Instead of preaching, tell a story

Another interesting blog with lots of advices, is a blog by Craig Valentine, I have assisted to his workshop too. This time he wrote a post about how we can avoid "preaching".

1. Use "soft you" not hard "you".
Soft : "have you considered", "you see me as"
Hard: "you should do"

2. Adress the audience with a "past" question, rhetoric or not.
Have you ever? It would be nice to be able to turn every challenge into an opportunity....

3. Let the story tell your point!
Each point deserves its own story (or other anchor such as an Activity or Analogy) and that way each point can be uncovered within the story and prevent you from preaching. Then it only takes a Foundational Phrase and perhaps another line or two to drive that point home and get your audience across the bridge.