Private Club Radio Show

463: Setting the Stage: How to Introduce Someone Without Losing the Room w/ Denny Corby

• Denny Corby

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Ever watch the room drift during a seven-minute bio read? 
We’ve all been there, so we/me (host Denny Corby)  built a reliable way to introduce speakers that actually lifts the energy, respects the audience, and makes your guest feel like a headliner.
 
In this fast, focused walkthrough, we share the exact 
60-second structure we use onstage: 
gather attention with a clean opening line, deliver a sharp hook, 
explain why this person matters to this audience right now, 
hit two or three punchy highlights (save the best for last), 
then pause and say the name, clear and strong.

We dig into the vibe check that shapes tone and pacing, 
from playful member nights to heartfelt legacy awards to post-dinner experts who need polish without stand-up flair. 

You’ll hear practical note-taking methods, short phrases, generous spacing, top-right placement, so you can glance down and pop back up without losing your place. 
We talk rehearsal the right way,  practice out loud, in the actual room if possible, mic in hand, so the mechanics are muscle memory and your presence feels calm and ready.

Then we get real about the don’ts.  
no LinkedIn bios, no podium walls, and never skip the microphone in a chatty room. Plus, a few pre-stage rituals to steady your energy. 
smile before you step up, shake out the nerves, and embrace that brief quiet while the audience settles. 
If you’re tempted to use AI for phrasing, we show how to treat it as a brainstorming partner without losing your voice. By the end, you’ll have a simple, repeatable intro formula that respects time, builds anticipation, and sets your speaker, and your event, up to win.

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SPEAKER_00:

Hey everybody, welcome to the Private Club Radio Show, where we give you the scoop on all things private golf and country clubs from mastering leadership and management, food and beverage excellence, member engagement secrets, board governance, and everything in between, all while keeping it fun and light. Whether you're a club veteran, just getting your feet wet, or somewhere in the middle, you are in the right place. I'm your host, Denny Corby. Welcome to the show. In this episode, I'm going to go over how to give somebody a proper introduction because nothing kills a vibe faster than a seven-minute bio read. Or if you've ever just walked up on stage, smack the mic a couple of times, and said, Is this thing on? This episode is for you. This is your intervention. Put the mic down, back away slowly. Let's talk about how to actually introduce someone without losing the room. Here we go. You see, a good intro, a good introduction when you set the tone for the speaker, for the audience, for the person who's about to come up for the whole event. And an intro isn't just information. An intro is energy, it's connection, it's part of the event. It's you teeing up the next person so the audience is excited before they even say a word. If you get it right and you look polished, the speaker feels like a rock star. The audience is relaxed and they are locked in, and that's super important. So I'm gonna share with you all a couple tips and tricks and just things that I use to help bring somebody up on stage in a really great, fun way. That gets the audience excited, it lets them know about them, and it helps set the person up for a successful talk, speech, keynote, or whatever they're going to be talking to the room about. So one of the most important things is doing a vibe check of the room. What's the environment? Who's in the audience? Who is the audience? What's the occasion? What's the time of day? All of those things help you create the intro. If you're doing one for an entertainer for one of your member event nights, maybe a little Dunny Corby action, you know, it's going to be light, fun, and playful. If it's an award for a 50-year member, probably a little bit more respectful, a little bit more heartfelt, a little bit more legacy. If it's for a guest speaker after dinner, professional, energetic, but not maybe stand-up comedy. You know, the the vibe tells you how much humor, how much hype, how much reverence, and how much needs to be put into the entire thing. Now, once you understand and have the room in check, you have to have a little bit of a structure in place. A great intro is not a biography. A great intro is about 30 to 60 seconds. That's it. And it should build like a really good drum roll. Here's the formula that I like to use. And as I usually start, if it's a cold start, that means the audience is doing other things and you have to get the attention. I usually have about a line or two that just gets me on stage and allows me to chat with and say some words, some lines to the audience, and just words over the microphone that lets the audience know that something's starting to happen. Let's start quieting down. And right after that, I like to have a nice hook, a quick line that gets the attention of the audience. From there, you want to talk about the connection, why this person matters to this audience. What are they doing here? Why are we bringing them here? Why should these people listen? Then you're gonna want to highlight the person, two or three punchy accomplishments, making sure you save the best and biggest stuff for last. And the last thing is the name. Always said at the very end, nice, strong, clear, and with a smile. And sometimes you can even pause before the name a beat or two for a little bit of a dramatic effect. And now let's give it up for, and then you say the name. That little bit of that pause, that little bit of that angst. People, people hang on that stuff. And here's a challenge for you at your next event that you have to give an intro to somebody. I always like to memorize the first line and the last line. That way I can connect with the audience a little bit more. Worst case, if you have to take a peek or something, it's not a big deal. But in my head, I try to memorize especially that first or that last line, especially, so I can be connected, focused, and dialed in with the audience. So now that you have your intro set and ready to go, let's talk a little bit more about the prep practice, energy, stage tips and what to do and what not to do. Whenever possible, and this is for if you're writing your own intro for somebody else, uh I like to write it out on paper, uh, not on my phone. To me, I'm a I'm a I'm a paper person, so I enjoy writing things out and moving things around. And then once I have it have it written out, then I can type it and have it typed out and uh set in the way that I like to do it. Why I like to write it is it helps me memorize and kind of just get the feel and the vibe of the whole intro a little bit more. Also, when I write out my intros, I don't write out full sentences usually. I usually will do one or two words or a couple key phrases. And each phrase and each point that I need to say will be a new line on the page. And it's usually maybe upwards of three, four, five, six words. And I usually will keep it if it's on a little note card or a piece of paper that I keep in my hand. I normally will keep that towards the top right side of the page because I want to engage and look at the audience as much as possible. So if I know I can just look down on the paper, I know it's going to be in the top right corner or wherever my visuals are. And what the, what the what the lines do is it allows me to quickly know where I left off. Whereas as compared to if it's a whole intro and it's multiple sentences in paragraph form, if you go to look up and look back down, it's harder to find your place. But I usually keep everything as a brand new sentence and spaced really well. And I also play with different sizes of fonts. Uh, I found usually 14 to 16. Um, and I play with the spacing, um, usually works really, really well for me when doing intros and things of that nature. And very important is once you have the intro set and ready to go, I like to practice everything out loud. So that means in the same energy, in the same tone that you're going to be reading the intro from. And more importantly, is especially if you're a little bit more anxious, a little bit more nervous for things like this, is to practice in the room, even on the stage or where everything is going to take place, even with the microphone in hand. Microphone doesn't have to be on, but very important, uh, I just think it's a very important skill to have microphone management, but I'll save that for a different episode. But just practicing and having the paper in the microphone and everything in your hand. And once again, for the love of everything, do not tap the mic and say, is this thing on? It's bad for the mic, sound people hate it, and just looks unprofessional. This is just my little thing. I usually do a little t and that lets me know how much of like the microphone sounds coming through the speakers. And then from there I'll just usually make a hello. Like I'll just start a funny, because that's that's more my style. So I'll usually start just chatting in some capacity. And Mike chat hello as this thing on. That's that's not my not my jam, and it shouldn't be yours either. Now here's a little bit about just energy and stage tips, and that is smile before you go up on stage. Uh right before you go on and you take stage and you're about to get the attention. Uh, I like to tell a joke to somebody. I like to I like to make somebody smile. Because when I do that, I usually smile, and then that gets me a nice natural smile to start the interaction with. And that's when you walk on stage. If you have a smile and you're looking up towards the audience and the people there, even though everybody might not be looking and engaging with you in that moment, you can still at least grab some of those people and they can see a nice, happy, energetic, and ready-to-go face, someone who's confident, who's ready to take the stage and take command. Also, I like to jump around and loosen up a little bit, even if it's only a quick thing on stage, a quick thing, long thing. I usually like to just jump up and down, shake it out uh for just a you know a couple of seconds. Uh, just helps me loosen up and get some of that weirdness and just stiffness out. Um usually I don't do that in front of people. Usually I'm like behind, you know, somewhere. Uh, but just, you know, just shaking it all out, getting all the energy, getting all the getting all the stuff out, and then uh trying to put a smile on my face as well, maybe getting ready to tell a joke to somebody and just getting ready for what's what's about to happen. And I'll say one of the things is just being okay with the weirdness of that five to 15, sometimes 30 seconds on stage of waiting for the attention and just waiting for the control and really waiting to give that proper introduction when everybody's ready and everyone's sex. I think that's one of like the worst things you can do is when you have a speaker who's coming up, especially if they're maybe not as well-versed in speaking, meaning they're not a professional speaker by trade, and maybe there's up here giving an appreciation speech or something of that nature. It's, you know, it's sometimes very nerve-wracking, as you know, to be on stage. And I think when you can wait for the audience and wait for that silence and wait for the attention, it sets it up better for your speaker who's going to come up. Here's a few don'ts for you. Don't read a LinkedIn bio. Don't read a bio in general. Nobody cares about their entire resume. Remember, 30 to 60 seconds. If possible, if you don't have to, don't use a podium. If you can avoid it, avoid one. It's a wall between you and the audience and connection. Don't skip the mic. If you are given one, use it. Even if you don't think you're going to need it, use a microphone. That was one of my rules. I violated at one of my last events. It was still fine, but really could have used it. When in doubt, don't skip the microphone. Always use a microphone, especially if it's something in the very beginning and you need to get attention in a fairly chatty room. And here's a fun tip when it comes to intros as well don't forget, use chat GTP. Chat GTP can be your friend, but don't let it be your end all be all, especially if it's an audience that may or may not know you. They may or may not know your voice and your rhythm and your pattern. So you want to use chat GTP as a tool to help you enhance and not use it as a crutch. So to me, it's always about, hey, giving it, you know, all the info, all the proper inputs. And then you're really just looking for that one or two, maybe a word or a phrase or a line, or just, you know, you use it as as a as a sounding board, as a backboard to help enhance, not use as a crutch. Very, very important. So there you have it. Just a couple of tips on how to just give a better intro. We can dive into this so much more, and there's so is and there is so much more to it. But I thought I would just give a quick little overview, quick little tidbit to help you in the next time you're gonna give a proper intro to someone on stage. At the minimum, as long as you have good energy and you know the person's name and you can say one or two key things, that's gonna rocket more than if you just read off this long, boring intro. Let the person speak for themselves, let what they have to say speak. But as long as you can just get up there with a smile, get the attention, make everybody feel comfortable, say a line or two about how great the person is and what the audience should expect, say their name nice and clear. That's more than half the battle. Feel comfortable on stage, use a microphone, and you're gonna do great. Hope you got something from this. That's this episode. Until next time, I'm your host, Danny Corby. Catch you all on the flippity flip.

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Denny Corby

Host