Make an outline of your speech. Start by making a skeletal draft of your main points. Strip the speech down to its bare bones to determine what is most important to say, and in what order you should deliver those facts. [3] This is the basic structure which you will build your speech around.

• State your name in the very first sentence of your speech. [4] This can be very straightforward: “Good afternoon! My name is Deshawn Smith, and I am a computer programming student at the University of Arkansas.”
• If the introduction is work-related, mention your interests and your career goals together in the same sentence. This will save on time and convey that your personal interests can serve your professional goals. [5] For example, “I am working on an app that allows people to order pizza from their Twitter account.”
• You may want to mention your education or professional training background, if it is relevant and appropriate. [6] “This is the fifth app I’ve designed. My second app, which helped people locate dog parks near them, won an award at my university.”

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Mention hobbies or outside interests. Depending on the scenario, you may also want to mention any relevant hobbies or additional experience you have. Mentioning interests and hobbies could help cement your authority on a certain subject, or it could feel tangential, depending on the purpose of your introductory speech.

• If you are explaining your passion or goal and how it helped formed your progression up to this point, that can help you tell a compelling story about yourself. [7] For example, if you’re writing a speech for your college speech class, you might want to explain how you got into computers at an early age and why they’re important to you now as you pursue your career goals.
• If, however, you are introducing yourself to potential clients at a business lunch, they are probably not interested in your hobbies. They will want to know what you are doing right now and what your skills are.
• Try writing one draft with your experience/hobbies and one without, and run both versions by an objective listener who can give you feedback before your speech. [8]

Sell yourself. If you are trying to make a good first impression in a professional context, it’s important that your speech conveys your capabilities and skills. You can accomplish this without sounding self-congratulatory by tying your past accomplishments with your future goals and aspirations, letting others know that your anticipated contributions in the future are grounded in your contributions from the past. [9]

• Highlight the qualities, skills and experience you have that are most relevant for the audience and occasion. For example, “Because of my background in app writing and my extensive network of professional connections, I have a strong grasp of what today’s young professionals are looking for. My apps offer convenience and immediate gratification.”
• You are trying to present yourself as a professional while making a strong and lasting impression.
• If you’re trying to sell yourself to a group of new colleagues, you probably won’t need to tell them about your family life, or anything outside of work that isn’t directly relevant. [10]

Set yourself apart from your peers. Present yourself honestly, but do so in a way that makes your story stand out from all the rest. If you played an important role in a big project, mention that role. Go further by extrapolating what you have learned from the experience, and explain what ideas you have about how the project could be performed more effectively if it were to be repeated.

• You can simultaneously demonstrate your skills and experience, while presenting yourself as a forward-looking person who is always learning and developing. [11] For example, you could say, “I spend a lot of time attending app conventions and conferences so I can learn what audiences are looking for. I pride myself on staying on the cutting edge of app design.”
• Try to tie this into your broader outline of your career goals and personal development.

Determine your audience. If you are writing an introduction for yourself in a professional setting, you will probably choose a different message, and use different language, than if you were introducing yourself to peers in a casual setting. [17] Before you get started on planning your speech, ask yourself the following questions:

• Who is the intended audience?
• What is the purpose of my introduction?
• What are the expectations others may have? [18]

Decide what’s relevant. If you had all the time in the world, you could probably think of a lot of interesting and relevant things to say about yourself. But the key to a successful self-introduction is being brief and to the point. That means you will need to decide what are the things that are most important or relevant for your listeners to know about you. You will need to deliver that information in the shortest possible length of time. [19]

• Stick to one or two main points you want to convey about yourself. You can always add more if time allows it. [20]
• Depending on the audience and function of your speech, you shouldn’t allow the focus to become too narrow. For example, if you’re introducing yourself to a crowd of prospective investors, you’d focus on your skills to build their confidence in you. If you’re introducing yourself to a general audience — say, for a speech class in college — you can be a bit more wide-ranging.
• Remember that you’re introducing yourself in general, and you want to present yourself as an interesting and rounded individual. [21]
• That doesn’t mean you should spend time talking about your love of baseball when you are introducing yourself in a professional scenario.

Consider the purpose and tone. Whenever you plan a speech, you should always be keenly aware of what your intended goals and outcomes are. Ask yourself what kind of message you are hoping to convey to your listeners. Is your self-introduction to network with others professionally, or just casually (with new friends)?

• Are you hoping to win someone over to your point of view with this introduction, or to inspire/motivate someone to work hard under your leadership?
• All of these will affect the things you say in your introduction and the way you say them. [22]