Hello Google Industry Managers! I’m Michelle Bowden!
I’m Australia’s authority on persuasive presenting in business.
Didn’t we have a great session together on Tuesday December 9th on how to influence with out formal authority?
I loved you! What a complete highlight of the year for me – helping you all focus on your persuasive power for 2026! Look out world – Google is ready!
You’ll find a lovely reminder of our content together and a terrific video of your joyful experience with me in this special blog I made for you!
Let’s stay in touch! Mx
The Highlights Reel!
The Content!
Influencing without authority
As a business professional there is nothing more important than the art of persuasion.
You rely on your persuasive abilities to get what you want in life, develop productive relationships, and manage conflict.
So, … How Persuasion Smart are you?
Based on thousands of hours of global research, I can show you there is a gap in the way you persuade your customers, colleagues, and decision makers.
Once you fill that gap, it will increase how often you hear the word ‘yes’!
An idea is just an idea until you persuade someone to support it, fund it or endorse it.
Remember we are always influencing and life’s too short to let a passive or aggressive approach wreck your outcomes! Make a serious decision to take your persuasion seriously!
There are 10 actions for the Wise Owl:
1. Structure your message so it resonates and sticks
2. Strengthen your message
3. Use rhetorical questions to guide people
4. Don’t use fluffy language that is ambiguous and distracting
5. Add power words to liven up your argument
6. Limit your options
7. Use numbered lists
8. Use visual aids to captivate and convince
9. Package your numbers
10.Rehearse until you can’t get it wrong
We covered Rhetorical Questions and 4Mat in our seminar together!
There are 10 actions for the Commanding Eagle:
1. Become an expert in your niche
2. Communicate your credibility
3. Raise your profile
4. Be trustworthy
5. Refine your elevator pitch
6. Calm your farm
7. Spoken elegance
8. Back yourself
9. Tell stories that impress
10. Always exceed expectations
We covered the credibility frame and managing objections!
There are 10 actions for the Friendly Budgie:
1. Know and Accept Yourself
2. Accept others
3. Be likeable
4. Show warmth
5. Build rapport
6. Make people feel good
7. Find ways to help people
8. Connect
9. Listen actively
10.Don’t use words that damage your goodwill
We covered direct, connected eye contact – ‘whites of the eyes’ and ‘pacing and leading’ to build rapport.
There are 10 actions for the Captivating Peacock:
1. Turn up your charisma
2. Be confident
3. Be passionate
4. Be expressive
5. Speed up and be accurate
6. Use repetition
7. Engage the senses
8. Make a good first impression
9. Dress for success
10. Use clever delivery techniques
We covered the emotional objective and words you should and shouldn’t say!
The 4Mat model by Bernice McCarthy is one of the simplest, smartest ways to structure anything you say so people actually stay with you. It works because it speaks to all four thinking styles in the room.
You start with Why — so people care. Then move to What — the concept or key message. After that comes How — the steps, process or application. And finally, What If? — the possibilities, variations or next steps.
When you follow 4Mat, your message becomes naturally logical, inclusive and engaging. People stop glazing over and start thinking, “Oh yes, this makes sense.”
It’s the closest thing to plug-and-play persuasion you’ll ever find.
Ever wondered why rhetorical questions are so powerful? Rhetorical questions work because they hand the steering wheel to your audience’s brain — and the brain loves answering, even silently.
It creates instant engagement without anyone having to actually speak. The trick is to ask questions that guide attention. That’s where the 4Mat model is your best friend: Why? What? How? What if?
Use them well and people will lean in, nod along, and think you’re brilliant.
And are rhetorical questions worth mastering? Absolutely — and well you had already answered that in your head, hadn’t you?
Pacing and leading is the number one linguistic pattern for convincing someone to say “yes” – and it’s beautifully simple. You start by pacing your audience with universals and truisms: statements that are undeniably true for them. These might be things everyone can agree on like, “We’re all juggling a lot right now,” or “You want your team to feel confident walking into any meeting.” When people hear truths that reflect their world, they relax and think, “Yes, that’s me.” That’s your moment to lead – to guide them gently toward your message or desired action.
It’s persuasive magic because they feel understood first, and influenced second.
When you pace correctly, leading becomes effortless.
When addressing the WIIFM? (What’s In It For Me?) think of your audience as three separate types at a buffet! Remember some people want to reduce things — stress, chaos, extra work. They”re the “take this off my plate” people.
Others want to improve something – results, confidence, efficiency. They’re the “give me the good stuff!” group.
And then there are the people who simply want to maintain what’s working – no surprises, no sudden plot twists.
When your WIIFM speaks to all three motivations (reduce, improve and maintain), everyone feels seen, everyone leans in, and your message becomes much more persuasive.
The POO technique (Pacing Out Objections) is hands down one of the quickest ways to turn resistance into agreement – and yes, the name means you’ll never forget it.
1. First, state the objection so your stakeholder feels heard.
2. Then soften any tension with “and…,” “so…,” or a well-timed pause.
3. Next comes a linguistic secret weapon: “actually” or “in fact,” which flips their thinking just enough to let you back in.
4. Then solve the objection with logic, evidence or reassurance.
5. And finally — the pièce de résistance — you use the word “because,” the most persuasive word in the English language, to close the loop and land your point.
When you POO like this (and yes, I say that with a straight face), objections stop being roadblocks and start becoming persuasive opportunities.
Your emotional objective isn’t just how you want people to feel – it’s the emotional journey you take them on.
A great meeting moves people from comfortable (safe to listen), to concerned (awake to the problem), to optimistic (there’s a solution), and finally relieved and compelled (ready to act). Your tone, pacing and presence shape each persuasive moment.
And remember Holly Bowden’s wise reminder: “Moods are contagious… is yours worth catching?”
©2025 MICHELLE BOWDEN is an authority on persuasive presenting in business. She’s run her Persuasive Presentation Skills Masterclass over 1050 times for more than 13,500 people over the past 26 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).