How to talk to adults so they take you seriouslyConfidence · 4 minute readNot a guide to sounding older. A guide to being understood — which is a skill you can practise, and which pays for itself for the rest of your life.Most people who think they are bad at talking to adults are actually bad at one specific thing: starting. The first sentence is the whole battle. Once you have a way in, the rest tends to run itself.Say what you want in the first sentenceAdults are busy and they are listening for the point. 'I'm not sure if this is a good time, I just wondered, it's about something I've been thinking about...' loses them. 'I'd like to walk your dog on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Could I tell you what I'd charge?' gets an answer.Four habits that do the work

Lead with the ask. Detail afterwards if they want it.

Have a number ready. Price, hours, how many, by when. 'I don't know' is what makes you sound young.

Say what you will do, not what you can't. 'I can start Saturday and finish Wednesday.'

Stop talking after the ask and let the silence sit. Filling it is what loses you ground.

When you get a noA no is usually an answer to that specific thing, on that specific day, not a verdict on you. The standard follow-up — 'no problem, if that changes my number's here' — leaves a door open and costs you nothing.Practise out loud, once, before it matters. Sentences you have said out loud behave differently in your mouth than sentences you have only thought. That is the entire trick, and almost nobody does it.Every business conversation you will ever have is this skill in a slightly different room. Learning it at 16 instead of 36 is an unfair advantage.More free articles about money, work and business are at The Next Generation Blog.

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