Technique of the week · Building speeches
Hooks
The first ten seconds
Never open with your name and the agenda. Open with a reason to listen.
The idea
The audience decides very early whether to pay attention. A hook is a deliberate first line: a question, a surprising fact, a scene, a bold claim. Your name and context can come right after — once they're listening.
How to do it
- Write three different openings for the same talk: a question, a scene, a claim.
- Cut every word before the first interesting one.
- Deliver it, then pause for two full seconds.
In the session
The drill
Hook battle: everyone gets the same dull topic and has 15 seconds to open. The room votes on which one they'd keep listening to.
This week
Your homework
Start your next message or call with the most interesting sentence, not the polite preamble.
When you give feedback, ask
Did the first line make you want the second?
Source: Quintilian on the exordium, Institutio Oratoria IV.1.