SpeakNaked but Cover Your Ass...

Cover your ass by always writing your own introduction.

Whenever you are going to be introduced as a speaker always write your own introduction.

Never leave the audience's first impression of you and your carefully crafted presentation to chance by being introduced by someone who may just go up there and wing it.

Writing your own introduction will:

1. Set the tone and perspective to support your presentation.
2. Increase your credibility
3. Rev up the audience's interest in you and your topic.
4. Have an introduction of appropriate length
5. Make sure your presentation's punch line or surprise isn't given away.
6. Make the introducers job so much easier, they will love you it.

I have loads of horror stories of introductions gone bad.

  The International Shipping conference where the MC spent the first 20 minutes of an hour long presentation introducing the 5 panel speakers. costing the sponsor $200,000 in presentation time and draining  all of the audience's attention.
   The introduction that finished with "and when he's done we all get an IPod". Thus killing the speakers whole presentation and surprise gift.
   The introduction of a speaker on death penalty law that mentioned that the speaker "was a dancer and high school cheerleader".  True 25 years ago but irrelevant and costing the speaker her credibility
         And all of the introduction's with mispronounced names, wrong topics and mangled titles.

You do not want to start your presentation having to dig yourself out of a hole 

created by a bad introduction.

  The way to help prevent this is to always write your own, specifically tailored for your audience
letting them know 4 things:

1  What the topic is
2. What is in it for them
3.,Why they should listen to you
4. What do they have to do and for how long

Here is a simple template to create a 60 second introduction

Good Morning my name is (name of the introducer)
I am the (introducer's title or position)
Wouldn't it be great if we could all...(What's in it for them)
For the next hour we are going to learn about (Your Topic)
Our speaker (Your Name)
Who is a... (Tell what you do so they can hire you)
Who has... (List a few of your relevant credentials).
Will share with us his/her expertise on (Your Topic)
and his/her presentation (Name of your presentation)
Welcome (Your Name)

Change this anyway you want make longer/shorter, more serious/funny, to serve your presentation, your style and your audience.

Other introduction Tips:

The shorter the presentation the shorter the introduction

Print out your introductions in the biggest font that will fit on one page.

Type out each phrase on a separate line so the speaker knows what to emphasize and when to pause

Personally hand it to the person going to introduce you.

Then make sure they pre-read it and answer any questions. (like how to pronounce your name)

Glenn Dulko Founder of SpeakNaked Speaker Training

The right introduction will:

Set you up for success
Set the Tone of your presentation
Build your credibility
Bridge obstacles and objections
Make the audience your friend
Get you remembered
Get you hired again and again

all even before you step on stage.....



Stand up, Step out, Speak Naked
 and always write your own introduction, to cover your ass.

For more ideas on how to improve your speaking and presentation email me now at Glenn@SpeakNaked.com
I Help You Love Public Speaking

You Can Become a World Class Speaker

Early in my professional baseball career civic organizations like Rotary and Kiwanis would call our team looking for a speaker for their meetings.

As the top baseball executive on our staff they would ask for me.

For two decades I would fulfill the request, get up after the meal and ramble for 15-20 minutes about the upcoming, or recently completed, season.

After my unprepared comments I would open up to questions from the audience and comfortably respond to the same inquiries each time.

Then, I would sit down to polite applause disappointed, feeling as though I wasn't having an impact on my audiences. This reinforced my belief that great speakers are born, not made.

In 2001 I left my baseball career behind to launch a small business coaching company.

Out of necessity I had to learn the art of professional speaking to build interest in my services.

Since 2002 I’ve invested thousands of dollars with personal, 1:1 presentation skills coaching and dozens of trainings to transform my belief to know that great speakers are, and can be, made.

Since 2009 I’ve had the privilege of speaking on one hundred stages in front of more than 10,000 audience members. The largest audience was 1,500.

What I’ve learned is that there is a process to becoming a world-class speaker that inspires and impacts audiences.

If you have the desire to impact and influence audiences from in front of the room there is a systematic process you can easily learn.


To triple your presentation skills over the next year go to www.PresentationPowerForLeaders.com to sign up for 52 Presentation Power Tips. You’ll get one tip a week for the next year. I guarantee those tips will triple your presentation skills in the next 12 months!


Skip Weisman is The Leadership & Workplace Communication Expert, and is a member of an elite group of international World Class Speaking Coaches. Skip works with the owners of companies with between 6-60 employees to transform workplace communication in 90-days and create a more positive, more productive and even more profitable company. Additionally, he coaches and trains business professionals and professional speakers to become a World Class Speaker and presenter that can inspire and motivate any type of audience.  You can learn more about Skip at www.WorkplaceCommunicationExpert.com and www.SkipWeismanSpeaks.com .