“Like” has gotten a bad rap.
“Like” has become a pariah of the English language.
But don’t be too quick to entirely discard it from your vocabulary. It’s often the gateway to engaging and persuasive content.
Imagine you’re at a Thanksgiving festival and a helicopter is circling above. Suddenly little slips of paper start to fall from the sky. On them are single words and small phrases. You race around furiously trying to grab as many slips of paper as you can to decipher the code.
What’s the message?
On the afternoon of July 6, a bolt of lightning pierced the Oregon sky and struck the ground near the small community of Beatty. If you were in the vicinity, it most assuredly caught your attention, but what happened next would catch the country’s attention.
…
But what does a 400,000-acre forest fire have to do with effective communication?
When I was around 8 years old, I went on a sales call with my father. He sold paper and plastic products. I sat in the corner and quietly watched my dad sell branded plastic bags, copy paper, and toilet paper to the owner of a small shoe store.
How did he sell him TP? A story.
When the time comes to present, you get up and start your presentation. But once you start, you can’t stop...not even to breathe. You’re off to the races. You easily finish in the time allotted, and when you ask for questions, there are none.
Was it good? Probably not.
Michael Bloomberg is exhibit A in the case for ‘communication matters.’
Preparing for every communication moment (whether it’s a national debate or a company meeting) can be the difference between:
success and failure,
clarity and confusion,
profit and loss.