The Elements of Persuasion

It’s as powerful in the powder room as it is in the boardroom. People love a good story. We can’t get enough of them. And a good story is infectious. It spreads like wildfire.

always recommend to our clients that once they have their speech ready, they work on getting it down to a single, easy to remember sentence. You may never deliver that sentence as such, but having it ready and keeping it constantly in the back of your mind is your most important edge.

hitotuse no uchi—“winning with a single strike.”

Finally, know what you want your audience to do once you stop speaking. You aren’t there just for the applause. You have invested a lot of time and energy successfully getting them on your side. Now tell them specifically what you want them to do. Keep it simple, keep it clear, and keep it doable.

Second, stories quickly allow you to do the two things that all the research shows are most important for increasing your “likability” in the first sixty seconds of your presentation: share something personal, and show the audience that you are talking to them, not simply giving a canned speech or sales pitch.

Tell a story, the more personal and passionate the better.

Fear, and the adrenaline reaction that goes with it, greatly sharpens the senses and is a positive survival trait.

Stories don’t have to be long.
Stories don’t have to be verbal.
The right story, at the right time, helps us shape and control our world.

So story is not simply the content of what we think, it is also the how of how we think. It is one of the key organizing principles of our mind.