we say that there are two truths: yours and theirs. In persuasion, there is only one truth that matters: theirs. If you aren’t speaking to that truth, you aren’t engaging with them. And without that engagement, persuasion is impossible.

After doing the exercises in chapter 5, you aren’t going to make the mistake so many do because your master narrative won’t be built off what matters to you. It’s now being built off what matters to your audience, and you have all the facts underneath it that are authentically true and resonant.

Manipulation is fleeting. You can get someone to buy a bad product—once. Persuasion is about a long-term relationship based in integrity and rooted in empathy.

Stories make facts “sticky,” meaning memorable. And memorability is one of the keys to persuasion. Because when your position, brand, or product is memorable, you turn your audience into your PR machine and they start to do the work for you. That’s when you catch fire.

Own the truth of who you are. Because when you acknowledge a truth your client can plainly see, you are instantly engaging in a dialogue with them. You’re saying, “I validate and respect your perspective of me. Now let’s talk.”

from them. But if you want to win, you will have to. Otherwise the vision you create will be watered down and uninspiring to the point that even you won’t want to follow through.

The point of that story is this: A Persuasion Plan on paper is just a plan. You don’t yet know how it will feel coming off your tongue. You don’t yet know how your target audience will react. You don’t yet know what questions you will get. That’s why this phase is all about practice. Role-play. Simulation. Testing. Refining. Call it what you will,

It’s not what you say, it’s what they hear. —MASLANSKY + PARTNERS TAGLINE Now you have your draft Persuasion Plan. This is your foundation, your starting point. But until you know how people are going to react to it and how you will react using it, you can’t go any further. I have seen this happen time and time again. You have the message. You have

When you’re prioritizing which vulnerability to authentically address, it’s not about the sexiest—it’s about what’s most important to the people you’re trying to persuade.