What do Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, John F. Kennedy Jr., Lance Armstrong, William Shakespeare, Margaret Thatcher, and Martin Luther King Jr. all have in common? They are all extraordinary motivational speakers who use enriched language that appeals to all of our senses to convey a powerful message.

Earlier, we explored eye cues and sensory predicates as tools that can indicate what system the speaker is using to process or recall information. Similarly, you can modify your words and language to mirror someone else's - in essence, speaking the exact same language. 

Some examples:

• “Things are really looking up for this project,” Sue said. “I think we can do better if we plan out our future and envision what’s going to happen.” I replied, “I see where you’re going with this. Could you map our next steps out for me?”
• “Just listen to yourself!” Bill grumbled. “You sound like a moose with all your complaining.” I replied, “I’m sorry that you’re not hearing me. How about I pitch it differently?”
• It was Mohammed’s turn to present his team’s status report and he had to speak about a problem that the team had encountered. He summed his presentation up by saying, “I really feel that we need to get a handle on this issue.” His manager replies by saying, “Let’s start by getting in touch with the prototype team.”