The document discusses how to start a presentation or speech with a you-focused question to engage the audience. It provides examples from a world championship speech that asked "What do you want to be when you grow up?" and suggests asking questions that address challenges or problems the audience faces, such as financial struggles, and hinting at solutions. Questions should be provocative but the speaker must judge appropriateness depending on the company culture to avoid hurting egos.

2. how to start your
presentation or speech
with a YOU FOCUSED
QUESTION
Hi, my name is Akash and I’m a presentation skills coach and
author of “Public Speaking Secrets of the Champions”. In this
presentation, I am going to teach you how to start your
presentation or speech with a you-focused question.
Akash Karia
http://www.CommunicationSkillsTips.com

3. In her 2010 World Championship of Public Speaking speech, Lisa Panarello
starts her speech with a You-focused question to capture audience attention.
“What do you want to be when you grow up?”
This is a question that everyone has heard at some point in their life, so
the question immediately connects with listeners.
So, how can you apply this to your presentations? How do you find
questions which will connect with your audience?
When you’re sharing your expertise, think about what challenge or
problem your audience members are facing. For example, if you’ve been called
upon to share money-management tips, the problem your audience members
might be facing is that they might be struggling financially. So you might start
off with questions that address the problem and indirectly promise to solve it:

4. “Why is it that some people always struggle financially, whereas others
achieve financial freedom? How can we ensure that we achieve financial
freedom so that we can live debt-free, worry-free and stress-free?”
The above question pinpoints your audience’s problem and hints at a
solution to the problem. Bingo, they’re hooked!
Here’s another example. Let’s say you’ve been called upon to give a
presentation to upper management analyzing what your company can do to
increase its market share. You might start with the following questions:
“Why is it that our biggest competitor stole 15% of our market share?
What can we do to prevent this happening again? What can we do to not only
take back, but also increase our market share?”

5. The above question is a provocative question and it will immediately hook
your audience into your presentation. Small warning though: the above
question might not be appropriate for all business presentations. Let me
explain. When you’re giving a corporate presentation, you also have to make
sure you’re not hurting your superior’s egos. In some companies, such as
Google, you’re encouraged to challenge decisions and the status quo, so the
above question would be appropriate. However, in other companies, the boss’s
fragile ego might prevent you from talking about why the competition has done
so well and you haven’t. When giving corporate presentation, feel free to use
you-focused questions to start the presentation, but exercise your own
judgment about which questions are appropriate.