How do you start your presentations? Most people start by welcoming the audience and giving them a glimpse of what they are about to learn or hear. 

The problem with this is that the audience often tunes out before you get to the meat and potatoes—the benefits they showed up to hear.

You’ve got 7 seconds to get the attention of your audience. Don’t squander that time by clearing your throat.  

What should you do instead? Start “in the middle”. 

Open your presentation by hitting the audience over the head with a rhetorical two-by-four. To wake them up and get them to listen.

There are many ways to “start in the middle”. You can lead with the “bad news,” the crisis, the problem, or the pain. You can open with the moment just before the outcome or in the middle of it. You can start with a surprising statistic, a shocking statement, a bold promise, or an embarrassing confession.

Or you can lead with an emotional story, especially about a subject your audience will relate to.Something they have experienced or something they fear.

In fiction, they say start in the middle of the action. In law, we call it “in medias res.” Both describe the importance of disrupting the thoughts in the mind of your listener and bringing them into your world. 

One good way to do that is to lead with a question. 

If you start by asking what they think about a problem that concerns them, for example, they’ll immediately think about that problem and are thus immediately engaged in what you say.

Keeping them engaged is easier when you start out that way, and an engaged audience is an audience who will listen when you ask them to do something. Which is how your presentation should end.