The Hand and the Hook
A simple framework to create speeches that move people to act.
“You’re not very good at public speaking. It’s probably holding back your career.”
That verbal punch landed while I was standing in the buffet line after moderating a panel at a small conference in Phoenix.
It stung, but he wasn’t wrong.
I had plenty of excuses: early flight, not enough sleep, grad school stress, two kids at home, one on the way. None of it mattered.
The truth? I gave a mediocre performance.
I knew he was a strong presenter, so I asked, “What do you recommend I do to get better?”
“I think practicing more would help a lot.”
Great. The big secret I’d been missing: practice.
The only problem? I had practiced. And it still sucked.
That’s the problem with most presentation advice: it’s either too vague to use or too specific to apply.
In the nine years since that buffet-line gut check, I’ve learned one thing: getting better at public speaking comes down to two things: content and comfort.
This piece is about the first one: content.
It turns out that the buffet guy was right. My speaking held me back.
So I worked on it. I got more comfortable. I got better.
Eventually, I started a fundraising training company to help nonprofit leaders and CEOs craft high-stakes pitches for six- and seven-figure donations. Now I present almost every week, helping people clarify their vision, sharpen their message, and get to yes.
Here’s what I’ve learned: there’s no hack. No magic formula. Just a framework that works—if you do the work.
That’s what this article is about.
Because if it were easy, it wouldn’t be high-stakes.
The Hand Framework: 5 Parts of a Persuasive Speech
Any high-stakes presentation has five key parts:
The Goal—What do you want the audience to do, and why aren’t they doing it already?
The Hook—Grab attention with a story, surprising stat, or question.
The Hold—Keep attention by showing what’s in it for them.
The Hurdle—Name what’s holding them back—and help them move past it.
The Handoff — Make the next step clear. What do you want them to do?
The Goal
Whatever you do, don’t start by making slides.
That’s fake productivity. It feels like progress, but what you actually need is a plan.
Instead, start by asking:
What do you want your audience to do—and why aren’t they already doing it?
Take your audience’s perspective. What’s in the way? What’s holding them back?
Your job is to remove that resistance.
One simple way to remember these four steps is to use your hand.
Each finger represents a key part of your talk, and the thumb ties them all together.
Thumb: The Goal
This answers the most important question: What do you want your audience to do?
The thumb touches every other finger. That’s your reminder: every part of your talk should connect back to your desired action.Index Finger: The Hook
It’s first for a reason. This is how you grab attention fast.Middle Finger: The Hold
This is where you deliver the core of your message and keep their attention.
And yes, it’s fitting because if you lose them here, this is the metaphorical finger they’ll give you as they check their phone.Ring Finger: The Hurdle
The commitment finger. This is where your audience hesitates. Your job is to help them move past whatever’s holding them back.Pinky: The Handoff
Small but important. This is where you point them to the next step—it should be clear, simple, and doable.
The Hook
The first few sentences are the most valuable moments of a talk, but most people waste it.
“Thank you for inviting me to…”
“Let me tell you a little bit about myself…”
“Before I begin…”
“So..yeah…anyway…let me make sure these slides are working…”
They start with a thank-you, a disclaimer, or background no one asked for.
When your audience is paying the most attention, they miss the opportunity to set the Hook.
Don't ease into it. Start strong.
Use a short story, a surprising stat, or a simple question.
The Story Hook
Telling a story is one of the most effective ways to hook an audience—if it’s done right.
Too often, people think they’re telling a story when they’re really just listing events linked by “and then…and then.”
“And then this happened, and then this happened…”
That’s a summary, not a story.1 A story makes people lean in. It builds tension. It makes them wonder, “What happens next?”
To make your story work:
Set the scene in one or two sentences: Where are we? What’s happening?
Then, zoom in on a specific person—and get right to the action.
Kindra Hall, in Stories That Stick, outlines a simple story structure:
Normal: This is how life was.
Explosion: Boom, something changes.
New Normal: Life after the dust settles. What’s different?
I’ve found three types of stories that work especially well to start a speech: the Personal Story, the Problem Story, and the Curiosity Story.
The Personal Story
This is a true story about you. It may be funny, reflective, or the result of a hard-earned lesson. The goal is to build trust and position yourself as someone worth listening to.
We often have more personal stories than we give ourselves credit for. As the saying goes, “There are good experiences—and there are good stories.”
Think back to tough situations or less-than-ideal moments. That’s often where the best stories live. (That’s what I did with the opening story of this article.)
Just don’t go too far into vulnerability too soon. You want connection, not emotional hijacking.
The Problem Story
A problem story sets up the core issue your talk will solve. It’s not just what happened, but why it matters.
It builds tension. It shows what’s at stake if nothing changes.
For example, if I were giving a talk on how to create a persuasive speech, I might open with this:
“Robin had 72 hours to give the biggest presentation of her life.
So she did what most of us do: she opened PowerPoint.
Slide one… blank.
Maybe she could reuse some slides from last month. That revenue chart from last week.
And just like that, she fell into the same trap everyone does: collecting slides instead of building a message.
Why? Because opening PowerPoint feels like progress.
But it’s momentum without direction.
The truth is that PowerPoint should never be your first step.
What Robin needed was a structure. A way to think through her talk before she touched a slide.
That’s what this framework is built to do: to help you know exactly what to say in your next high-stakes presentation.”
Problem stories like this work because they surface a behavior or situation the audience knows and then shows a better way forward.
The Curiosity Story
A curiosity story works because it’s simply interesting. It doesn’t have to be dramatic or emotional. It just needs to make people think: “What happens next?”
It could be something that happened to you, someone you know, or a historical moment.
“It was November 1963, and most White House reporters were huddled together, waiting for updates so they could write their stories on the death of President Kennedy.
All except one reporter.
He was across the Potomac, at Arlington National Cemetery, interviewing a man who earned $3.01 an hour to dig the President’s grave…”2
You can feel the question forming: Why? What did he learn?
That’s what a curiosity story does—it opens a loop your audience wants to close.
The Statistic Hook
Stories grab emotion. But sometimes, you want your audience to think before they feel. A single, well-framed statistic can do that.
“$22,000. That’s how much we spend to educate one child per year in Pennsylvania. That’s a lot of money. Where does it go? What’s the impact?”
If you open with a stat, keep it simple. You’re telling the story of a number, not presenting a spreadsheet.
Ask yourself:
Why does this number matter?
What does it reveal?
What should your audience now be asking?
A good stat can create clarity, curiosity, or reframe a familiar issue.
The Question Hook
Sometimes, the best way to begin is with a question—especially one that makes the audience think, “How does this apply to me?”
I call these focus questions. Their job is to expose a gap in knowledge or highlight an opportunity the audience hasn’t yet considered.
Great teachers use this strategy all the time. It shifts the audience from passive listeners to active participants.
We tend to assume we know more than we do. But the right question can trigger a pause. It makes the audience think, “Wait… maybe I don’t have this figured out.”
For example, when I give a talk on growing fundraising, I often start with:
“If you had to double your fundraising in the next three years, what would you do?”
Then I pause. Let the question hang.
“This is the challenge most organizations face. There’s no clear path to growing your fundraising. And what many people think they need, ‘to find more donors,’ is often the last thing they should do.
Today, I’m going to walk you through three strategies to grow your fundraising without chasing new donors.”
That’s what a good focus question does, it opens a gap, then positions your content as the bridge.
The Hold
Once you’ve hooked your audience with a story, statistic, or question, your next job is to hold their attention.
This is the core of your talk—the main content—and it needs structure. Without it, even the best hook fizzles out.
There’s a lot of advice out there on how to structure the body of a speech. But here’s a simple, flexible approach that works across topics and audiences. It’s adapted from YouTuber and speaking coach Vinh Giang’s “3, 2, 1” method.
Pick the one that fits your content the best
3 Steps
If you’re explaining a process or solving a problem, break it into three clear steps or phases.
This is especially effective if your hook introduced a challenge—now you're offering a roadmap.
Example: “When it comes to growing your fundraising, there are three levers of growth you can pull. Let me walk you through each one. The first lever is…”
This framing sets the expectation that the audience will hear a simple, structured path forward. It also keeps them engaged—step by step.
2 Points
When contrast is at the heart of your message, simplify it to two key ideas or categories.
Think: before vs. after, emotion vs. logic, what used to work vs. what works now.
Example: “As fundraisers, you hear a lot of conflicting advice. Some say, ‘Tell stories to appeal to emotion.’ Others say, ‘Show numbers to prove you're effective.’
So which works better—emotion or logic?
I’m going to show you why you need both, and how to combine them to drive results.”
This structure works especially well when you're challenging assumptions or helping your audience reframe how they think.
1 Thing
Sometimes, the strongest structure is the simplest—focus on one big idea. What’s the most important takeaway you want your audience to remember?
This works well when your topic is crowded with noise or conflicting advice. You acknowledge the complexity, then bring clarity.
Example: “When it comes to growing your fundraising, it starts with one thing: your organization’s Big Vision.
Not the vague mission statement on the conference room wall—but a clear, compelling picture of where you're going in the next three years.
The reality? Most organizations’ visions aren’t bold enough to inspire a donor to double their gift.
Let’s look at how to change that, so your donors don’t just say yes… they say yes and increase their giving.”
Framing your content around one thing signals clarity and confidence. You’re not offering a buffet—you’re offering the answer.
3-2-1: Three steps. Two points. One big idea.
Pick the structure that fits your message and makes it easy for your audience to follow.
The Hurdle
At some point in every persuasive talk, you need to answer the unspoken question:
“If this is such a good idea… why aren’t we already doing it?”
That’s the Hurdle. The part where you name the real reason your audience hasn’t taken action yet.
Maybe it’s confusion. Maybe it’s fear. Maybe it’s inertia.
Your job is to name the obstacle and show a path forward.
Think of the Hurdle as part of a path. Most audiences aren’t stuck because they don’t care. They’re stuck because something’s in the way.
That “something” usually falls into one of three categories: a skill set, a mindset, or a toolset.
Skill Set: The Foggy Path
This is the simplest hurdle to fix: they don’t know what the path looks like.
Your job is to clear the fog. Give them the steps—concretely and confidently.
“The first step is... Here’s the tricky part. This is where you need to watch out…”
You’re giving them the map they didn’t know they needed.
Mindset: The Shaky Bridge
This hesitation is not because they don’t understand but because it feels risky.
They’re afraid they’ll fail, look foolish, or waste their time.
Your job is to reframe the risk—to show them the bridge is sturdier than it seems. Or that they won’t have to walk it alone.
“Here’s the reality. When most people think about fundraising, they picture Oliver Twist. You’re begging.
But that’s not how it works. Donors want to partner with you to get big things done. Fundraising is a partnership—you and the donor working together to make the big vision real.”
You’re not just easing fear. You’re changing the frame.
Toolset: No Bridge at All
Sometimes, there’s no path forward because they don’t have what they need.
There’s a river in front of them and no stepping stones in sight.
This is where you hand them tools: a case study, a walkthrough, a working example.
“Let me show you how this worked for someone in your exact situation.”
You’re not describing the solution. You’re putting it in their hands.
Why It Matters
The Hurdle isn’t where you gloss over the hard parts. It’s where you show your audience:
“I get why this has been hard, and I’m going to help you move forward.”
You earn trust when you call out the real barrier and show how to cross it.
And just as importantly, you set up the Handoff.
The Handoff
Finally, we reach the last move: What do you want your audience to do?
This is the Handoff—where you move from belief to action. You’ve built the case. Now, it’s time to make the next step clear, simple, and doable.
Think about your talk from the audience’s perspective:
What’s the specific action you want them to take?
Can you help them take the first step right now?
Where’s the friction, and how can you remove it?
One of the most effective ways to do this is to script the critical move. If your goal is to get a yes/no decision, don’t expect a full commitment on the spot. Instead, paint a picture of what a ‘yes’ looks like. Show them the impact. Then, lay out the very next step to get started.
If your talk ends with, “Let us know if you’re interested,” you’ve dropped the baton.
But if it ends with, “Here’s what we’d love you to do, and here’s how to do it,”—you’ve made the handoff.
Don’t just inspire. Make it easy to act.
Also: give them something to take with them. I’m a big believer in physical handouts, ideally one-pagers, because the person with the paper usually wins. But just as important as what they carry out in their hands… is what they carry out in their head.
Make it clear. Make it simple. And hand it off.
Conclusion
The next time you need to write a speech—look at your hand.
Thumb: Start here. What do you want your audience to do—and why aren’t they doing it already?
Index Finger (The Hook): Grab their attention with a story, a stat, or a sharp question.
Middle Finger (The Hold): Structure the core of your talk using 3 steps, 2 contrasting points, or 1 big idea.
Ring Finger (The Hurdle): Address what’s holding them back—whether it’s a skill gap, a mindset issue, or a missing tool.
Pinky (The Handoff): Make the next step clear. Help them take action—and give them something to remember.
That’s the framework. It’s simple. It’s visual. And it works.
Now start creating your speech by asking: What do I want my audience to do—and why aren’t they doing it already?
“That’s a summary, not a story” is a line my friend Matt Paprocki says all the time when giving feedback on stories.
Curious about the rest of the story? Read the article the reporter Jimmy Breslin wrote about Clifton Pollard digging President Kennedy’s grave: “It’s an Honor”