Page 260 - ConvinceThemFlip

convince them in 90 seconds or less
Recipe for a Shish Kebab
Shish kebab has just four ingredients: a hook, a
point, some steak, and some sizzle.
The hook. Something to grab the attention of your
audience from the get-go. Muldoon was prone to
dramatic hooks like dumping envelopes onto the
floor (see page 14), and tearing off the magazine’s
back cover, and using the word lunatic. But you
could use a physical hook, like wearing a blindfold
to demonstrate that an organization has lost its
way, or pretending you can’t pull your hands out of
your pockets for thirty seconds to illustrate budget
restraints. Another captivating way to open is by
citing a provocative quotation, a stunning statistic,
or a shocking headline.
The point. Your single brief message stated in the
positive voice. “The people who get ahead today
are the ones who . . . ” not “The people who don’t
get ahead are the ones who don’t . . . ” The point
should run through everything because your entire
presentation must prove your point. Make sure
your presentation answers the three questions,
“So what?” “Who cares? and What’s in it for me?”
Three chunks of steak and a little sizzle. In this
context, steak is the hard data your listeners
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