Persuasion: Convincing Others When Facts Don't Seem to Matter

Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today. —ROBERT MCKEE

If we keep meeting anger with anger, the world’s divisions will only escalate. Persuasion is a communication-based process. If we’re all just shouting so loudly that we can’t hear the other person, we can’t communicate.

Is it plausible? Is it specific, and can you deliver on it? Can your audience believe you can deliver on it? Plausible language is the key to being believed. In order for language to be plausible, it must meet a few criteria. First, it needs to be neutral—meaning it can’t be a judgment statement. Second, plausible language is complete. It represent

Before you even open your mouth, it’s imperative to get clear on this: Who is your audience? That might seem like an obvious step, but I cannot tell you how often I see and hear advertisements, direct mail campaigns, earnings calls, and other forms of communication that are focused simply on what the company wants to say—really just pushing a messa

Ultimately, I leave you with this. Imagine you have thirty seconds in an elevator, or two minutes on a job interview, to make the impression that will get you what you want. Your master narrative is the one thing you can do for whoever you’re trying to persuade, the one thing that they will remember and is meaningful to them. Master stories are dea

Accomplishing persuasion relies on specificity. I want all the details. I like to be able to picture exactly what success looks like.

In order to be perceived as authentic, they needed to meet the customer where the customer was, not try to deny their perception.

To summarize, for a story to be effective, it must be four things: Interesting to your audience. Connected to the core emotions we discussed in chapter 3. Relatable. Scalable, meaning it must be reflective of a bigger point you are trying to make.

You have only so much mental energy or time in a day and only so many resources. If you aren’t crystal clear about what you are trying to accomplish, you will waste time on activities that aren’t moving you forward.