What is the best way to influence and get buy-in when you’re speaking to others, be it a big audience or small, conference room or boardroom, peer meetings or executive meetings? We all want to come across in a way that moves our listeners to action, show up with confidence, and get what we want. Use these tips to persuade in the best way possible.

1. Be Clear: Get to the point, use the BLUF principle: Bottom Line Up Front, and don’t ramble on and get off on tangents.
2. Be Compelling: Speak with authority, use vocal variety, tell stories, use examples and data points to grab your audience’s attention.
3. Be Credible: Avoid using filler words like “um” and “ah.” and pause to show control and calm. Avoid “upspeak,” which is when you speak with a question mark rather than a period. Make sure to use punctuation - exactly like you do in the written word.

Listen for examples and more stories to demonstrate these principles.

Some resources for you:

My book “Trust Your Own Voice”: https://karenlaos.com/book/

Episodes also available on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEwQoTGdJX5eME0ccBKiKng/videos

Karen Laos, Communication Expert and Confidence Cultivator, leverages 25 years in the boardroom and speaking on the world’s most coveted stages such as Google and NASA to transform missed opportunities into wins. She is fiercely committed to her mission of eradicating self-doubt in 10 million women by giving them practical strategies to ask for what they want in the boardroom and beyond. She guides corporations and individuals with her tested communication model to generate consistent results through her Powerful Presence Keynote: How to Be an Influential Communicator.

Get my free tips: 9 Words to Avoid & What to Say Instead: https://karenlaos.com/words-to-avoid/

Connect with me:

Website: https://www.karenlaos.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/karenlaosofficial 

Facebook: Ignite Your Confidence with Karen Laos: https://www.facebook.com/groups/karenlaosconsulting

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karenlaos/

Episodes also available on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEwQoTGdJX5eME0ccBKiKng/videos

My book “Trust Your Own Voice”: 

https://karenlaos.com/book/