Hook Your Audience Before You Say Who You Are
- Meridith Grundei
- Sep 29
- 2 min read
I just wrapped a training with a tech team that had me gleefully hopping between three states. These folks present often, yet what stood out was how hard it is to shift habits when you’ve been taught one way for years. Add in company culture, compliance, or regulations, and it can feel even trickier.
But one truth doesn’t change across industries: people connect to emotion. Even in technical or compliance-heavy talks, emotion is what makes ideas stick. That’s why I spend a lot of time helping people nail their introductions. When you hook your audience from the start and set the rules of engagement, everything that follows flows easier.
Meridith helped me take my overwhelming slides full of complex lingo and build a powerful story that is fun to tell and gets people excited. I’ve never been more excited to get in front of a crowd, present and grown my business. — Keegan C. | Veregy
Here’s a simple structure I use again and again:
Hook first. Grab attention right away and give your audience a reason to care.
Credibility second. Share who you are, briefly.
The promise. Tell your audience what they’ll gain, usually three key takeaways.
Why this presentation is important now. Make it relevant and present.
Follow that order and your audience stays with you.
Need ideas for hooks? Try these:
Ask an open-ended question.
Tell a story about a moment when something shifted for you.
Share a startling statistic (and fact-check it).
Quote someone you admire (and fact-check it).
Use a visual or prop.
Other options like comparisons, analogies, or metaphors work too, but start here.
Because if your goal is to inspire, educate, or drive action, you can’t afford to be forgettable.
The tech team I worked with recently got to test this on their feet. The difference was night and day from their usual intros. Watching them experience that shift and seeing the audience lean in was powerful.
So the question is, how will you hook your audience next time?
If you want to try this out and send it to me, I am happy to offer a quick hit of feedback!
