On Sunday, August 16th, Brian Tracy posted an excellent four-minute YouTube video of a speech. It is about the seven most effective ways to open a talk (and make a powerful presentation) which are:
1] Present a problem that needs a solution.
2] Present a common goal.
3] Ask a rhetorical question to grab attention.
4] Make a startling statement.
5] Tell your own story of why you’re here.
6] Compare or contrast two things or conditions.
7] Promise them advantages and benefits from listening.
But, the misleading title just is Brian Tracy, How to Talk and Prepare a Powerful Presentation. Also, back on December 12, 2012 he posted the same video with the shorter title How to Talk and Prepare a Powerful Presentation. He didn’t take his own advice, since on page 26 of his Speak to Win book he says:
“There is a powerful method of preparation that I have used over the years. I start with a clean sheet of paper. I write the title of my talk at the top. I then write a one-sentence description of the purpose or objective of the talk. What is the ‘’job’ it has to do?”
There’s also an amusingly backward hand gesture near the beginning. Watch Brian’s hand move counterclockwise when he says:
“We imagine that a talk is like a circle, and it starts at the top like a clock and it goes tick, tick, tick, and it comes around back to where it started.”
The audience image came from Wikimedia Commons.
That hand gesture's a classic mistake, and it's so common! Also see this pair of example videos showing a speaker doing a gesture from their left, and then from the audience's left:
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