This Month's Topic:

Stimulate and Motivate Your Audience Through the Language of Visualization

Seventy percent (70%) of the brain is devoted to creating and interpreting visual images. Advocates must get to that 70%.

So how do you most effectively stimulate and motivate your audience through visual images?

1. Limit your use of Power-Point or charts to punch up only the most salient points and not to tell the whole story. If you overuse Power-Point and charts, the audience will watch the screen blindly without absorbing what it represents.

2. Learn to use the language of visualization: "monumental"; "lifelike"; "vibrant"; "staggering".

3. Studies have shown that if you tell people to visualize what you are saying, they "own" the image and you increase retention by 25-40%: "imagine seeing"; "imagine that you are…"; "picture this…"; "close your eyes (and see/imagine/picture)..."; "you can imagine what...".