- No matter what anybody says,
persuasion is an art, not an exact science.
When I hear questions like,
"What's the one best way to start a presentation,
tell a story, or change people's minds?"
the answer is usually, it depends.
I need to hear a lot more about your message, your audience,
and other specifics to give you tailored advice.
There are no hacks or tricks that work every single time.
The internet is filled with so-called secrets
that only special people know, but those are exaggerations.
I suggest you abandon all hope
of finding some top secret way to be more persuasive
because persuasion, communication skills
are not dictated by fixed rules or tricks
that always work like chemistry.
We all build these skills over time
through practice, repetition,
just like anything else in life.
And yes, to be clear, there are underlying principles.
There are tips that'll save you time, trial, and error.
I teach those on my channel and in this video,
but they are guidelines, foundational skills,
and just like any other art,
the way you apply these guidelines
to each unique situation will vary.
The creation of every presentation
is filled with decisions that you have to make.
Ultimately, every communicator
has to look at the unique conditions
and decide what the most persuasive approach would be.
And the way we describe that
in the field of rhetoric and persuasion
is to look at what we call the, quote,
available means of persuasion in each situation,
which I'll tell you more about in a moment.
Here are four quick tips that will help you
make more persuasive decisions.
First, learn as much as you can about your audience
before you draft your message.
We call this audience analysis.
You're never really speaking to a general audience,
so what do your specific listeners care about?
What do they value and prioritize in their lives?
What problems do they wanna solve?
Do your homework so your message
speaks to their specific interests.
Second, learn as much as you can
about the occasion for the presentation.
What's your audience expecting?
Why are they there listening to you?
Is this just one of four other presentations
that they're gonna be sitting through that day?
Are they expecting to come away with actionable takeaways
or are they expecting simply to learn something?
Third, decide what you want for your audience.
People call this your ask.
By the end of the presentation,
how do you want your listeners
to either think differently or behave differently?
Usually, at the end of a persuasive message,
there's some kind of call to action
that your message is building toward.
So if you figure out what this call to action is
before you draft your message,
everything else in your message
can build persuasive momentum toward that moment.
Your call to action
should be a natural extension of your message.
It should be the next logical step.
Fourth, here's a supersized tip.
Once you have good answers to the first three tips here,
then you have to make those decisions
that we've been talking about
in terms of the available means of persuasion.
Again, this is just a starting place,
but, A, you have to make choices
about how to appeal to your listener's rational side.
In the business, we call this logos.
People need to be convinced up here in their brains.
So what type of data, facts, statistics,
and other research driven support
can you include in your message
to help change listeners' minds or behaviors?
What information can you include
that'll speak to their priorities, interests,
problems that we mentioned earlier?
B, how can you best appeal to listeners' emotional side?
We call this pathos.
How can you bring your message to life
in a way that reaches their hearts?
What stories can you tell?
What type of before and after transformations
can you share with them?
And don't just tell your favorite stories,
tell stories and share examples
that speak to your listeners' lives.
Stories that will resonate with them
and where they wanna be.
C, how can you best establish your credibility?
We call this ethos.
That's about your believability as a speaker.
What can you tell them about yourself that establishes
that you're the right person to listen to?
What real world experiences do you have?
What common ground do you share with your listeners?
And how can you show that you care about your listeners
and have goodwill toward them?
These three elements, ethos, pathos, and logos,
are the typical starting place
where we talk about that phrase,
the available means of persuasion.
You look at all that audience analysis information
we talked about in the first three tips,
and if you have any hope of being persuasive,
you have to use what you know about your audience
to max out the way you appeal to people's minds, hearts,
and demonstrate your own credibility
as a person worth listening to.
But here's the key to all of this.
The answers to all those questions will vary
from presentation to presentation.
There's no one best way to persuade people.
The initial answer is always, it depends.
Persuasion is an art, not a science.
Be sure to download the free PDF
about the seven ways to make you a more confident speaker.
And no, these are not seven secrets,
but they will show you where to invest your energy
instead of using a trial and error approach.
I'll put a link to that and the other resources
in the expandable description below the video.
Until next time, thanks, God bless, and I will see you soon.