Keynote Speaking
Research-driven keynotes that show leaders exactly why their words fail — and hand them the language that works instead.
Keynotes & talksLanguage Strategist · Author · Keynote Speaker
It's not what you say. It's what they hear.
For more than two decades, Michael Maslansky has helped leaders, brands, and institutions find the words that build trust — especially with the audiences most inclined to doubt them.
Author, The Language of Trust
20+ years of language research
Fortune 500 advisor
The Premise
We live in a world of skeptics. Your language hasn't caught up.
Audiences no longer give companies, executives, or experts the benefit of the doubt. Corporate-speak, spin, and jargon don't just fall flat — they actively erode credibility. Michael's work starts from a simple discipline: test the words with the people who actually hear them, and keep only the language that earns trust.
"Trust is no longer given by default. Every sentence you speak either earns it back or gives more of it away." Michael Maslansky
How Michael Helps
Four ways to change what your audience hears
Message Consulting
Hands-on counsel for high-stakes moments: launches, crises, transformations, and the announcements you only get to make once.
Message consultingLanguage Research
Instant-response testing, focus groups, and surveys that reveal how real audiences react to your words — phrase by phrase.
Language researchWorkshops & Training
Working sessions that teach teams the principles of credible language and rebuild their most important messages in the room.
Workshops & training
The Book
The Language of Trust
Selling ideas in a world of skeptics.
Drawing on thousands of hours of research with real audiences, The Language of Trust explains why the old rules of persuasion stopped working — and lays out the four principles of credible communication: be personal, be plainspoken, be positive, and be plausible. It is a field guide for anyone who has to sell an idea to someone predisposed to doubt it.
- Why audiences hear "spin" even when you're telling the truth
- The words and phrases that trigger skepticism — and their alternatives
- How to talk about price, risk, and bad news without losing the room
What Clients Say
Trusted in the rooms where words matter most
"Michael didn't give us better talking points. He changed how our entire leadership team thinks about what customers actually hear."
"The keynote was the highest-rated session of our conference. Practical, funny, and uncomfortably accurate about the words we all use."
"We walked in with a message we loved and walked out understanding why our audience didn't. The research paid for itself in one launch."
20+
Years of language research
1,000+
Messages tested with real audiences
300+
Keynotes and executive sessions
4
Principles of credible language
From the Blog
Writing on language, trust, and persuasion
The Language of Trust, Fifteen Years Later
The skeptics won. What the four principles of credible communication look like in an era of AI content and collapsed institutional trust.
Read the essay
The Year of the Apology Never Ended
Why most corporate apologies make things worse, and the anatomy of the rare ones that actually repair trust.
Read the essay
Say Less, Mean More
The discipline of subtraction: how cutting your message in half makes the remaining half twice as credible.
Read the essayGet Started
Ready to change what your audience hears?
Whether it's a keynote for your next event or a message that has to land, the first conversation is simple.
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