First impressions influence how others perceive you. An impactful and best introduction speech about yourself will significantly affect a crowd’s first impressions if delivered succinctly and tactfully.
It is splendid to deliver your speech to the audience. However, the actual speech delivery can be challenging as many individuals struggle with nervousness and forgetfulness, which can affect speech delivery. Also, planning and composing a self-introduction speech can be nerve-wracking and tedious.
How do we overcome the jitters, prepare, compose, and deliver the most impactful introduction speech to our intended audience?
Let me share the fail-proof ways of planning, creating, and delivering compelling and remarkable introduction speech ideas.
Pro tip: Before giving any speech, practice your speech at least three times. You can use Orai to practice privately and get feedback on your speech.
What is Introduction Speech?
This speech is the primary means of introducing oneself to an intended crowd. The crowd can be your colleagues, employers, groupmates, business partners, or only people you want to influence your thoughts and beliefs. It should be concise enough to introduce your goals, interests, or ideas in a short time.
Importance of Speech of Introduction
A speech of introduction presents a brief background of yourself to the crowd regarding goals, interests, strengths, beliefs, and achievements. It is concise enough to introduce, break the ice, and imprint oneself on the public.
An introduction speech can be a forerunner of other prominent addresses, an introduction for a guest speaker, or just a speech that elicits acquaintance and influence.
Four Characteristics of a Good Self-introduction Speech
Leaving lasting first impressions is as important as giving your introductory speech. Good speech of self-introduction must have the following qualities:
Factual
Details about your personal life and success regarding names, dates, and events should be presented as accurately and factually as possible. No bluffs should be included, and events should be chronologically correct as they reflect your credibility and honesty.
Concise
A good introduction speech example should be concise in delivering your goals, interests, and intended influence on the crowd but not too dragging to create impatience. The longer you talk, the higher the chances of the audience getting disinterested in your intentions, leading to impatience and disengagement.
It is essential to give a catchy, concise, and factual introduction to promote and sustain audience engagement.
Adaptable to the Audience and Occasion
A self-introduction speech should convey relevant and adaptable information to the intended audience and occasion. You can jot down notes about the audience’s preferences and type of event and accustom your speech accordingly. Nothing is more impactful than an introduction speech that significantly appeals to audience interest and is occasion-specific.
Exciting
You can build steady anticipation for your speech by adding inspirational words, quotations, or compelling words. In this manner, your audience will sustain their engagement with your address and initiate interaction.
Let us go to the most tedious task of creating an introduction speech.
Steps in Creating an Introduction Speech
The step-by-step process of crafting your speech of introduction includes:
- Preparation
- Practice and editing
- Planning; and
- Actual delivery of a speech.
Preparation
Preparing for your speech involves creating a speech outline, presenting hobbies and interests, self-selling, and standing out.
| Steps in Speech Preparation | Reminders |
| Creation of Speech Outline | Identify the main points of your speech to determine the most important thing to say. These points can be the Name statement in the first part of your speech. Work interests and career goals presented in one sentenceEducational or professional background appropriate for the speech |
| Presentation of Hobbies and Interests | Your hobbies and interests can be added to the speech, depending on the audience or speech purpose. It establishes one’s authority and tangibility on the subject or intended purpose. It is better to prepare two speeches, one draft with experience/hobbies and one without it. Let an objective listener evaluate the address to determine its impact and applicability. |
| Self-selling | You can give an introduction speech example containing your professional capabilities and achievements without going overboard. Highlight capabilities, characteristics, and experience relevant to the audience and occasion. Avoid including irrelevant information when speaking to new colleagues. |
| Standing Out | Your introduction speech can be exceptional among your peers by sincerely presenting your achievements, experiences, and learnings. You can show your skills and experience while highlighting the drive for learning and development. This concept of standing out can be connected to your speech outline of career goals and personal development. |
The following sentences are part of an introduction speech example based on the steps of speech preparation:
“Good Morning! My name is John Dewey, and I am a computer programming student at Berkeley University.’’ [straightforward introduction]
“I am developing an app that allows people to order pizza through their Twitter accounts. This innovation is the latest app that I designed.” [interest and career plans]
“My second app won a University award for its contribution to helping people locate nearby dog parks.” [relevant work background]
“Because of my extensive knowledge in app writing and wide professional connections, I know what is useful and helpful to youth nowadays. My apps provide convenience and immediate assistance.” [self-selling]
“I allot lots of time attending app conventions to know the preferences of my audience and always to develop top-cut app designs.” [stand out]
Practice and Editing
The second major step in speech creation is practicing and editing your speech. You can trim down your speech, use short sentences, rehearse, and memorize your address accordingly.
| Steps in Speech Practice and Editing | Reminders |
| Trimming | Present your speech of self-introduction in two or three sentences. Keep it as brief and informative as possible. Make sure to present the speech at a recommended time, usually within 3 to 5 minutes. |
| Use of Short Sentences | Deliver your speech using simple, clear sentences to avoid uncertainty on the part of the audience. Carefully build the sentence structure and avoid long-winded sentences. |
| Speech Rehearsal | You should be able to practice delivering your speech, taking note of inflections, tone, and delivery manner. Practice in front of a mock audience. Their feedback determines the audience’s impact on the speech, strengths, and weaknesses. |
| Memorization | It is better to deliver a memorized introductory speech as it conveys control, conviction, and confidence on your part. It also sustains your audience’s interest in your speech. You may use an index card containing only the bulleted list of the vital speech points during speech delivery. |
An introduction speech example showing the use of simple sentences is presented below:
“I used to stay at the off-campus dorm with my best friend. It is in this dorm that I began assembling and disassembling cellphones and laptops.”
Planning
Planning your speech involves determining your target audience, relevant points, and speech purpose and tone.
| Steps in Speech Planning | Reminders |
| Determination of Target Audience | Always determine your intended audience, the purpose of the speech, and others’ expectations of your speech. The type of audience will influence the tone and purpose of the speech. |
| Use of Relevant Points | Stick with one to two main points about yourself, then add more issues as time allows. Ensure you give your target audience a general view of your skills, experiences, and interests rather than narrowing it to a specific, unrelated point. |
| Speech Purpose and Tone | The purpose of the speech is the message you want to convey to your crowd. The speech tone refers to the manner of delivering the introduction speech. Depending on the target crowd, it can be friendly, conversational, or professional. Always adjust your tone and purpose according to the target crowd and occasion. |
Actual Delivery of the Speech
Lastly, essential considerations before delivering your speech include relaxation, acceptable body language, avoidance of rush, and use of humor in case of a mistake.
| Steps in Speech Delivery | Reminders |
| Relaxation | Try to alleviate your nervousness by doing relaxation techniques like deep breathing, visualization techniques, and imagining ending the speech. Find a peaceful place and take a few minutes to prepare yourself. Take a deep breath, focus on breathing, and count the release of breath. These techniques will calm your nerves and channel your inner confidence during the speech delivery. |
| Good Body Language | Project a strong, engaging, and confident image to your audience when you deliver your speech by adapting an open body language: Direct eye contact across the room in a controlled way. Try to project a genuine smile to your audience. Maintain a straight posture. Avoid arm crossing or hand clutching. Alternately, shift your glance from the left to the right side of the room in a controlled yet relaxed manner. |
| Avoidance of Rush | You need to discover balance and speed in the delivery of your speech. Practice delivering your speech in front of others or recording it and listening back to your speech. In this manner, you can identify the pacing and pauses of your speech. |
| Use of Humor in case of a mistake | You can take a quick, humorous approach to your mistake and immediately move on. The target audience appreciates humility in recognizing the mistake. However, avoid dwelling long on the error as it can affect the audience’s interest in your speech. Using humor in a self-introduction speech example is as follows: “I am sorry, I am just so excited to share my beautiful thoughts that I mixed up all my words. Let me discuss that again. |
How Do You Start an Introduction Speech?
Finally, after spending hours outlining, editing, and rehearsing your speech introduction, you will deliver the speech to the target audience.
The start of an introduction speech is crucial as it captures the audience’s attention and determines the length of interest and engagement of your audience towards your speech. If your crowd felt bored at the start of the speech, there is a small chance of conveying your audience’s influence and message.
Let us take on the different ways of starting a speech of introduction and actively engrossing your target crowd.
1. Current Events Reference
Starting your speech with a current, relevant news event is an effective way to grab attention, showing the topic’s relevance in today’s world. You can use news or the latest trends related to your intended speech purpose and target audience.
An excellent introduction speech example may start with “Good afternoon. America hits 1,000,000 cases of COVID-19 for July 2020.”
2. Use of Quotations
Initiating an introduction speech with a pertinent quote sets the tone for the rest of the speech. You can start a speech of introduction with a quote from Bill Gates, “Life is not fair, get used to it.”
3. The ‘What If’ Scenario
The power of engagement lies in the speaker’s ability to immediately draw his/her crowd’s attention to the speech. Asking a ‘what if’ scenario entices the public to follow the flow of your thoughts.
“What if we are the sole human inhabitants of this galaxy? What would happen if our races become extinct?”
4. Use of the Word ‘Imagine’
This technique applies guided imagery by attracting your audience toward visualizing a mental image of an extraordinary situation. It aims to engage all the audience’s senses to maximize impact and encourage them to think positively.
“Imagine being stranded on a deserted island with no one beside you. What would be the first thing that you would do?”
5. Storytell
A well-rehearsed short story or anecdote draws the audience’s attention and elicits emotional involvement and inspiration during a