Earlypay legend! How fun was that?
Hello Earlypay friends! 👋 We had such a great time at out extravaganza of persuasion and influence on February 18th, 2026!
We explored the practical skills you need to get what you want – at work, at home, and in life – while still being authentic, ethical, and respected.
The session was be packed with your workplace examples and tools you can use immediately.
Now you can better handle objections, and communicate with confidence.
We laughed and learnt powerful strategies to communicate with clarity and confidence, negotiate more effectively, and truly be heard in every conversation.
Thank you Carmen and Lee for finding me and enabling a great session!
Watch our showreel together!!!
PACING & LEADING
Pace before you lead. Pacing is the art of meeting your audience where they are – emotionally, mentally, and contextually – so they feel understood, not pushed. You pace with statements called universals and truisms and you should consider CABS “or not”, “many” and “most”.
It sounds like empathy, shared reality, and “I get it.”
Leading comes next: once trust is established, you can confidently guide people toward a new perspective, decision, or action.
The mistake many salespeople make is trying to lead too soon – before the stakeholder feels seen.
WIIFM?
The WIIFM technique stands for What’s In It For Me – and if you want to persuade effectively, you must answer it clearly.
Every audience filters your message through their own motivation. Some people are wired to move away from pain and risk, others move towards reward and results, and some sit carefully in the middle wanting stability.
Frame your message using three powerful motivators: Reduce, Maintain, Improve. Reduce risk or pressure. Maintain what’s already working. Improve performance or outcomes.
When you mention all three, you dramatically increase your chances of getting buy-in.
POO: Pacing Out Objections
Here are the 5 steps!
1. State the objection
2. Say “and,” “so,” or pause not “but” or “however”!
3. Use “actually” or “in fact”
4. Solve the objection
Address it clearly with logic, reassurance, or evidence.
5. Close with “because”
You can assess yourself
Michelle is the creator of the Persuasion Smart Profile®
Is it really necessary?
Complete the tool using the unique code we sent you and you will see how persuasion is made up of a set of competencies that can be acquired by modelling specific behaviours that are achievable for everyone.
The report
You’ll receive a detailed PDF report that tells you all about your own strengths and weaknesses as well as your drive to persuade.
It’s safe
Importantly, your responses are held securely and are completely anonymous. We do not see your responses and we cannot access them. The Persuasion Smart Profile®
It’s a wonderful personal development opportunity
We do think it’s a great opportunity for you to have the chance to learn a bit more about yourself!
Happy Persuading!
©2026 MICHELLE BOWDEN is an authority on persuasive presenting in business. She’s run her Persuasive Presentation Skills Masterclass over 1060 times for more than 13,500 people over the past 27 years and her name is a synonym for ‘presentation skills’ in Australia.
Michelle Bowden is a multi-million-dollar pitch coach to her client list that reads like a who’s who of international business: banking and finance, IT, pharmaceutical, retail, telecommunications plus many more.
Michelle is the creator of the Persuasion Smart Profile®, a world-first psychological assessment tool that reports on your persuasive strengths and weaknesses at work, the best-selling internationally published author of How to Present: the ultimate guide to presenting live and online (Wiley) and her new best-selling book is called How to Persuade: the skills you need to get what you want (Wiley).