Practical Eloquence Podcast

The first four factors of Max Cred: Credentials, Content, Confidence and Candor can compel credibility, but it also help to be liked by others, which you can accomplish by improving your skills (yes, skills) of caring more for others and connecting with them on a personal level.

Your engineers may be one of the greatest untapped sales assets you have, because they have access, credibility and knowledge. The big question is: will they and can they? Spoiler alert: the answer is yes, if they understand the essence of selling.

Candor is a powerful factor in credibility because it does so much for you. It checks off every one of Aristotle's tests of credibility, showing your good sense, good character, and goodwill.

Confidence is the third factor of Max Cred because others won’t believe if they don’t think you believe. In this podcast, I talk about the four levels of confidence and what you can do to project just the right amount.

Valid credentials are like putting a deposit on your listeners’ belief, but you need solid content to complete the transaction. Content is the most permanent element in credibility; it’s the solid core inside your outward image.  

Credentials are the first Max Cred factor we discuss because they start speaking for you before you open your mouth. In this podcast, I talk about what constitutes a valid credential and how to present your credentials in a way that guarantees maximum credibility.

If you’re a knowledge worker, your personal credibility is your most precious asset. It’s not your knowledge, which is worthless if others don’t believe what you say; it’s not your eloquence, if others don’t listen; it’s not your power, if others only agree grudgingly. Like any asset, you want to preserve it, grow it, and put it to work.

My fondest wish is that this podcast will change someone’s life—maybe even yours. If you’ve held yourself back from accepting speaking engagements because of nerves, it can make an immediate and obvious change to your career. That’s not a bad benefit, but the ideas I’ll talk about here will apply to just about any challenge you face in your life and even impact your physical health.

Listening is one of the most important activities of your job and your life, but you don't do it nearly as well as you should and you could. In this episode, I tell you why, and what you can do about it.

How many times have you walked out of a meeting with someone with a clear sense that everybody is on board and knows what to do, and after time passes nothing has happened? In this podcast, I cover the three principal reasons for inaction and what you can do about it.

Unless your listeners are going to decide right away, they have to remember what you said in order to act on it. I cover four principles which will ensure that what you say will stick in their minds.

Despite the best efforts of corporations to implement elaborate processes and systems to inoculate themselves, emotions are impossible to remove from every business decision, especially the more important ones. Gut-level Gus always has a place at the table, and effective persuaders ignore him at their peril – but they also know how to get on his good side.

What if you could get the other person to make a decision that would not only be good for you but make them feel good about themselves? You can, by appealing to the decision maker in their mind that I call Norma. Who is Norma and how does she affect decisions?

As we saw in the last episode, “Rational Randy” holds the title of decision maker, but he usually defers at least in part to “Aileen”, who leans in ways that may seem irrational but are at least predictable. In this episode, I describe three ways decisions veer from rationality and five ways to use this to your advantage.

This is the first of three podcasts about the psychology of decision making, which is a fascinating and difficult topic, mostly because the way in which people decide is often much different from how they actually do. Business communication is ideally completely rational and evidence-based, but it’s not really that simple. The various approaches to decision-making can be understood through the four types, which I call Randy, Aileen, Norma, and Gus.

In this episode, we turn to the "persuasive" aspect of communication. I discuss the 5 C's that will ensure max credibility on your part.

There are an unlimited number of wrong ways your message can be taken, and only one right way. So, you must ensure that you are crystal clear in what you’re trying to convey, first in your own mind and then in the mind of the listener.

Attention is the foundation of all communication. Like the old saying about if a tree falls in a forest and no one hears it, does it actually make a noise? It determines how much of your message they get, how they perceive it, and how much they remember.   Have you ever had the experience of having someone hang on your every word, giving you their full attention in a sincere effort to profit from what you’re saying? Feels great, doesn’t it? But how often does that happen? This podcast will show you how to make it happen.

Even though content is king, a lot happens before you even open your mouth, and the impression you make can have a large, and even decisive impact on your effectiveness. What are the two principal qualities that others use to form impressions of you, and how can you present yourself to best advantage?

This may be my most controversial topic so far. It’s important to “be yourself”; for example, too many people become too formal or awkward when they stand at a podium, or “kiss up and kick down.” But it’s also possible to overdo the authenticity idea. If authenticity is about being honest and true to yourself, I’m all for it, but if should not mean communicating the same way to all people and in all situations, being “brutally honest”, or being fully transparent.