects a slideshow, but if you have a compelling board or poster that is in the front of the room when you start, you can create some curiosity about your topic.
• You Could Also Get the Audience to Participate in a Demonstration . I had a saleperson from the Riddell helmet company tell us about a football helmet face-mask that could detach with a simple pencil-like tool. He had a couple of men try to pull the face-mask off the helmet and when they failed, he used the tool to remove the mask with one hand. It was a vivid demonstration.
• Or Just Add a Funny Video . When I teach leadership classes, I often play segments from old Saturday Night Live skits that have the characters doing the exact opposite of what I’m teaching. For instance, I might start a session about avoiding criticism in the workplace with an episode of “Debbie Downer”.

Whatever method that you choose to start your presentation make sure to spend time on developing your content. You don’t want to spend a ton of time creating the perfect opener and then lose the audience with a lackluster presentation afterward.

If You Are Designing a Presentation and Need Help, Reach Out to Us!

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How to Start and End a Presentation: 10 Practical Tips to Grab Attention and Make an Impact

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By Al Boicheva

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No matter how well-crafted and planned the body of your presentation, its impact depends on its opening and ending.  On one hand, you have 30 seconds to grab your audience’s attention so people would be interested in hearing what you have to say. On the other, your ending is what your audience will be left with and will shape how they feel about your presentation and how they’ll remember it. This might be like a lot of pressure but the truth is, it’s easier than it sounds. This is why, in this article, we will help you achieve this and more with 10 practical tips on how to start and end a presentation effectively .

Article overview: The Opening: 5 Tips To Get Your Audience Invested  1. The Hook 2. Transition 3. Personal Story 4. Build Tension with Silence 5. Use Startling Statistics The Ending: 5 Tips To Make an Impact 1. The Rule of Three 2. Come Full Circle 3. Food for Thought Question Ending 4. Inspire with Personal Involvement 5. Make Your Audience Laugh

5 Practical Tips on How to Start a Presentation

Imagine you spent weeks preparing an amazing presentation with lots of valuable insight that you just can’t wait to share with your audience. Unfortunately, only a few minutes in, you notice that most of your viewers are on their phones scrolling and barely paying any attention to what you have to say. What happened?

Presenters and speakers often start with a long introduction. They introduce themselves, share how excited they are, thank the audience for attending, explain what they’re going to speak about in a minute, why the topic is important, etc. This might take only one or two minutes, however, when it comes to presentation,  two minutes without telling anything interesting might result in losing your audience. In fact, you only have 30 seconds to grab your audience’s attention .

This is why, no matter the topic and goal of your presentation, you must always captivate your audience’s attention first. Leave the introductions and summaries for later .

In this section, we’ll talk about ways to hook your audience in the first 30 seconds and get them invested in what you have to say in your presentation.

1. The Hook

Anything unpredictable that catches you off-guard, will get your attention.

This tactic, masterfully named as a metaphor for attracting fish with a juicy worm on a hook, refers to a few-second short story, metaphor, shocking fact, statistics, analogy, controversial statement, or anything unconventional and unexpected that will capture your viewer’s imagination. We’ll have a look at three examples for hooks.

1.1 Bold Claim

“Here’s all you have to know about men and women: women are crazy, men are stupid.” This opening line by stand-up comedy legend George Carlin is a great example of a hook in the form of a bold claim. If you’re confident enough with your presentation and you have a bold claim up to your sleeve, don’t save it for the end. Instead, shoot that bullet confidently the second you start your presentation. It will immediately catch your audience off-guard and you will have it paying attention to your every word after that.

Here are some examples for bold claim starters in presentations and public speaking.

• “What you’re doing right now at this very moment is killing you.” ( Nilofer Merchant )
• “Sadly, in the next 18 minutes when I do our chat, four Americans that are alive will be dead through the food that they eat.” ( Jamie Oliver )
• “I’m going to try to increase the lifespan of every single person in this room by seven and a half minutes. Literally, you will live seven and a half minutes longer than you would have otherwise just because you watched this talk.” ( Jane McGonagall )
• “I don’t want to alarm anybody in this room. However, it’s just come to my attention that the person to your right is a liar.” ( Pamela Meyer )

1.2 Imagine

One of the greatest ways to get attention and start strong is through storytelling. People love stories and are always interested in hearing one. In fact, many presentations may revolve around a story or just use small anecdotes to enhance their message. With this being said, amongst the best methods to create a compelling story is to get your audience involved. To do so, make them imagine themselves in the shoes of the main character. This attention-grabber invites your viewers to create a mental image and get emotionally invested.

Here are examples of speeches starting with the Imagine play:

• “I want you, guys, to imagine that you’re a soldier, running through the battlefield. Now, you’re shot in the leg with a bullet that severs your femoral artery. This bleed is extremely traumatic and can kill you in less than 3 minutes. Unfortunately, by the time a medic actually gets to you, what the medic has on his or her belt can take 5 minutes or more with the application of pressure to stop that type of bleed.” ( Joe Landolina )
• “Imagine a big explosion as you climb through 3000 feet. Imagine a plane full of smoke, imagine an engine going clack-clack-clack-clack-clack. Well, I had a unique seat that day.”( Ric Elias )

1.3. Humourous Twists

Great stories have unexpected plot twists. The best stories, however, have a funny plot twist. Depending on your topic, you can start by telling your story, get your audience in the mood for a serious talk, and then contradict all expectations with a hilarious spin.

• “I need to make a confession at the outset here. A little over 20 years ago I did something that I regret. Something that I’m not particularly proud of. Something that in many ways I wish no one would ever know. But here I feel kind of obliged to reveal. In the late 1980s, in a moment of youthful indiscretion, I went to law school.” ( Daniel Pink )

2. Transition

Your next step would be to make an organic transition between your hook and the main point of your presentation. You can do this seamlessly or by linking directly with “I tell you this, because”, “This brings us to…”. Mohammed Qahtani, for example, does this transition so smoothly, that you’ll never even catch it.

First, as a hook, he chooses to use a prop. He literally goes on stage and lights a cigarette, capitalizing on unpredictability, originality, bold statement, humor, and immediately uses the second hook in the form of a provocative question, asking the audience “You think smoking kills?”. The third thing he does is strike with shocking data that he immediately admits to being fake. He already has the audience on the tip of his fingers. Having accomplished that, Mohammed Qahtani is ready to finally move to the body of the presentation and reveal his actual message.

3. Personal Story

Another storytelling technique besides making people from your audience imagine themselves in a particular situation, is to start with your own personal story. One that is relevant to the topic of your presentation. Your personal involvement and experience give you credibility in the eyes of the viewers, and, as we mentioned, everyone loves to hear an interesting story. This is because stories are relatable, easy to identify with communicating honesty, openness, and connection.

4. Build Tension with Silence

Interestingly enough, saying nothing is also a very powerful option. In fact, standing in front of an audience and confidently keeping silent is as powerful as making a bold statement. Silence will definitely build tension and pique your audience’s curiosity about what you have to say. Be careful, however, as this technique requires knowing your timing.

5. Use Startling Statistics

Sometimes you just can’t think of a story, a joke, or a specific statement that is bold enough. And that’s okay. As a last resort, but also a pretty effective one, you can always rely on curious shocking statistics, related to your topic, to instantly gain people’s attention. Take your time researching curious statistics that will emphasize the seriousness of your topic or as a tool to start over the top.

To sum it up, your presentation opening follows 5 steps:

• Hook: You immediately strike your audience instantly with something interesting and unconventional they wouldn’t expect.
• Transition: You link your hook to your main point.
• Introduction: Once you already have your audience’s attention, you can finally make a very brief introduction with something relevant to your topic.
• Preview: Give your audience a brief preview of what you’re going to talk about.
• Benefits: Tell your audience how will they benefit from listening to your presentation. (ex. “By the end, you will already know how to…”)

Keep in mind, that your opening, consisting of these 5 steps, should be brief and ideally not exceed 2 minutes . If you manage to make a great hook, transition, introduction, review and list the benefits in 2 minutes, you already have your audience’s full attention and they will be listening to your every word throughout the body of your presentation.

5 Practical Tips on How to End a Presentation

Let’s consider this situation. You start watching a movie that instantly opens with a jaw-dropping suspenseful scene that raises questions and makes you want to unravel the mystery. This scene will certainly make your stay through the movie. You are very invested, you love the story, the build-up keeps you on the edge of your seat until the end when the reveal is so underwhelming, you feel disappointed. The ending doesn’t fit the intensity of the story and feels incomplete and rushed. How does this relate to your presentation?

Having a great start for your presentation is what will keep your audience interested in what you have to say. However, the end is what your audience will be left with and will shape how they feel about your presentation and how they’ll remember it.  In short, if you fail your opening, you will still be able to catch up with your presentation and capitalize with a great closing line. But an underwhelming conclusion can kill the velocity of a good presentation and ruin the overall experience.

Let’s look at some practical tips and examples by great presenters to get inspired and never let that happen.

1. The Rule of Three

This powerful technique in speech writing refers to the collection of three words, phrases, sentences, or lines. In photography, there’s a similar rule, known as the Rule of Thirds, that serves to divide an image into three. In writing, the Rule of Three combines a collection of thoughts into three entities with combined brevity and rhythm to create a pattern.

Information presented in a group of three sticks in our heads better than in other groups. This is why this principle presents your ideas in more enjoyable and memorable ways for your audience.  It also serves to divide up a speech or emphasize a certain message. Let’s see a couple of examples where the rule is applied in different forms.

Examples of the Rule of three in Speeches

• “ I came, I saw, I conquered .” (Veni, Vidi, Vici. ) by Julius Caesar in a letter to the Roman Senate
• “…this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people , shall not perish from the earth.” from Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address
• “ It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. lt means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.” from Steve Job’s Stanford Commencement Speech

In Veni Vidi Vici, the rule serves to divide the concept of Caesar’s victory into three parts to prolong the conclusion in order to give it more power. The “came” and “ saw” parts are technically obvious and unnecessary in terms of context. However, they serve to build up the conclusion of conquering, creating a story, rhythm, and, ultimately, a memorable and powerful line. A single “I conquered” wouldn’t impress the Senate that much, let alone become such a legendary phrase preserved in history.

Lincoln’s famous speech ending shows an excellent practice of the Rule of Three in the form of repetition to emphasize the new role of the Government.  “That Government of the people shaw not perish from the earth.” would still be a good line, however, the repetition makes it way more powerful and memorable.

And last, Steve Job uses the Rule of Three in the form of repetition to accomplish building up the conclusion and emphasizing what “it means”.  This repetition gives rhythm and helps the audience to be more receptive, stay focused, and follow the speaker to the final conclusion.

You can also use the Rule of Three to close your presentation by giving your audience two negatives and ending with a positive . Typical structures would be “This is not… this is not… but it is”; “You wouldn’t… you wouldn’t… but you would..”, etc.

For example, you can conclude a speech about self-growth with something similar to “Your future isn’t a matter of chance, it isn’t a matter of circumstances, it’s a matter of choice.”

2. Come Full Circle

In short, this means capitalizing  on your message by ending your presentation the exact way you started it . If done right, this is a powerful tool to make an impact. Usually, you begin your presentation with a statement that piques your audience’s curiosity. You use it to set the topic and start building on it. You take your audience on a journey, you make them start at one point, follow them through the entire journey, and make them end at the same point. By repeating the opening line as an ending, now the message makes more sense, it’s way more personal and makes a satisfying logical conclusion .

A good example of this comes from Yubing Zang in her speech “Life Begins at the End of Your Comfort Zone.” The speaker opens her TED talk with that same line to take you on a journey. You experience her story, you learn how fear is the biggest thief of dreams while comfort is a drug that keeps you from following them. After that strong message, she finishes with that same phrase. In the end, this phrase isn’t just an abstract quote, now it makes more sense and feels more real and personal.

You can also use the full circle method to start and finish your presentation with the same question. As an opening line, your question will make your audience think. It will compel them to listen to your presentation and learn the answers. As an ending, however, this same question will become rhetorical .

And speaking of questions…

3. Food for Thought Question Ending

The easiest way to end a speech on a good note is to leave your audience with a question. The kind of open-ended question that will inspire your audience to reflect on . Such questions can be so inviting, they will give your audience something exciting to think about and even think of throughout the day.

Examples of open-ended questions, depending on your topic, could sound like this.

• What if it doesn’t work out that way?
• What does this look like for you?
• If you could do it over again, what would you do differently?

Unlike close-ended questions that the viewers can answer immediately on the spot and forget about your speech later, interesting open-ended questions that give them food for thought will inevitably surface on occasion.

For example, Lera Boroditski closes her topic on “How Language Shapes the Way We Think” with ” And that gives you the opportunity to ask: why do I think the way that I do? How could I think differently? And also, what thoughts do I wish to create?”

In order for your open-ended question to become food for thought, make sure your presentation raises it organically . It should sound like a relevant and logical conclusion to what you’ve built during your speech. Otherwise, the question would be forced and would seem like coming from nowhere. The best way to think of such an open-ended question is to reflect on what is the question you wished to answer during your presentation but couldn’t. Something that doesn’t have a solution yet.

• Why do people fear losing things that they do not even have yet?
• Why do we strive for perfection if it is not attainable?
• How much control do you have over your life?
• When will we reach a point where terraforming Mars will be our only chance at human survival? How can you influence this deadline?

This will give a great puzzle for your audience to solve and something to remember your presentation with, for a long time.

4. Inspire with Personal Involvement

If you have a story to share, don’t hesitate to inspire your audience with it during your own presentations.

This method is most powerful when we share a personal story or experience . Our vulnerability and personal touch are what will help you inspire your audience without sounding insincere or forcing them a piece of advice out of nowhere. The key here is to have credibility and personal involvement . It might come from your degree, accomplishments, or from your life’s story. Also, make sure the story is relatable and encourages empathy from your audience.

Steve Jobs gave a commencement speech at Stanford University sharing his personal experiences in order to inspire change in his audience’s mindset. He uses his authority and credibility to shape the spirit of leadership and entrepreneurship in young people. He aims to inspire people that they should learn to color outside the lines instead of following the patterns and structure of society. And he serves as a great example with his own life story and accomplishments .

Which makes the ending memorable and impactful: “ Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary. Stay hungry. Stay foolish. ”

In conclusion, the entire speech builds up to this conclusion making it powerful as the personal involvement and experience make it sincere and inspirational.

5. Make Your Audience Laugh

If your topic allows it, one of the best ways to make your presentation memorable and a great experience for your audience is to end with a joke. Just make sure to craft a joke that relates to the main point of your presentation.

As an example for this tip, we chose the TED talk of webcartoonist Randall Munroe where he answers simple what-if questions using math, physics, logic, and -you guessed it- humor.

He ends by sharing an allegedly personal experience about receiving an email from a reader with a single subject line “Urgent”. “And this was the entire email: If people had wheels and could fly, how would we differentiate them from airplanes? Urgent. And I think that there are some questions math just cannot answer. ”

Final Words

In conclusion, the start and end of your presentation are crucial to its success. No matter the topic and goal of your presentation, you must always captivate your audience’s attention first, leaving the introductions and summaries for later. Having a great start for your presentation is what will keep your audience interested in what you have to say. However, the end is what your audience will be left with and will shape how they feel about your presentation and how they’ll remember it.  We hope we managed to inspire your inner public speaker to rock your presentation like a pro.

In the meantime, you could also check some more insights on related topics, gather inspiration, or simply grab a freebie?

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Al Boicheva

Al is an illustrator at GraphicMama with out-of-the-box thinking and a passion for anything creative. In her free time, you will see her drooling over tattoo art, Manga, and horror movies.

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Category: Presentation Opening Stories

Presentation skill fundamentals: start off with a story.

• Signal “This is different, so pay attention.” –Because it’s not the typical “Great to be here” opening or long intro/warm-up before the “real” material kicks in, starting with a story signals “this is different from the typical talk you’re  used to.” Thus it grabs their attention.

2. Grab the audience’s attention by creating an emotional connection. –Starting with a story that speaks to the audience’s key source of pain, and/or also shows what’s possible if they listen to and apply what you’re going to talk about, communicates “I understand  you and what I have will be helpful to you.” Since it speaks to something very relevant, and emotionally-charged, it grabs the audience at an emotional, visceral level, which makes them more alert and attentive.

Here’s a short clip of the story I used to open a talk titled Tell a Better Story. Become More Interesting. Grow Your Business.  Notice how this story taps into a source of pain (and anxiety) many entrepreneurs and business owners (my audience at this event) have and…provides a picture of what’s possible if they listen to what I’m going to share.

How I got a skunk to start my conference presentation

BTW…the sound quality isn’t great, because I needed to filter out the road noise (recorded it while driving).

BTW…part II. If you’re at the Maine Startup and Create Week, I am doing a partner event on Wednesday, from 12:45 to 1:45 at O’Maine Studio. All, the scoop is below.

Now…for the story.

Maine Startup and Create Week Partner Event

Tell a better story. become more interesting. grow your business..

When: June 24rd · 12:45PM-1:45PM

Where: O’Maine Studio, Portland, Maine

Fee: $10 (to cover a light lunch)

A Maine Startup & Create Week Partner Program

Use an Analogy to Pack a Punch: Togue Brawn shows you how

Ten entrepreneurs pitched their ideas to an audience of several hundred, competing for a $10,000 prize. It was also a chance to hone their  pitch craft.

Several entrepreneurs stood out for their speaking skill.

One of them was Togue Brawn, founder of Maine Dayboat Scallops. who will be speaking on June 24th at the upcoming Maine Startup and Create Week .

First, she clearly had passion for the impact her business would have in the lives of her customers and the fishermen she served.

In fact, after the event, I was talking about what a dynamo she was to a seasoned angel investor–a man who has seen it all. He laughed and said, in true When Harry Met Sally fashion–“Yeah…I want whatever she’s having!”

Besides her  passion, one of the other aspects of Togue’s talk that stood out for me was how she used a powerful analogy to capture the difference her business makes.

In Made to Stick , Chip and Dan Heath cite analogies as being one of the six power tools of the communicator who wants to make their idea “sticky”–i.e. people can’t get it out of their heads.

Why are analogies such a powerful communication tool?

• They translate the unfamiliar into the familiar…making your idea easier to understand.
• They translate the abstract into the tangible. The brain has a much easier time processing concrete images and situations from real life than it does making sense out of abstract concepts. Also, because concrete images and real life situations have a strong sensory component, they evoke more emotions that abstract ideas that only involve the intellect. BTW…notice that this point is an abstract concept. Now…let’s share a specific situation and concrete image that will make this point much more understandable.

Before you hear Togue’s analogy, here’s some quick context, so it makes more sense…

As part of her Origin Story, she shared her epiphany about the plight of Maine’s scallop fishermen and their customers. Most commercially fished scallops that are caught in federal waters in boats that are out to sea for a week or more. These scallops, when sold to consumers as “fresh” can be 12 days old. Maine’s scallop fishermen are all of the dayboat variety, meaning they go out and come back with their catch in one day.

Their scallops are a day old. But…because no delivery system existed to get these into customers’ hands, Maine day scallop fishermen can’t charge the premium price their premium product deserves. Instead, their uber-fresh scallops have to go to the same processing plants as the federal water harvested scallops that are several day’s old. So day old scallops get mixed in with a week or more old scallops.

Now here’s the analogy Togue used to make her point about how this didn’t make sense:

“That’s like pouring a bottle of Dom Perignon into a bathtub of Barefoot bubbly,” she noted.

When I heard that, I thought “Score! What a way to capture the difference.”

While there’s a reason why Barefoot wine is a popular brand, there’s a reason why Dom Perignon has a cachet that popular consumer brands’ don’t. If you made Dom Perignon, would you want it blended into any popular consumer wine and sold at that price or…would you want to get the price your product should command?

While giving the factual differences between scallops harvested in federal waters vs. those harvested by local scallop fishermen made for a clear comparison at the abstract, intellectual level, Togue’s analogy made it tangible. The listener could instantly get the difference at a deeper, more experiential level.

Hence, the power of a good analogy.

So…if you want YOUR ideas to pack a punch, start generating analogies to make your points hit home.

To learn more about how to use analogies and stories to make your ideas more interesting and persuasive, come to:

  June 24rd · 12:45PM-1:45PM

Who should attend : Business owners, self-employed professionals, leaders and others who want to communicate the value of their ideas, service, and business in a more compelling, interesting, and persuasive way… whether in front of a group or one-to-one.

Where : O’Maine Studio

Fee : $10 for attendees at Maine Startup and Create Week, $15 for non-attendees (includes lunch)

How NOT to Blow Your Big Chance When Speaking In Front of a Group

A while back I witnessed yet another sad example of someone squandering one of the most precious marketing opportunities possible: getting the chance to present in front of a group of potential buyers.

This happened at an association meeting of customer service professionals. A rep from  a CRM (customer relationship management) software company had the chance to give a five minute “commercial” because his  company had sponsored the event.

Rather than use his precious time to communicate how his business helps solve problems that were relevant to the audience, he simply talked about his company and stated facts about the customer service industry that were common knowledge to anyone in the industry.

People waited patiently until he was over so the “real speaker”  (yours truly) could get up and talk to them about the topic they really were interested in.

I felt bad for this man and his company because I knew they had spent a lot of money to get the chance to tell people how their product could help them, and all he accomplished was boring the audience.

Does this sound familiar?

Have you ever been “that guy”?

Maybe you also have been the main speaker at an event or a breakout session at a conference, and found yourself doing what a lot of vendor reps and consultants who aren’t professional  speakers do. Maybe you did any or all of the following:

• Started off with a lame joke.
• Transitioned into a long description of what your company does.
• Spent most of your time giving a “State of the Union” speech that merely reminds the audience  of all the problems they were facing and had come to get answers to.
• Gave 30,000 foot high “answers” that are commonsense, such as “Give great customer service”, “You need to have quality employees if you’re going to give quality customer service” or “Turnover is costing you a lot; so it’s important to stop turnover.”
• Read off of your PowerPoint slides….bullet point list item after bullet point list item.

Does this sound hauntingly familiar?

If so, it’s time to upgrade your presentational approach by adding stories and concrete examples.

Make Your Presentation Exponentially More Interesting and Persuasive By Adding Three Story Genres

Here are three types of stories that will make your presentation—whether it’s five minutes or sixty minutes—far more fascinating and persuasive.

1. “I Feel Your Pain” Stories –This story genre includes stories of your own experience that mirrors the audience’s major challenges. It also includes stories of clients or customers with challenges that mirror the audience’s. Either way, you are letting them know “I know where you are coming from.” You are also reminding them of the pain the unsolved problem is causing them.

By reminding them of the pain they have, you increase their desire to listen to what you’re going to tell them. So one way to start off with a bang is to tell a story that immediately taps into their pain and…shows that you “get them.”

So for instance, when I do programs on how to engage people in constructive conversations around difficult topics, I often start off with a really difficult conversation I once had with a co-worker. In the opening, I usually only tell the first part of the story, where I share how angry I was at him and how I obsessed about my not having a witty comeback, and how I plotted my revenge. When I share this with groups, I see nods of recognition. They know what it’s like and…they get it that I have faced the same struggles as they have. My story also reminds them of the pain they have felt because of conflict they were unwilling to address because they didn’t think they had the skills to make the conversation work.

2. Price and Promise Stories – Share a story about how a client or customer of yours was dealing with a problem the audience can relate to, and how your solution made a difference. Price and Promise Stories make clear the price the audience member pays for NOT addressing the problem, and the benefits of successfully addressing the problem.

As in the “I Feel Your Pain” story, Price and Promise Stories are designed to heighten the audience’s interest and make them want to hear more. However, don’t go into describing your solution, step-by-step,  if you start off with this type of story. When you start off with a Price and Promise Story, it’s meant as a tool to spark interest.

Later on in your presentation when you are describing how you solve the audience’s relevant problems, you can use this story genre to describe what you do. You can also use an “open loop” Price and Promise Story to start your presentation. Thi  is where you share the “before picture”—i.e. the “problem state”—and then  tell the audience  that you will share with them later in the session what you did to achieve a positive outcome. This is called “salting”, as in “making them thirsty for what you are going to tell them”.  The story I started off this post with is an example of salting. It starts off with a story that communicates “This is the price you pay for being an uninteresting speaker…a huge lost marketing opportunity”. While I don’t explicitly say “Keep reading and I will tell you how to rectify this”, you understand that is where we are going. If you can relate to the story, you wanted to hear more about how NOT to be “that guy.”

3. “What I mean by that” Stories – These stories take your key concepts and help listeners understand what they mean at an emotional and visceral level, rather than have them vaguely  understood at an intellectual story. When we use abstract terms without concrete examples, we risk people either not understanding what we mean or….believing they do understand, when in fact they don’t.

You prevent this from happening by following each key point with “So for instance…” or “Here’s an example of what I mean…”, and then giving a concrete example or sharing a short story that illustrates that point.

Doing this will make a HUGE difference in your audience’s ability to comprehend what you’re saying.

So for instance, when I give programs on constructive conversations, I talk about the language pattern I call The Multiple Choice Opener. This language pattern makes it more comfortable for people to speak honestly about a tough issue. When I describe the Multiple Choice Opener, I don’t just list the characteristics of this language pattern. I give the audience an example. I say “So…for instance…let’s say you did a performance review with Mary…” I then describe the scenario and how the Multiple Choice Opener would be used in the situation.

Other times, I illustrate what the Multiple Choice Opener looks and sounds like in real life by sharing a short story about  my using this language pattern with my young daughter when she seemed displeased with the idea of helping me wash dishes.

By giving a concrete example or sharing a short story, you help the listener play a movie inside their mind of what you are talking about, so they understand what it looks and sounds like in real life.

By making abstract terms concrete, you help your listeners move beyond “sort of knowing intellectually” what you are saying to fully grasping at an experiential level what you mean and why it’s significant.  When this happens, your message becomes more understandable, more interesting, and more persuasive.

So Use Stories to Make Your Points More Understandable and Your Presentations More Compelling

So…don’t be like the typical vendor or professional who does great work or has a great product, but doesn’t know how to talk about it in a way that makes others want to listen.

Don’t blow your big opportunity to spread your message when you do get the chance to speak in front of a group.

Start off your presentations with a story and, use stories and examples to make your points come alive.

Doing so will make you a far more fascinating and compelling speaker.

Adding storytelling to your presentations will also making speaking a lot more fun for you, and… it will make listening to you a lot more fun for your audience.

For examples of these types of stories, check out the Blog Category:

Presentation Opening Stories

For information on the Make Your Presentation Opportunity a Hit program, contact me at david (at) storiesthatchange.com

Nervous about speaking just add stories: a debrief of my semi-impromptu #smbme talk.

Much to my surprise I found an email from the event’s organizer, Amanda O’Brien , which had been sent the night before. Her email said she had just noticed I was attending the program and wondered if I would like to speak, too. The topic was storytelling and writing. The main speaker was the author of Everybody Writes, and content marketing guru Ann Handley . Since Ann was going to focus on writing, Amanda wanted to know if I would speak about storytelling in general.

Sure, glad to, I responded.

While I was “glad to,” there was also a problem with this.

Even though I have spoken at conferences around the country and overseas for over two decades, speaking doesn’t come easily for me. I’m not the guy who can’t wait to get in front of a group and talk. It takes me awhile to formulate what I want to say. But…I love storytelling and I also had witnessed what a fun group this was, so it seemed like a great opportunity to share something I love with people I enjoyed.

While I rarely get nervous when I give a talk, because I didn’t feel prepared, my stomach quickly knotted up and my heart started racing.

As I drove into Portland, I started thinking about what key points I would make and stories I would tell to illustrate those points.

At the breakfast, instead of mowing through multiple plates of eggs and bacon from the breakfast buffet and catching up with friends who were also attending, I jotted down thoughts and formulated a simple outline. At one point, I asked my friend and copywriter, Nina Hope , to distract me by telling me the funny story she had emailed me a “teaser” about.

After the sponsors were introduced and spoke briefly, it was time for me to speak.

I walked up to the front of the room, my stomach still in a knot and my heart still racing.

In the audio below, you will hear what I said.

Now…I am sharing this context and the presentation with you for a couple of reasons.

First, if you have stage fright, this will hopefully help you see how storytelling can help you settle down and actually enjoy your talk.

Second, I want to “pull back the curtain” and share with you some of the intentionality that goes behind storytelling.

You can approach what follows in two different ways. First, you can listen to the 10 minute recording below and THEN read my explanation and analysis or…you can read the explanation and analysis first, whichever works for your learning style.

So here goes…

My original plan was to first tell a story about an expert in the field of mind/body medicine who was bombing on stage and how storytelling saved the day for him. This type of story, what I call a Pain and Promise Story. The Pain and Promise Story grabs the audience’s attention because it speaks to a pain they feel and a hope they have about that pain going away. So it both resonates with their current situation—“I understand you”—and promises an antidote to their plight. This story genre immediately grabs the audience’s attention because it communicates “This will be helpful to you.”

My original planned evaporated when my butterflies did not.

I decided instead to start off with a different story, a funny story, because I needed to relax. Because it’s always been a real crowd pleaser and because it’s funny, I knew it would put me in a more upbeat, having-a-good-time state. So at the last minute I decided to start off with that story instead.

Then, I did the “expert bombing on stage” story. I was going to tell one last story that illustrates how you can use stories to challenge people without being confrontational—which is one of THE most useful applications of storytelling.

I call these the How to Say “You’re Crazy” in a Nice Way Stories.

I wanted to include this story in my short presentation, because this story genre helps people address one of THE most challenging situations for people, especially those in sales, coaching, and leadership positions. It helps them challenge people’s perspectives, beliefs, and excuses without triggering defensiveness and antagonism. I also wanted to include this point about what storytelling can do, along with a story to illustrate the point, because it shows how storytelling isn’t just a presentation tool.

But…when I got to this point in my talk, I felt like I was going to go over the 10 minutes I was shooting for, so I decided NOT to tell that story, but to instead use an analogy to make the point.

I love the analogies for making your point punchy in a fraction of the time.

Analogies are a great way to make your abstract idea concrete in a very short amount of time. If you don’t have much time to make your point, either because of time constraints or because your audience is filed with impatient people (e.g. busy executives in a meeting), analogies are a great alternative to stories.

What was I thinkin’?

OK, here are stylistic and technical notes, both to illustrate the intentionality that went into different aspects of the how the stories were told, as well as how it could have been improved.

How to Make Your Story More Relatable – In the first story, I talk about how I had blown my situation out of proportion. I had turned it into an “If I blow this keynote, it will be a career-ender.” I could have left it at that, but instead I followed that with something like “You know how we do that… we take something that is a little deal and turn it into a BIG DEAL…so maybe it’s like you get the chance to speak in front of senior leadership and you think ‘If I blow it, I’m going to be fired’ or maybe you have a business idea and you want to pitch it to a group of venture capitalists and you think ‘If I blow this…I’ll never get another chance.’”The language pattern that starts with “You know how we do that…” and is followed by experiences the audience can relate to, comes from the world of hypnosis.

It’s what I call a Linking Phrase.If you want the listener to connect at a more visceral level to your story, you use a Linking Phrase to link the experience you are talking about with one or more “versions” they have probably experienced. Doing this increases the listener’s interest at the conscious level because they can see the direct connection between your experience and theirs. It also increases the listener’s connection at the unconscious level because it signals “this is relevant, so pay attention.” It also stimulates greater interest because it stirs up emotions they have around their version of the challenge you are sharing.

Why You Might Use Your Version of My Opening Story – A couple of the reasons why I like using the first story as an opener:

• It’s a great ice breaker.
• As I mentioned before, it helps relax me because it’s a fun story to tell.
• It helps the audience bond with me because it’s a self-effacing story. It shows that I am not coming to them as a guru or in a one-up position. I am coming to them as a fellow human being, an equal (who just happens to have some specialized knowledge or expertise).
• It also subtly communicates credibility, without sounding like I am tooting my own horn. The fact that I was asked to keynote an international conference in Australia makes it obvious—or at least I hope it makes it obvious—that I must know what I’m talking about. Establishing credibility is not for YOUR sake as a speaker. It’s for the audience’s sake. They are far more likely to take seriously and implement your ideas if they believe you are an expert.

Another Example of Using a Linking Phrase – In the second story, I also use a Linking Phrase. This one went something like: “You know that sickening feeling when you’re thinking ‘Man…they are not connecting with me’ and even though you’re really into your idea…they are clearly not.”Just as with the previous example, I want the audience to connect my story with their own experiences, so they can remember the pain. This not only helps them “get into” the story, but also increases their motivation to learn how to NOT experience that pain again.

Provide More Context Than I Did – When I listened to the recording, I noticed that I did something I have caught myself doing on other occasions: not giving enough context to make my point clear to the audience. That happened in the second story when I likened the speaker’s exhortations to a particular Far Side cartoon. I simply said something like “It’s like that Far Side cartoon that goes ‘Blah, blah, blah, Ginger. Blah, blah, blah.’” Here’s the cartoon . I should have described the picture, since obviously not everyone has seen it. One of the reasons why I recommend recording your presentations is because it enables you to catch examples of not giving enough detail or context, so you can do so next time.

Take Away Points

• Using a self-effacing, amusing story as an opener is a great way to calm your nerves and help the audience bond with you.
• Using Linking Phrases helps the listener connect your story with their own experience. This increases their interest, because it shows how what you are talking about is relevant to them.
• Record your talks and pay attention to places where a bit more context or explaining might have made your point more clear.
• The more you use stories in your presentations, the more fascinating a speaker you will be and the more fun you will have speaking.

If you want to learn how to be a better storyteller, come to the free program “Tell a Better Story. Generate More Interest. Build Your Business” at the Casco Bay Tech Hub, on Dec 11th.

Now…For the Recording…

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Simon Sinek Demonstrates How to Use a Story to Start Your Talk Off With a Bang

It’s also worth watching it for the outstanding content, too.

The next time you give a talk, how about coming up with a story that grabs the audience’s attention.

Related Posts on Starting Off Your Presentation With a Story

How to Start Off Your Presentation with a Story and… Why You Want To

Start Your Presentation Off With a Pain and Promise Story

How to Start Your Presentation Off With a Story…and Why You Want To

Starting a presentation off with a story starts your presentation off with a bang. It captures your audience’s attention and signals “This isn’t going to be one of those boring Death By PowerPoint presentations.

When choosing an opening story, use this list to see how many of these objectives your story accomplishes. Different stories acccomplish different groupings of objectives, so you might find yourself with two really good stories to start off with, in terms of entertainment value, but one addresses an objective that is especially important for your group while the other one doesn’t.

So for instance*, you might be speaking to a skeptical audience who doesn’t think the issue you’re going to talk about is important. You will want to pick a story that addresses the price they are  paying for  NOT addressing the issue and also subtly communicates your expert status. If you were speaking to a group who already believes in the importance of the issue, you might choose a story that offers hope.

Opening Story Objectives

• Bond—“He understands me.” and/or “He doesn’t think he’s better than me.”
• Credibility–“She knows what she’s talking about.”
• Pain— “Man…I would love to not feel that way anymore.”
• Clarity— “OK, got it! This is what she’s going to talk about.”
• Cognitive Dissonance— “Wow, I never realized I might be paying a price for…”
• Promise—“That would be awesome if that could happen for me.”
• Hope— “Maybe this will be the answer I’ve been looking for.”
• Fascination— “Wow…I never thought about it in that way.”
• Enchantment– “How amusing.” and/or “What a unique way of starting off a talk.”
• Positive Anticipation— “This is going to be fun, different than the same ole’ same ole’.”

________________________________________________________________________________________________

* Note: “So for instance…” is one of the most powerful three words in teaching. This phrase helps you take a conceptual idea–like the paragraph that starts with “When choosing an opening story…”–and make it more understandable by providing a concrete example. As the brothers Heath write in Made to Stick , one of the most important ways to make your ideas “Sticky” is to make  your ideas concrete through examples, analogies, and stories that illustrate your concept.

In this video, I am speaking to an ASTD chapter on storytelling and…surprise, surprise…thought it would be a good idea to open up with a story.

Notice the choice of story (and story within a story) and see how many things you notice in terms of why I started with this story, as well as why I started off with the story within the story at the event I referred to…in the story.

Please feel free to post your observations (and questions) in the Comments Below

To see what the audience picked up on and hear my commentary, go to Starting Off With a Story – Part II.

Also…if you haven’t seen the Add Powerful Storytelling to Your Training webinar recording, click here

Start Your Presentation Off Right with a Pain and Promise Story

If you want your audience to care about your message, start off with a story that speaks to their pain and presents your promise of what can happen if they listen and apply what you’re going to share.

Here’s an example of a Pain and Promise Story that I used to open up a webinar hosted by the American Society of Training and Development on how to use storytelling to jazz up your presentations to about 600 corporate trainers and Organizational Development professionals.

While this story was relevant to my audience (and you’ll see why), this story is even more applicable to entrepreneurs, consultants, and other experts who are great at what they do but….might not be the most confident or interesting speakers….and are therefore very nervous about bombing when they speak.

How to Apply This

1. Identify your market’s/audience’s major sources of pain.

2. Get clear on the outcome your product, service, or message facilitates in relationship to that pain.

3. Identify some examples of this transformation.

4. Tell the story to someone who knows how to tell a story and get feedback on whether it works as an opening story, how compelling it is, how it can be improved.

BTW…at 1:07 notice the language pattern. This is something from the “old days” of using and teaching hypnotherapy and therapeutic storytelling. I’ll write about that later.

Finally..we will be talking about how to start off with a story and more at the upcoming program

How to Use Analogies to Make Your Point More “Sticky”

In Chip and Dan Heath’s excellent book Made to Stick, they discuss the power of analogies to make abstract ideas more understandable…and pack a bigger punch. Analogies do this because they:

• Make Your Abstract Concept Concrete…and Therefore Easier to Comprehend -It’s much easier for the brain to process a concrete image or example than make sense of an abstract thought.
• Make Your Ideas More Interesting –Hopefully you will find that to be the case in this short video.
• Connect the New and Unfamiliar to the Familiar- -It’s a lot easier to understand a new concept when we can link it to something we are already familiar with. Analogies do that. In the video below, you will notice that I use analogies to make my points more clear and…
• Turn an Idea from Being Vulnerable to Skepticism to Seeming Like a “No Brainer “–One of the very cool things about analogies is they help you reframe ideas and rigidly help beliefs. They do this by taking a point of view that the listener or reader holds as true or even self-evident, and then uses the same or similar viewpoint in a context where its validity is easily called into question. Without getting into the hypnotics of it all, doing this also helps to link up the feeling of uncertainty, where before there was only certainty.

This video is from my main website HumanNatureAtWork.com

How to Use a Pain and Promise Story to Tune Your Audience Into WII-FM

Don’t give a long description of your background.

Instead, try starting out with a Pain and Promise Story, a story that captures the pain your audience feels about a problem you can solve and then illustrates “the Promise”–a vision of what will happen if they listen to, and apply, what you are going to share with them.

This helps them dial into that all important radio station–WII-FM–“What’s in it for me?”

I chose this story to start off with because I knew the CEOs in the group would relate to the pain of trying to get buy-in from employees on something that to them is obvious, but ends up not being so obvious to employees…and how frustrating that is.

While I typically like to use stories from my own experience and own work, I often use this story from the folks at VitalSmarts, because it is so perfect. It comes from their book  Influencer .

I wanted to make sure the professional service and financial service firm owners would dial into that WII-FM, but the story didn’t include that context.  I could have mentioned that context while telling the story (if you want to see an example of how to make that transition, see the commentary below the video).

However, in the interest of getting them actively involved as quickly as possible, I broke them up into pairs early on in the story to give them the chance to connect with their individual sources of pain.

The more you connect your audience with their pain from the outset, the more they will care about what you have to say.

The Pain and Promise Story is a great way to do that.

If you know your audience has multiple contexts where they are feeling pain, you can mention those as part of your story. So, if I had chosen not to break them into pairs during the story, I would have said something like this after getting to the part where the leaders’ message had the opposite effect of what they intended:

“I’m sure everyone in here can relate to that unpleasant experience. For others…the place where you feel the most frustrated around others not being persuaded by your message might be when talking to potential clients…and when you’re trying to show them how your service could help them…and they just aren’t getting it…or maybe its situations with colleagues or partners in your firm where you would want to be more persuasive…”

This is a language pattern I learned from my hypnosis training. You offer a variety of possible connections the person can make, to help them connect with your message.

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How to Make a “Good” Presentation “Great”

• Guy Kawasaki

Remember: Less is more.

A strong presentation is so much more than information pasted onto a series of slides with fancy backgrounds. Whether you’re pitching an idea, reporting market research, or sharing something else, a great presentation can give you a competitive advantage, and be a powerful tool when aiming to persuade, educate, or inspire others. Here are some unique elements that make a presentation stand out.

• Fonts: Sans Serif fonts such as Helvetica or Arial are preferred for their clean lines, which make them easy to digest at various sizes and distances. Limit the number of font styles to two: one for headings and another for body text, to avoid visual confusion or distractions.
• Colors: Colors can evoke emotions and highlight critical points, but their overuse can lead to a cluttered and confusing presentation. A limited palette of two to three main colors, complemented by a simple background, can help you draw attention to key elements without overwhelming the audience.
• Pictures: Pictures can communicate complex ideas quickly and memorably but choosing the right images is key. Images or pictures should be big (perhaps 20-25% of the page), bold, and have a clear purpose that complements the slide’s text.
• Layout: Don’t overcrowd your slides with too much information. When in doubt, adhere to the principle of simplicity, and aim for a clean and uncluttered layout with plenty of white space around text and images. Think phrases and bullets, not sentences.

As an intern or early career professional, chances are that you’ll be tasked with making or giving a presentation in the near future. Whether you’re pitching an idea, reporting market research, or sharing something else, a great presentation can give you a competitive advantage, and be a powerful tool when aiming to persuade, educate, or inspire others.

• Guy Kawasaki is the chief evangelist at Canva and was the former chief evangelist at Apple. Guy is the author of 16 books including Think Remarkable : 9 Paths to Transform Your Life and Make a Difference.

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What is Eid al-Fitr? 6 questions about the holiday and how Muslims celebrate it, answered

By Ken Chitwood

Updated on: April 9, 2024 / 8:03 AM EDT / The Conversation

Ken Chitwood  is a senior research fellow, Muslim Philanthropy Initiative at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis and journalist-fellow at the Dornsife Center for Religion and Civic Culture at the  University of Southern California Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences .

Eid al-Fitr, one of Islam's principal festivals, will be celebrated April 9, 2024, according to the Fiqh Council of North America . At the middle of June, Muslims will celebrate Eid al-Adha. Ken Chitwood, a scholar of global Islam, explains the two Islamic festivals.

1. What is Eid?

Eid literally means a "festival" or "feast" in Arabic. There are two major eids in the Islamic calendar per year – Eid al-Fitr earlier in the year and Eid al-Adha later.

Eid al-Fitr is a three-day-long festival and is known as the "Lesser" or "Smaller Eid" when compared to Eid al-Adha, which is four days long and is known as the "Greater Eid."

2. Why is Eid celebrated twice a year?

The two Eids recognize, celebrate and recall two distinct events that are significant to the story of Islam.

Eid al-Fitr means "the feast of breaking the fast." The fast, in this instance, is Ramadan , which recalls the revealing of the Quran to Prophet Muhammad and requires Muslims to fast from sunrise to sundown for a month.

3. How do Muslims celebrate Eid al-Fitr?

Eid al-Fitr features two to three days of celebrations that include special morning prayers. People greet each other with "Eid Mubarak," meaning "Blessed Eid" and with formal embraces. Sweet dishes are prepared at home and gifts are given to children and to those in need. In addition, Muslims are encouraged to forgive and seek forgiveness. Practices vary from country to country.

In many countries with large Muslim populations, Eid al-Fitr is a national holiday. Schools, offices and businesses are closed so family, friends and neighbors can enjoy the celebrations together. In the U.S. and the U.K., Muslims may request to have the day off from school or work to travel or celebrate with family and friends.

In countries like Egypt and Pakistan, Muslims decorate their homes with lanterns, twinkling lights or flowers. Special food is prepared and friends and family are invited over to celebrate.

In places like Jordan, with its Muslim majority population, the days before Eid al-Fitr can see a rush at local malls and special "Ramadan markets" as people prepare to exchange gifts on Eid al-Fitr.

In Turkey and in places that were once part of the Ottoman-Turkish empire such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Azerbaijan and the Caucasus, it is also known as the, "Lesser Bayram" or "festival" in Turkish.

4. How do Muslims celebrate Eid al-Adha?

The other festival, Eid al-Adha, is the "feast of the sacrifice." It comes at the end of the Hajj , an annual pilgrimage by millions of Muslims to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia that is obligatory once in a lifetime, but only for those with means.

Eid al-Adha recalls the story of how God commanded Ibrahim to sacrifice his son Ismail as a test of faith. The story, as narrated in the Quran, describes Satan's attempt to tempt Ibrahim so he would disobey God's command. Ibrahim, however, remains unmoved and informs Ismail, who is willing to be sacrificed.

But, just as Ibrahim attempts to kill his son, God intervenes and a ram is sacrificed in place of Ismail. During Eid al-Adha, Muslims slaughter an animal to remember Ibrahim's sacrifice and remind themselves of the need to submit to the will of God.

5. When are they celebrated?

Eid al-Fitr is celebrated on the first day of the 10th month in the Islamic calendar.

Eid al-Adha is celebrated on the 10th day of the final month in the Islamic calendar.

The Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar, and dates are calculated based on lunar phases. Since the Islamic calendar year is shorter than the solar Gregorian calendar year by 10 to 12 days, the dates for Ramadan and Eid on the Gregorian calendar can vary year by year.

6. What is the spiritual meaning of Eid al-Fitr?

Eid al-Fitr, as it follows the fasting of Ramadan, is also seen as a spiritual celebration of Allah's provision of strength and endurance.

Amid the reflection and rejoicing, Eid al-Fitr is a time for charity, known as Zakat al-Fitr. Eid is meant to be a time of joy and blessing for the entire Muslim community and a time for distributing one's wealth.

Charity to the poor is a highly emphasized value in Islam. The Quran says ,

"Believe in Allah and his messenger, and give charity out of the (substance) that Allah has made you heirs of. For those of you who believe and give charity – for them is a great reward."

This piece incorporates materials from an article first published on Aug. 28, 2017. The dates have been updated. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.

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Microsoft and OpenAI’s Presentation Sparks Controversy Over Military Use of AI Tools

L ast month during the Military AI Literacy Seminar for the US Department of Defense, Microsoft along with OpenAI demonstrated their offerings, increasing the debate about what military applications AI technology is likely to have. The event that took place in October 2023 presented product demonstrations focusing on what items apply to the Pentagon, which includes OpenAI’s image generator DALL-E.

Microsoft’s proposal for military integration

The main tool presented by Microsoft was an image generator called DALL-E that could find uses and applications in the latest battle management systems. These very comprehensive systems, critical for military planning, provide all commanders with an overview of entire battlefields from a single position. This is also very helpful in coordination and movement control of various activities, choosing the targets for artillery and airstrikes, and so on. The proposal of Microsoft included the utilization of DALL-E for the innovative improvements of the command control software systems to obtain their goals of efficiency and effectiveness.

OpenAI, on the other hand, kept its distance from the EuroDIG 2019 presentation, contrary to Microsoft’s. The organization reported that it did not take part in the conference and did not sell any product to the Czech defense department. OpenAI’s media specialist, Liz Bourgot, informed the public that the company’s position is against the application of any of its tools by the military for this would entail some activities that may lead to the destruction or injury of people, for example. Even when Microsoft’s offer was carried out, Bourget still considered OpenAI as partly deceptive about getting into any collaboration with defense agencies for using the technology in military purposes.

Clarifications from Microsoft

Through Microsoft’s support, the Pentagon can already use DALL-E for more realistic training and simulation software in the military forces. The firm has shunned this idea as the plan, as such, did not turn out to be fact. Microsoft noted that the hypothetical case demonstrations were what they had come up with based on dialogs with (their)customers as to how they might use the new product. Moreover, the company stipulated that in case of any Pentagon team use of OpenAI tools that are provided to Microsoft, the Pentagon, and Microsoft would at the same time have to have defined rules of use and control.

OpenAI’s recent code of conduct update eliminated explicit exclusions for the use of its advanced technology in the military and for warfare. The allegation muddied the ethical waters of using AI in military applications even further. In addition, OpenAI stayed firm in its objection to using its tools for any detrimental activities, but the elimination of the requirements has left open the question as to what the restrictions and conditions in the application of AI to defense are.

Ongoing discussions and ethical considerations

The disclosure of a Microsoft patent about this approach and OpenAI’s explanation of its ethical standards and procedures has chemically changed the ecology of the technical industry as well as that of policymakers who are now worrying about the ethical boundaries of Artificial Intelligence technology. The integration of AI and the military process opens up such morally complex issues as well as involves legal reasoning, which demands the elaboration of more stringent procedures for the creation and deployment of AI systems.

In line with the advances in AI solutions, ethical considerations are also aggravated, especially in sectors crucial to the sovereignty of the country, like national protection. The Microsoft and OpenAI presentation to the US Department of Defense seminar emphasizes the rising intention to adopt AI technology to support military matters. Though beneficial aspects exist, there also exist concerns about the outcomes of these applications along with the ethical issues related to this integration. Therefore, we need to keep them under consideration and see how they are incorporated into the military operations.

This article originally appeared in Yahoo

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“It’s A Dream Come True... Anything Can Happen!” How White Lotus star Alexandra Daddario Went From Would-Be Vogue Intern To Dior Girl

By Alice Newbold

It’s not often in fashion that you encounter a seasoned celebrity who is genuinely humbled to be invited to a runway show. For them, it’s part and parcel of the personal brand promo, as much a part of their day job as the step-and-repeat. Not so, for Alexandra Daddario , who was pinching herself next to seat mates Naomi Watts and Michelle Williams at the Dior pre-fall 2024 presentation at the Brooklyn Museum.

By Radhika Seth

“To be able to work with Dior is beyond a dream come true,” The White Lotus star tells Vogue . “Anything can happen! I was that girl looking longingly at clothes in magazines. Now I’m in this world I thought I could never have access to, but have found a way into through the back door by being an actress.” Indeed, long before she was starring in indies, such as 2005’s The Squid and the Whale , a bright-eyed Alexandra tried to intern at Teen Vogue , but, she admits, “I didn’t know what I was talking about. Now, I’m a spectator and it’s like being a kid again.”

“What I’m wearing changes my character and this happens in real life,” says Daddario.

By Hannah Coates

By Daniel Rodgers

By Ellie Pithers

Further proof that Daddario is not your typical jaded Tinseltowner: “I am having The. Best. Time!” she chirps down the phone from her hotel suite. Born in New York, but based in LA, the 38-year-old has been working in New Orleans on a project for some months, and so she’s positively thrilled to be playing tourist in her hometown for a snatched moment in her schedule. So much so, she’s put her trust – and wardrobe – entirely in the Dior team’s hands. “I’m very easy at a fitting,” she smiles. “I always say, ‘What do you guys like?’ And they always have something incredible.”

Alexandra’s slip dress was detailed with Paris landmarks – perfect for a woman who was playing tourist for the day herself.

Although Daddario maintains she “feels like a different person in Dior”, the grey slip dress, louche spring coat, platforms and Lady Dior bag they landed on for the show looked perfect for the polished individual we’re used to seeing on our TV screens. “Clothes make such a huge difference,” shares the woman whose sprawling IMDb page – listing, for example, both Baywatch and Texas Chainsaw ! – is testament to this. “What I’m wearing changes my character and this happens in real life – I feel different when I’m in sweatpants to when I’m in a Dior dress.” The one constant? A spritz of non-negotiable Dior J’adore perfume to help her feel “sexy and sophisticated”, no matter if it’s a rare trackies day.

The White Lotus actor used the following Dior Beauty products: Forever Foundation in 1N, Forever Skin Correct in 1N, Forever Star Filter in 1, Forever Glow Max in Pink, On Stage Crayon in dark green and Rouge Dior 221 Velvet.

“Dior lets you incorporate elegance into your everyday wear,” she continues. “Even the Dior bags I have make casual pieces special – it’s like wearing a diamond.” (Someone put Alexandra on the payroll, because the brand couldn’t ask for a better ambassador.) As the ever modest Daddario rounds out by saying she just has “a couple of little movies coming out”, we expect she’ll be inundated with show requests going forward. “I’m excited for the future, it’s an interesting time for the business,” adds the quiet grafter, who is anything but a spectator.

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Here's what to expect in the 2024 federal budget

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland will be presenting the 2024 federal budget on Tuesday, revealing how the federal Liberal government intends to balance the nearly $40 billion in pre-announced new spending with her vow to remain fiscally prudent.

Amid calls for a concerted focus on boosting Canada's productivity, Freeland has said the full picture of the state of the country's finances will focus on "building more homes, faster, making life more affordable, and creating more good jobs."

Declaring that the country is at a "pivotal moment" that requires urgent investment, the federal government is planning to introduce a bevy of measures in Tuesday's budget to help put a dent in Canada's housing crisis and win back straying millennial and Generation Z voters.

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However, the new spending is coming amid concerns over a sizable federal deficit and remaining uncertainty around the degree of provincial and territorial buy-in for some of the bigger-ticket loan offerings the Liberals have previewed as coming in the budget.

Among the tens of billions of dollars pre-promised for health, child care and building 3.9 million new homes, more than $17 billion is loan-based, meaning the money is expected to come back around. Meanwhile, possible further sizeable spends have yet to be announced, such as the initial pharmacare allotment.

New wealth taxes ahead?

How Freeland intends to uphold her fiscal targets outlined in the fall economic statement – maintaining a declining deficit-to-GDP ratio and keeping deficits below one per cent of GDP in 2026-27 and beyond – is going to be one of the key areas of focus for those scrutinizing the federal balance sheet.

While Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has ruled out raising taxes on Canada's middle class, Freeland has so far refused to say whether the budget could include new or higher taxes for wealthier Canadians or corporate Canada. Nor has she shed any light on where additional revenue may be found, whether in deeper cuts or otherwise.

Moreover, the finance minister vowed last week that the deficit will not increase in this budget and the Liberals remain mindful of not knocking the Bank of Canada off its track towards reducing interest rates.

With these factors in mind, economists are largely forecasting that the most likely ways Freeland will look to offset the coming new spending will be to push off earmarked spending into future years and raise taxes.

"Some part of it could also come from higher revenues, increasing taxes on corporations, things like excess profit taxes … or increasing taxes on the wealthiest Canadians," Desjardins' senior director of Canadian economics Randall Bartlett said.

"Whether that's on income from financial assets, or whether that's on personal and increasing the marginal income tax rate."

Trudeau delivered a speech to the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Ottawa on Monday afternoon, further prepositioning his government's economic vision.

"Millennials and Gen Z now make up the majority of Canada's labour force. They are our economy. Everything that is created, built, served and sold in this country is increasingly being created, built, served and sold by millennials and Gen Z. So, their success is going to be our success, Canada's success," Trudeau said.

Speaking to a crowd that's calling on the government to work with businesses to spur economic growth and not impose new taxes that could deter investors, Trudeau made no mention of any wealth-targeting plans that may be afoot.

"Canada's competitiveness is slipping, and productivity continues to decline. This weak performance leaves Canadians poorer, with fewer opportunities to achieve their personal goals, and it forces them to pay more just to stay where they are," Canadian Chamber president and CEO Perrin Beatty said in a statement preceding the prime minister's address.

"Without much greater growth, we won't be able to maintain our standard of living or provide the services Canadians require."

'Generational fairness' focus

Traditionally, governments have held budget news — save for some pre-tabling leaks — for the day the document is tabled in the House of Commons. However, the federal Liberals deployed a new pre-budget communications strategy this year.

Since late March, Trudeau and members of his cabinet have been selectively teasing out bits and pieces of the federal budget before it is actually unveiled, through a series of near-daily announcements.

• The latest on inflation in Canada

With a targeted focus on Canada's younger generations who are feeling squeezed by inflation and as if the deck is stacked against their future prosperity, the overall theme for the 2024 budget is "generational fairness."

Seeking to echo this, on Monday Freeland kept with the pre-budget political tradition of selecting her budget day shoes, a pair of black leather heels from direct-to-consumer Canadian shoe brand Maguire.

Founded by two sisters, the brand has a stated focus on "working to make high-quality fashion footwear fair and accessible." 

New spending announced so far

Here is a recap of all the new spending and major loan commitments as well as announcements about budget-related policy pledges made during this weeks-long pre-budget rollout:

• March 27: Canadian Renters' Bill of Rights , $15-million Tenant Protection Fund, and renter credit changes. 
• March 28: $1 billion in loans and $60 million in grants to build or renovate child-care centres , plus $48 million to extend student loan forgiveness for early childhood educators.
• March 30: Touting plan to rollout the first phase of national pharmacare related to contraceptives and diabetes medication. 
• April 1: $1 billion over five years to fund a new national school food program for 400K more kids. 
• April 2: $6-billion Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund , topping up the Housing Accelerator Fund by $400 million. 
• April 3: $15-billion top-up to the Apartment Construction Loan Program, launching "Canada Builds." 
• April 4: $1 billion in loans and $470 million in contributions for new r ental protection fund to preserve rent prices. 
• April 5: $600 million in for a series of new homebuilding innovation efforts aimed at scaling-up modular and prefabricated homes. 
• April 6: $2.4 billion to build capacity in artificial intelligence , largely for computing capabilities and technical infrastructure. 
• April 8: $8.1 billion over the next five years as part of the long-term defence policy update.
• April 9: $500 million for a new youth mental health fund to help community organizations provide more care. 
• April 10: $105 million to double firefighters and search and rescue volunteer tax credits, and $166.2 million for First Nations emergency management.
• April 11: 30-year mortgage amortizations for first-time homebuyers purchasing new builds , additional RRSP extension. 
• April 12: A multibillion-dollar package tying in the government's suite of plans meant to solve the housing crisis . 
• April 14: A new Secondary Suite Loan Program allowing homeowners to access up to $40,000 in low-interest loans to add secondary suites. 

Political expectations

The incoming budget will also be a key political document. While the federal New Democrats continue to back the Liberals on confidence matters, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has maintained a double-digit lead over the Liberals with his largely economy-focused partisan attacks.

Each taking their turns setting out their expectations for Tuesday's budget tabling – slated for around 4 p.m. ET in the House of Commons – Trudeau's political opponents have a laundry list of measures they'd like to see included.

For Poilievre, his chief demand for some time has been to "fix the budget" and stop inflationary spending that he argues is driving up the average family's interest obligations. In question period on Monday he took aim at certain plans to spend more.

"They have a food program which after eight years has no food, an affordable housing program which has doubled housing costs… When will they realize that after eight years this NDP-Liberal prime minister is not worth the cost?" he asked.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said he wants to see a budget that lowers costs for Canadians and makes "big corporations start paying their fair share."

"Let's take on the corporate greed, which is driving up the cost of living," Singh said, speaking to reporters ahead of question period. "We absolutely believe that the wealthy should pay their fair share. But what we've been focused on … it's large corporations that are exploiting Canadians."

Similarly, Green Party co-leader Elizabeth May called on Trudeau to take "bold steps" to increase revenue and "make wartime level investments to fund the caring society that Canadians deserve."

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Waterloo Regional Police Services has released the estimated total cost for the St. Patrick’s Day weekend in the city of Waterloo.

Swans return to Victoria Park

The sun is shining and the swans are back in the water at Victoria Park in Kitchener.

Sask. real estate company that lost investors' millions reaches settlement

The founders of a Saskatoon real estate investment company that left investors with millions of dollars in losses have reached a settlement with Saskatchewan’s financial and consumer watchdog.

Saskatoon Muslim community mourns teen killed in high-speed crash

Friends are raising money for the grieving family of a 16-year-old Saskatoon boy who was killed in a high-speed crash that injured two other teens on Sunday morning.

Saskatoon police investigating second homicide this week

Saskatoon Police Service (SPS) are investigating the second homicide this week after a 25-year-old man was fatally shot early Tuesday morning.

Northern Ontario

Northern Ont. driver missing after vehicle pulled into creek

Rescue crews are searching for a man reported missing on the weekend after the vehicle he was driving was pulled into a creek near the Quebec border in northern Ontario.

Ontario woman charged almost $7,000 for 20-minute taxi ride abroad

An Ontario woman was shocked to find she’d been charged nearly $7,000 after unknowingly using an unauthorized taxi company while on vacation in January.

From $60M to $215M: A brief history of Sudbury’s efforts to build a new arena

As city council in Sudbury prepares to debate – again! -- the future of Sudbury Arena, here’s a quick look back at how residents got here.

'Not worth it': London, Ont. driver charged after travelling nearly 200 km/h on Highway 401

A driver from London will have to find alternative transportation after an OPP officer clocked them travelling nearly 200 km/h on Highway 401 over the weekend.

As 'bright as the sun': Students describe house fire near Fanshawe College

A number of students have been displaced after a house fire in east London near Fanshawe College. Crews were called to the scene on Prosperity Court late Monday night.

Converting office space into affordable housing in downtown London

Sifton Properties, Homes Unlimited (London) and the Anglican Diocese of Huron and St. Paul's Cathedral will be working together on the conversion of an office building to affordable housing.

Casino Rama adds new shows to its 2024 performance lineup

Two new shows are coming to Casino Rama's Entertainment Centre for fans of country music and 80s rock.

Woman plans for vacation and a new home after winning $1M lottery prize

A woman from Alliston will take home a $1 million lottery prize after matching all seven Encore numbers in the exact order on the March 6 draw.

Stolen truck and trailer found abandoned after break-in at Barrie compound

Police in Barrie are investigating a bizarre theft after a suspect broke into a fenced compound, stole a pickup truck and trailer and plowed through the locked gate before abandoning both stolen items.

'He’s done great things': incarcerated Windsorite works to make prison more culturally sensitive for fellow inmates

The ‘faint hope’ hearing of Ali Al-Shammari, 38, continued Tuesday in Superior court.

Woman arrested in Walkerville porch pirate investigation

Windsor police have arrested a 35-year-old woman related to a porch pirate investigation in Walkerville.

Hillman Marsh prepared to celebrate birding season

The Essex Region Conservation Authority is preparing for an influx of birders migrating to the region to snap, track and catch glimpses of special species in Leamington.

Vancouver Island

Planning next bid to rescue B.C. orca calf will take 'few days': Fisheries Department

The Department of Fisheries says planning for a new attempt to rescue an orca calf trapped in a Vancouver Island lagoon will be finalized in the next few days but no date has been set.

B.C. to add 240 complex-care housing units throughout province

British Columbia is planning to add 240 new units to its complex-care housing program, providing homes for people with mental-health and addictions challenges that overlap with other serious conditions.

Evacuation of Kelowna, B.C., apartment near construction site extended for two weeks

More than 80 residents from a low-income apartment building in Kelowna, B.C., have learned they won't be able to return to their homes for at least another two weeks.

2 men injured after 'road rage' incident with Dodge Ram driver, Kelowna RCMP say

Mounties are investigating a reported "road rage" incident in Kelowna, B.C., that left two men injured last week.

Phillips calls for funding to be reinstated to Lethbridge Elder Abuse Response Network

Lethbridge West MLA Shannon Phillips is calling on the province to reinstate funding for the Lethbridge Elder Abuse Response Network.

Southern Alberta could be alive with the sound of rattlesnakes this weekend: expert

If you’re planning to head to the coulees this weekend to enjoy the nice weather, don’t forget to look down.

Lethbridge police team up with campaign to urge drivers to slow down

With the weather starting to feel like spring is really here, more kids will likely be outside enjoying the sunshine and warm temperatures, which organizers of the Slow Your Roll campaign say is a perfect time to re-launch the campaign.

Sault Ste. Marie

Northern Ont. colleges on impact of international student cap

Here is a look at how some northern Ontario colleges are being affected by the new Canadian immigration policy that has reduced the number of new international students.

Sault Downtown Plaza sees big winter turnout

The City of Sault Ste. Marie is expecting a busy summer at the Downtown Plaza. City officials say the plaza is coming off a successful first winter season, which saw large crowds gathering at the outdoor rink.

Soo Greyhounds return home to face Saginaw

The Soo Greyhounds are the talk of the town, as their second-round matchup in the OHL playoffs touches down in the Sault.

Protest averted as Newfoundland and Labrador premier helps reach pricing deal on crab

A pricing agreement has been reached between crab fishers and seafood processors that will allow for Newfoundland and Labrador's annual crab fishery to get started.

A fish harvester's protest threatens Newfoundland and Labrador's crab season -- again

Longliners across Newfoundland and Labrador are tied up once again, as a new protest by the province's fish harvesters threatens to derail the crab fishery for a second straight year.

Unique photo exhibit put cameras in the hands of survivors of domestic and sexual violence

A unique photo exhibit is putting cameras into the hands of survivors of domestic and sexual violence in Newfoundland and Labrador.

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