Dozens of people sit, waiting for him to present what have he got. When he is presenting, only 1/4 of those dozens listen, others are bored, some of them tweet, some of them even sleep.

Taken from Flickr

Why? He didn’t start his presentation well, he didn’t speak well, so he didn’t end well.

And another reason is: people already knew what he will talk. He will talk about something those dozens of people already knew. People are not curious at all when he spoke. That’s a hell nightmare for every public speaker.

So what will attract curiosity of those people?

1. Mysterious Title

Mysterious title is in fact, easy to understand. Mysterious title tells people what they can know if they’re listening to your presentation; but, mysterious title doesn’t quote useful info inside a presentation that people can get if they listen to your presentation - mysterious title makes people curious.

Great examples of mysterious title are:
- Surprising Myths about Liberty Statue
- A Really Cheap “Plan B” for This Company
- Great Ideas for Our Next-Gen Game Engine

2. Early Promise(s)

I remembered when Steve Jobs told the audience that he will tell them 3 stories - you know what? The audience stayed curious for 3 stories.

Why? Because story is an unpredictable art - sometimes we don’t know what will happens. And another great thing done by Steve Jobs is that he said he will tell 3 stories. So when a story was told, audience keeps asking for the second, and then the third.

So what we learn from Steve Jobs is to promise the audience about things you’ll present. You can tell them that you will show them a very surprising fact, or maybe a very controversial opinion. But the easiest and best kind of promise is to promise numbers, just like Steve did.

3. Curiosity Points

Speak slower when you’re telling a story, and you’ve created curiosity points.

Of course there are another examples of curiosity point - but I just want to tell you what curiosity point really is.

Curiosity point is a moment when you make people curious, so they will be very interested to hear what’s next. It’s just like “do you know what happened then?” when storyteller speaks.

I recommend you to make some curiosity points, so people will always stay interested about things you’re talking.

Okay, I think this article is already long enough, and I have a time-wasting homework to do. Thanks for reading, and please subscribe!

Regard

Gumilar Fardhani