How Not to Start Your Lesson

If you want to engage your audience, don't use either of these two common "opening" approaches:

1. Introducing yourself or sharing a story about what happened "on the way here" that isn't relevant to your main teaching points.

2. Telling them what you're going to tell them before you tell them.  (This comes from the famous preaching paradigm of (a) telling 'em what you're gonna tell 'em (b) telling 'em, and (c) telling what you done told 'em. )

Let me be clear -- you should use both approaches but not as your initial opening.  Get rolling with a powerful start by diving right in, and grabbing their attention.  Introduce yourself later on, not at the very beginning. You can outline where you're going with your lesson, but that's not the best use of your first sentences.

Instead, you need to dive right in and hook a nerve.  In fact, I recommend you not think of "open" but "hook" when you craft your opening.

Get my free report on crafting a hook that will help you teach to change lives.