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If you don’t have hooks strategically sprinkled throughout your speech, chances are your audience will bail mentally if not physically. You have to find ways to keep hooking your audience so THEY don’t want to let go.
Below you’ll find 7 super hooks (in no particular order) that get your audience to say, “Tell me more” or “What happened next?”
7 Secret Hooks
Hook #1: Curiosity Hook
“After 15 years of trial and error, research, and blood, sweat, and tears, I’ve finally found out what makes the difference between a good presenter and a great one. It’s…”
That’s an example of a curiosity hook. You find ways to make your long road lead to their shortcut. However, you don’t tell them what they want to know…at least not immediately. Make them curious, tease them a little more, and then give them the tool (or solution, answer, or formula, etc.).
Hook #2 – Avoidance Hook
Here’s an example of an Avoidance Hook.
I tell a story about a speech I gave in Michigan when I failed miserably to the point where the meeting planner couldn’t even look me in the eyes. Then I say to my audience of speakers, “This is something you should not have to go through and you won’t if you listen closely.”
The Avoidance Hook focuses on something your audience wants to avoid. It’s important to use this type of hook because sometimes people are motivated by what they want to avoid more than they are by what they want to attain.
Hook #3 – Attainment Hook
I’ve said to an audience of speakers, “How would you like a tool to make a deeper connection than you’ve ever felt before? If so, say yes.” They always yell, “YES!”
The Attainment Hook is just how it sounds. You simply let the audience know what they can attain if they pay attention to what’s coming next. Think results-based. I mention that they’ll be able to make a deeper connection than they ever have before. That’s certainly something they want, but I make sure to tease them before I tell them. Don’t give it up too soon. Make them wait for it and want it.
“Tease them before you tell them.”
Hook #4 The “Most People” Hook
When speaking, always keep this in mind:
“Most people don’t want to be most people”
When I used to watch the master presenters, I realized many of them made statements like, “Most people do this” or “Most people do that.” Whenever I heard those statements, I’d say to myself “I’m not going to be like most people. I don’t want to be average. I want to do something different.”
That’s the effect the words “most people” have on people. For example, when I say, “Most people live their lives on get-set. When it comes to pursuing their goals and dreams, they take their marks, they get-set, and they never go. They live and they die on get-set.”
Because “most people” are two of the most persuasive words in the English language, my audience members get very motivated to “go” rather than live on “get-set.”
Of course you can also be more specific by saying something like “most scientists” or “most musicians” or “most students,” based on who is in your audience.
Hook #5 – Conflict Hook
Good stories have a conflict that is established very early. Great stories not only establish the conflict, they also escalate it. Think about the Titanic. One of the conflicts was when they Titanic hit the iceberg. However, the escalation of the conflict was when the water rose on the Titanic. If the water never rose on the Titanic, then that would have been a terrible movie. Always think, “How can I raise the water on the Titanic in my story?”
The conflict is the hook because your audience wants to see how you will overcome it and what tools you will use. Why? Because maybe they can use similar tools for similar situations. In that way, your speech has become very useful to them.
Hook #6 Silence Hook
I tell a story about how excited I was to meet my speaking hero. The only problem was, when I approached him, he said nothing back to me. That silence in the story becomes a hook because my audience is hungry to hear what he is going to say and then, when he doesn’t say anything, they’re ever hungrier to see what I’m going to do about it. The silent moment becomes the hook.
The problem with some speakers is they rush through the silence thereby making the potential hook much less effective. Take your time, dance in the silence, and watch your audience move to the edge of their seats.
Hook #7 Statement Hook
One of the first stories I ever told as a speaker started out like this:
“Nobody has ever died from a snakebite.”
My audience wonders, “What’s he talking about? People get bitten all the time and I’m sure some of them have died.”
I then go on to tell them it’s not the bite, it’s the venom that kills them.
The key is that the first statement hooks them in to want to know more. The rest of the story clears it up and answers their question.
When all of your hooks are done, so is your speech.
Final Words on Hooks
As you can see, it’s important not only to have hooks at the beginning and end of your speeches, but to sprinkle them throughout. Oh, wait a minute! There is an 8th hook and it’s more powerful than the other 7 combined. It’s…
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