Validate Before Trying to Persuade

Annette Simmons is the author of Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins: How to Use Your Own Stories to Communicate with Power and Impact. She wrote the book to help people bring storytelling back into their repertoire of persuasive tactics, and she offers many tips for telling better stories. One of her most important ideas … Continue reading Validate Before Trying to Persuade

Tell Me a Picture

Annette Simmons is the author of Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins: How to Use Your Own Stories to Communicate with Power and Impact. She says that humans have used storytelling to communicate since the beginning of time, and today is no different. Her book is intended to help you tell stories that are more … Continue reading Tell Me a Picture

The Stories We Tell Ourselves (and Others)

Annette Simmons is the author of Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins: How to Use Your Own Stories to Communicate with Power and Impact. Her book is intended to help you get into “story thinking,” using stories as tools to bring emotion back into the decision-making process. She writes, “We know everything will change tomorrow … Continue reading The Stories We Tell Ourselves (and Others)

Magic Words to Make you More Persuasive

What if there was one word – a simple word – that would increase your chances of persuading someone to do something by 50 percent? Sounds like magic, but it’s been tested and verified by social scientists for years. That word is “because.” Researchers have investigated persuasion for decades, and they’ve found that adding a … Continue reading Magic Words to Make you More Persuasive

Pushing Doesn’t Work. Pulling is Unreliable. Try Leading Instead.

Seth Godin writes: “Tugboats don’t usually tug. They push. That’s because pushing is more mechanically efficient than pulling. When we pull, there’s tension and slack in the ropes, and the attachment between the puller and the pushed keeps changing. But the metaphor gets far more interesting when we think about leading instead. One bird at … Continue reading Pushing Doesn’t Work. Pulling is Unreliable. Try Leading Instead.

Time, Attention, Patience and Other Gifts

In a recent post, I encouraged everyone to be more generous. Generosity is not just a way to make the world a better place, it’s also the best way to build strong business relationships. Generosity is defined by sharing scarce resources, and almost no resources are more scarce than time and attention. Jason Harris is … Continue reading Time, Attention, Patience and Other Gifts

Be Generous

Jason Harris is the author of Soulful Persuasion: The 11 Habits that will Make Anyone a Master Influencer.He knows about persuasion; he’s CEO of the creative agency Mekanism and the cofounder of the Creative Alliance. He’s worked with brands like Peloton, Ben & Jerry’s, Miller Coors, HBO, and the United Nations. He write the book to help … Continue reading Be Generous

Skills You Need to Build Skills

Pat Flynn, author of How to Get Better at Almost Everything, says that becoming a generalist has made him both successful and happy. He believes that generalists are more marketable, more productive, and more flexible, making them better candidates for almost any job. In a previous post, I wrote about Flynn’s concept of skill stacking, … Continue reading Skills You Need to Build Skills