Dr. Marc Siegel, clearly a very intelligent and experienced physician, has trouble getting his message across. In this 3-minute segment with three goofball news anchors, he tries to communicate some points about salt, but quickly loses control of the discussion: As the only one there with any medical training, or any experience actually treating disease, he should be controlling the … Read more
I’ve written before about the power of agreement as a tool of persuasion. Most people expect their “opposite” to disagree and fight them. So when you agree with someone, even if just on the surface, you immediately interrupt that predictable pattern. You get their attention, and you start validating their ego. With the egotistical issues … Read more
Presentation Preparation with Limited Time To make your presentation as powerful and persuasive as possible, it takes an investment of time. But, especially in certain industries, you often don’t have the luxury of lots of time to memorize, edit, order and reorder slides, get feedback from friends, and rehearse over and over. So here are some presentation … Read more
I had a small meetup today in NYC about persuasion. My goal was to provide some simple tips and techniques for persuasion and influence. These are just a small sample of many persuasion concepts. Here are the main ones I highlighted (with links to more info on this blog): 1. Agree and reframe: Always a controversial one (“Whaaaat?! … Read more
One thing I’ve learned over the years is that good networking feels a lot like meeting new friends. Oftentimes we associate “networking” with a very business-focused, “formal” kind of vibe. But that’s just one, very specific type of networking. People definitely want to hire or do business with someone who is professional. But they also want someone … Read more
Cold reading is a statement or guess about someone that is based on a very limited amount of information about them. It often comes in the form of a “high-probability guess.” Psychics use cold reads all the time: [To someone who arrived right on time for their appointment] “You are a very conscientious and detail-oriented person, … Read more
In a few weeks the UK will go to the polls and elect a new Parliament. The Conservative party of Prime Minister Theresa May is expected to win decisively. The second-biggest party is the Labor party. The leader of Labor is Jeremy Corbyn, who faces off against May during the Prime Minister’s Questions. Looking at … Read more
Awkward pauses happen all the time in conversations with someone you’ve just met. Awkwardness is not the end of the world. But it can feel very uncomfortable for those with little experience talking to strangers. And for some people, over time the fear of awkwardness can transform into a horrific bogeyman of anxiety. It becomes so intimidating … Read more
One of the most common challenges I hear from non-native English speakers is they are concerned about their accent. In reality, with very few exceptions, if you are a fluent English speaker, most people can probably understand you just fine. Nobody cares about the accent. One of the most charismatic speakers I’ve seen had a … Read more
In his classic book Influence, Robert Cialdini describes the power of consistency in affecting human behavior: Just after placing a bet, [people] are much more confident of their horse’s chances of winning than they are immediately before laying down that bet. Of course, nothing about the horse’s chances actually shifts; it’s the same horse, on the same … Read more