Last week we looked at a good way to start a talk if you need to be persuasive–answer “What’s in it for me?” for your audience. Get their attention right away, and you’ve got time and content to win them over.
Here’s another way to be highly persuasive:
Find the passion. I work with a range of organizations that require highly effective public speaking. Churches for instance. I was recently talking about the essentials of persuasive speaking with a church leader and asked her what the most important trait was for church leaders.
I thought she’d say intelligence, or charisma, or spirituality. “The most important trait,” she said, without hesitation, “is passion.”
She continued that if a speaker has passion, an audience will “put up with all kinds of stumbling and flaws.” But without passion–even if the words are clear and fluent–a speaker “will not sustain our attention or our hearts.”
[ctt tweet=”Even if he/she is clear and fluent, without passion a speaker will not sustain our attention or win our hearts. http://bit.ly/1tl437E” coverup=”7U2Gj”]
Passion is contagious. But it can’t be forced. When a speaker is genuinely held in its grip, the listeners know. They can feel it.
[h4]Next…Talk Conversationally[/h4]
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