February 27, 2026
“Hello everybody. For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Michelle’s husband. Barack.”
Obama does something really smart here.
Now, most presenters lose the room in the first 10 seconds. Not because they’re bad, but because they play it safe.
They start with their name, role, and a bunch of boring context.
Obama doesn’t. He starts with surprise. Something unexpected. And you can do the same.
In this article, I’ll show you five powerful ways to start your next speech.
Let’s start with the first one.
Check out these two openings and see if you can spot what they have in common.
Chris Hadfield:
“What’s the scariest thing you’ve ever done? Or another way to say it is, what’s the most dangerous thing that you’ve ever done?”
Simon Sinek:
“How do you explain when things don’t go as we assume? Or better, how do you explain when others are able to achieve things that seem to defy all of the assumptions?”
They both start with a question.
And questions are powerful because the moment you ask one, your audience engages.
Even if they don’t answer it out loud, their brain instantly starts searching for an answer.
And in that moment, you have their full attention.
All right, onto the second one.
This is the one that I use the most in my corporate career.
Jamie Oliver:
“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.”
Pamela Meyer:
“Okay, now I don’t want to alarm anybody in this room. But it’s just come to my attention that the person to your right is a liar.”
They both open with a surprising statement.
It can be a statistic, a fact, or a bold claim that challenges what people believe—something that makes your audience go, “Wait, is that true?”
And that moment of doubt, well, that’s attention.
Here’s how you do it well – First, say the statement slowly and own it.
For example:
“400.”
Then you pause.
“The average office desk has 400 times more bacteria than the average toilet seat.”
And then you pause again.
Let the surprise land before you move on.
All right, let’s go to the third one.
This one is simple but insanely powerful.
I’m going to tell you about two of the most viewed TED Talks of all time. And I want you to spot what they have in common.
Brené Brown:
So, I’ll start with this. A couple years ago, an event planner called me because I was going to do a speaking event.And she called and she said, “I’m really struggling with how to write about you on the little flyer.”And I thought, “Well, what’s the struggle?”And she said, “Well, I saw you speak and I’m going to call you a researcher, I think, but I’m afraid if I call you a researcher, no one will come because they’ll think you’re boring and irrelevant.”
“It’s funny the things you forget.I went to see my mother the other day and uh she told me this story that I I’d completely forgotten about how when we were driving together, she would pull the car over and by the time she had got out the car and gone around the car to let me out the car, I would have already got out the car and pretended to have died.”
They both start with a story.
And stories are powerful because they turn your talk into a movie.
The moment a story begins, people stop analyzing and they start experiencing.
If you want instant attention, open with the story.
But here’s the key:
Skip the long background and start right into the moment.
Where and when does the story take place? What are you doing? What is going wrong?
Drop your audience straight into the scene.
That’s how powerful storytelling looks like.
All right, let’s go to the next one.
At the start of your talk, your audience has one question: “What’s in it for me?”
And the next speaker answers that perfectly:
“And what I want to suggest to you is that many of you are one well- constructed, one well delivered talk away from absolute explosion of what it is that you want to do.”
He starts with a big promise.
A big promise tells your audience what they will get by listening to you. Not what you will talk about, but what they will gain.
For example, instead of saying:
“Today, I will talk about body language.”
Say:
“By the end of this talk, you’ll know how to appear confident in any high-pressure situation.”
Now, that’s a promise worth listening to.
But let’s now go to the fifth one.
This one is, I would say, a little bit more advanced, but when you do it well, it’s magical.
Look at how these two public speaking world champions start their speeches:
Mohammed Qahtani walks on stage calmly and starts pretending to light a cigarette.
He looks at the audience as they gasp and says,
“What?!”
Darren Tay walks silently onto the stage at Toastmasters. He looks at the audience and pulls a pair of white underpants out of his pocket and puts them on over his pants. He confidently puts his hands on his hips and smirks at the audience.
They both start with a visual action hook.
Meaning they don’t just say something interesting—they do something interesting, something unexpected, something that looks slightly odd on stage.
Not slightly, actually very odd on stage. And that instantly wakes people up.
Now, the examples you just read are powerful. And yes, they are big. But you don’t have to go that far.
A visual action hook can be much simpler.
For example, it could be you walking on stage and saying nothing for five seconds, or you holding up an object without explaining it, or writing a word on a flip chart before speaking.
Same principle. You do something unexpected that makes people curious.
Hooks are super important, but they are only the beginning.
What really matters is whether people understand your ideas.
In the next article, I’ll show you how to explain your thinking clearly so people can actually follow and remember it.
See you there.
P.S. Want to become a stronger communicator?
Here are two ways I can support you:
👉 Want to tell more engaging stories? Join our next Storytelling Workshop.
👉 Want to speak with confidence and clarity? Check out our Communication Skills Training.
Both are fun, practical, and designed to help you grow fast.
Are you ready to transform your storytelling skills?
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