Here’s one of my favorite advertisements:

This hair salon bills itself as the place “where the women you hate get their hair done.”

That’s funny because most salons tell women they’ll make them more attractive to men.

Instead, this one acknowledges a rarely-spoken-of piece of human nature—that women naturally compare and compete. It’s part of our biology.

What about those crazy games our brains come up with?

Is your date really going to be a disaster if you see three red cars on the way to the restaurant?

Why is it that we love to break the rules when we think they’re silly? Why can’t we just ignore them?

What about when we’re way too far down the road with a failing project or a bad relationship?

We’re just like the monkey who could slip his hand out of the trap if he’d just let go of that grape.

So much of human nature is rarely spoken of.

When we acknowledge these idiosyncrasies in a speech, audiences love it.

Everyone thinks, “Wow. I thought I was the only one who was crazy like that!”

Or “Yeah, I guess that really is true!”

Beyond being entertaining, observations like this also set you up as a leader who’s willing to call things as they really are … as a person who brings clarity and focus.

And isn’t that a big part of what people hire speakers to deliver?