The other day I had a talk planning call with a potential client, and he said: “I just want to get consistent results. Sometimes I start my talk and I can feel the energy shift, and I know I’ve engaged them. But other times, I just can’t get their attention, and I want to understand how to do this consistently every time I speak.” The truth is that grabbing your audience’s attention in the right way, (or ‘hooking’’ them in, as I call it), is one of the biggest stumbling blocks for a successful talk. The first 180 seconds of your talk is perhaps the most crucial, and that’s because in those two to three minutes you are communicating a lot to your audience without even realising it.  In this show, I’m going to show you how to make the most of that time, and to avoid the bear traps I so often see speakers falling into at the start of their talk.  Enjoy! What you’ll learn: The messages you are communicating to your audience before you even start speaking. The big mistakes a lot of speakers make with the start of their talk. Why you should go for quantity over quality when you are looking for great ideas. The questions you should ask yourself before you ‘settle’ for a talk title, open and close.  Why you should be provocative and what to do after. If you want to be heard stay out of the ‘herd’ The way to make your talk unique. And more!! Leave a rating or review for The Speaking Club (Take a photo of your review, email it to me at sarah@saraharcher.co.uk and get a free e-copy of my book Cracking Speech Mate - How to Use Humour to Make You an Amazing Speaker!)   Books: Grab your copy of Straight to the Top - How to Create and Deliver a Killer Elevator Pitch Grab your copy of Cracking Speech Mate - How to Add Humour to Make You An Amazing Speaker   Resources: FREE RESOURCE - The 5 Levels of Pain FREE NEW GUIDE - From Blank Page to Stage  Take the Snackable Story Challenge https://www.saraharcher.co.uk Episode 103 - How to Discover Your Speaking Persona Episode 268 - Increase Your Speaking Impact by Creating a Push and Pull Talk Newspaper article with the Textile Zombie can be read here Thanks for listening!   To share your thoughts:                                                   Share this show on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. To help the show out: Leave an honest review at https://www.ratethispodcast.com/tsc. Your ratings and reviews really help get the word out and I read each one. Subscribe on iTunes.