He Was DOA When He Opened His Mouth

"My name is Brandon and I'm going to talk about performance strategy."

Didn't matter that he was sharp. Didn't matter that his clients loved him. Didn't matter that the strategy was clever and smart.

The room had already checked out.

What to Know Before You Open Your Mouth

There are four questions to answer to drastically improve your opening:

1. What's the REAL challenge?

Find the unspoken driver behind the brief and lead with it — the finance, marketing, category, cultural, or media driver sitting underneath it. That's what the room actually walked in worried about.

2. What's driving the audience?

Every person in that room has different information needs — one wants long-term strategic thinking, another wants collaborative team thinking, another wants precision and proof. Feed each of those needs directly, and you'll land harder than any generic pitch could. Remember, research shows that if you speak to what someone specifically needs, they lean in.

3. What's the hook?

Deliver a headline that starts a conversation — not one that presents a white paper.

Studies show that if you want your ideas to survive past the meeting, wrap them in a story, not a slide of bullet points.

4. When do you introduce yourself?

Always after your hook. Get yourself associated with great thinking — not seven minutes of throat-clearing.

Brandon didn't need a better strategy. He needed a better first ten seconds.

I would love to help you and your teams be more efficient and successful in your presenting skills. Reach out to me at mark@voyageurtraining.com and we can chat about how you can improve.

BTW: The situation in this story was real, but the name has been changed to protect the innocent.