They Were Eager To Hear You… Until You Said Your First Sentence

(Top 10 Presentation Mistakes Series: #1 – Forgettable Openings)

Picture this…

You’re sitting in the front row at a packed leadership conference.

For years, you’ve followed this next speaker.

You’ve quoted his insights in team meetings.

You’ve shared his posts on LinkedIn.

Today, you’re finally going to hear him live.

The emcee builds the energy...

“…A bestselling author, a sought-after advisor to Fortune 100 CEOs, and today’s keynote…”

Applause fills the room.

He walks onstage.

He smiles.

He grabs the clicker.

Then he says:

“Thank you. I hope this finds you well. I’ve been looking forward to this. It’s such an honor to be here today…”

In a moment…

Your enthusiasm disappears.

You look around. People start reaching for their phones.

You glance at your yours.

You check the program.

You wonder if lunch is next.

Because the words you heard were the same ones you’ve heard from every speaker.

They were stale.

Lacked enthusiasm.

They were trite.

In the first ten seconds, the speaker lost what he needed most:

Your attention.

Why Your Opening Is Critical

Your audience starts forming impressions of you within one-tenth of a second.

That’s not opinion, it’s science.

A landmark Princeton University study found that people begin to judge your competence, confidence, and credibility within 100 milliseconds of seeing your face or hearing your voice.

That’s before you complete your first sentence.

So if your opening sounds like what they’ve heard 100 times before…

They’ll assume they know where you’re going, and tune out before you ever get there.

Most speakers don’t lose attention because their content is bad.

They lose it because their beginning is bland.

They open with clichés like:

“Thanks so much for having me."

“Let me tell you a little about myself.”

“We’ve all been through a lot these past few years…”

These are opening lines that drift, when you need one that drives.

Why The First 15 Seconds Are Important

You’re striking a match.

That spark either catches — ignites curiosity — or fizzles, leaving your story in the dark.

You need to open with tension, emotion, or a vivid image, the kind that taps into your audience’s survival brain.

That’s the part of the mind hardwired to notice what’s new, unexpected, or uncertain.

When you start strong, you break through resistance and begin to earn trust.

A Strong Opening Accomplishes One Goal

It makes your audience need to know what happens next.

✅ A jarring question

“What would you do if your biggest client ghosted you the day before a major deadline?”

✅ A vivid scene

“The boardroom falls silent. I can hear the hum of the projector, and my pulse in my ears.”

✅ A surprise “I almost walked out of the room that day… and I’m glad I didn’t.”

The Fix:

Don’t warm up your audience.

Wake them up.

Skip the nervous throat-clearing.

Start with a unique opening that grabs their attention and makes them sit up.

That’s the difference between quickly being forgotten, and being remembered.

Get Help Crafting An Attention-Grabbing Story Opening

That’s what we do in a Story Tune-Up.

To how the tune-up can help you, let’s schedule a time to chat.

Schedule yours here

P.S. You can listen to all 10 of these mistakes on the Unforgettable Presentations podcast.

Listen to me share mistakes with World Champion and CSP speakers Darren LaCroix and Mark Brown. To listen to numbers 10 to 6, CLICK HERE

To listen to numbers 5 to 1,CLICK HERE