CHAPTER 8
Make the Journey

LEADING YOUR AUDIENCE ON THE important journey to a decision—to changing your listeners’ minds—is not an easy task. There are many ways to go wrong, and many ways to lose your audience. By looking at the steps along the way in more detail, we can avoid some of the pitfalls that so often trap naïve speakers.

A good hook frames the terms of your presentation memorably.

First, you orient your audience. You frame the problem. We think in terms of stories, as I’ve said; it’s our birthright. It’s how our brains work. So you need to begin by telling them a quick story, anecdote, or parable that sets up the presentation you’re going to give them. One, in other words, that tells the same story in miniature that you’re going ...

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