The One Key Thing Most Communicators Overlook

Communicating as a whole can be a very tedious and tiring process.
Communicating publicly and speaking publicly is difficult for even the most experienced people.

However, with some solid prep (as you probably know), it can become a much less nerve racking experience. Most communicators (good communicators) overlook one very important part of their speech…

The First Sentence.

Those first few seconds that you and I stand up in front of an audience of people or type the first few words of paper or blog are critical. In those first few seconds and first sentence, our audience determines if they’ll listen to the rest of what we say or read what we’re proposing.

A lot of communicators waste these first seconds on meaningless chit chat and filler words.

What if, instead of just fill and ‘finding your stride’ words, we utilized that first sentence for something that grabs the attention of the people we’re communicating to?

We were taught to do that when we first started writing… to have a ‘hook’ that captivated our audience.

It’s important for teachers, presenters, preachers, writers, bloggers, and anyone else communicating to utilize that first sentence when the audience is waiting to soak it in.

Here are some ideas for a first sentence…

• Say something funny.
• Say something bold.
• Begin telling a personal story.
• Make a proposition.
• Create tension.

Those are just a few suggestions.

I’d love to hear from you too.

What do you think about the first sentence theory? What are some good opening sentences for preacher, speakers, and writers?