I have sat through more than my fair share of presentations from AGM keynotes to obscure financial instrument pitches.  And I confess, I have often drifted off wondering why presentations are so often delivered as if grieving and announcing the death of a beloved Aunt:Earnest, Accurate yet Lacklustre.

Most of us speak with the intention to persuade. Whether it is to convince clients to invest, urge friends to try the new neighbourhood restaurant or encourage our kids to eat their greens. Only we tend to be far better at persuading others when we are not at work.

So I’m going to let you in on a secret. If we want to be persuasive, the topic needs to bring us to life. It really is as simple as that. We will never know everything. We are likely to be wrong more often than we are right. But chances are if our eyes light up, we’ll dazzle.