New Years resolutions are as infamous as they are popular.

Enough messing around.  How, specifically, do you make sure New Year’s Resolutions happen? 

I’m going to show a select audience the strategies I use with my coaching clients to propel them through their goals and outcomes.

The class is called Resolution Execution. It’s being sponsored by the Secret School of Business. Check it out here.

THIS IS A HANDS-ON CLASS.

FYI – If you’re wondering what the ultimate resolution is, it’s here.

ASAP – Don’t delay… REGISTER TODAY!

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Photo Credit: Postcard #005: Seven Nation Army by jcasabona Joseph Casabona

Commit to getting back on track, ASAP!  Just that one resolution, alone, could make or break your New Year.

I’m doing a free New Year’s resolutions training, Resolution Execution, in Des Moines, IA starting January 12, 2012.  For those that can’t make it, here’s what I recommend – do something that reminds you to get back on track for the rest of the year.  Or, at least until you reach your goal.

I already caught myself getting off track.  I noticed I hadn’t exercised, yet, this year.  I caught myself doing the ol’ I-have-to-reduce-my-goal-now-so-I-can-be-perfect-the-rest-of-the-year trick.  No way.  I’m not falling for that parasynthesis¹.

I’m getting back on track with my New Year’s resolutions.  I’ll start, again, tomorrow (I’m not procrastinating, it’s my normal time slot for exercise.)  I recommend you do the same.  Train your brain to get back on track in the New Year…and beyond!

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¹What is parasynthesis?: par·a·syn·the·sis – formation, or morphing, words by adding a hyphen.  Hyphenating words.  It’s the ol’ throw-a-hyphen-in-to-make-a-word-word-trick.  ex. I like the ol’ roll-up-the-sleeves-to-fit-in tactic that politicians often use on the campaign trail.

Photo credit: All Decisions Lead to Nowhere by Almond Butterscotch on Flickr

My original post, Call, Don’t Fall, is consistently found in Google searches and read often.  I received an email for a hospital staff member about it.

“I enjoyed reading your blog spot on the “Call Don’t Fall” sign. I’m interested in a better way to prevent falls in my hospital system. You mention saying “When You Need Help, Just Call.” If you were a patient at the time, did you perceive yourself to need help with getting up to the bathroom?

When I was a patient I didn’t realize how weak I was and didn’t call and almost fell in the bathroom. (I’m only 37 years old) I’m looking for a way to remind patients that they may not be as strong/stable as they think they are when the nurse or nursing assistant is in another patient’s room.

Just trying to think outside the box and get a non-medical patient’s perspective.”

I replied with the following.

“Thanks for reaching out to me.  I actually saw this sign in my brother’s recovery room. (See Circus Level Tension.)

I can tell you that he didn’t think he needed help, and wouldn’t have asked for it even if he did!  So, I can empathize.

This blog post has always been one of my top posts, and your email is my top response to it. You bring up a key consideration I haven’t had as direct of experience with. Thanks.

Here are some variations that would address your point that a customer may not even realize they need help. I have included some narrative for each one to make it easier to reference my reasoning. The “#” refers to the linguistic labels to what I am referencing.

“Trust us, just call.” – Has a nice rhetorical ring to it utilizing #assonance

“Just call.” -Simple and to the point, & ”just” reason.

“Better to call.” -Incomplete and short command with ambiguous modal operator “better.”

“Until you get better, call.” -Lesser included structure with modal “better call”, punctuation ambiguity, “better” = healthy, “until”

“It’s just easier if you call.” -(plays on “it’s just x if”/yes response/”easy” is power word)

“We recommend you call.” -For people who like direction

“It’s up to you to call.” -For independent people

“Want to get better? Call.” -sounds like a two step process to getting better (“1 2 get better”,) & rhetorical question

 ”Call us. We’ll show you why.” -That answers the question that you know they are asking themselves.

 Put CALL in caps so it stands out.

Also, instead of an image of slippers, you might include an image of a patient attempting to get out of bed with assistance.

Slippers don’t give the whole picture and slippers slip, right?

If you really wanted to test these, you could test several of them and compare for yourself.

Let me know how it goes. I’d love to hear. Thanks, again!”

One of my earliest articles, Coaching Child Athletes 1, contains a great Denis Waitley story to illustrate these points, as well.

That was fun to revisit that.  I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

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Take time to be a Dad, today.  Time is of the essence…of persuasion, as well.  When?  Always.

15 second audio version of this ad campaign

Watch fathers practicing parenting skills with their kids!

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My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard.  Mother would come out and say, “You’re tearing up the grass.”  “We’re not raising grass,” Dad would reply.  “We’re raising boys.”  ~Harmon Killebrew found on www.quotegarden.com

As the birth of my fourth child approaches any moment now, I’d like to dedicate this post to all of my children (you know who you are.)  And, a special thanks to my wife of 8+ years for doing the hard part.

Photo credit: fatherhood.gov found on examiner.com

What new state of mind are you going to cultivate in this coming New Year?

This one?

Go for it!

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Bravery is being the only one who knows you’re afraid.
Franklin P. Jones

Bravery is the capacity to perform properly even when scared half to death.
Omar N. Bradley

Bravery never goes out of fashion.
William Makepeace Thackeray

Food, sex and danger.

That’s what a UX design teacher, Jake Smith, taught me, recently, is the 3 ingredients to catching attention in media.  If you look around, he’s onto something here.

Hurts donut.

From a persuasive element point of view, the problem with the ad is not the clear food element (it surely got my attention, especially after having the seed planted recently,) it’s the unclear command element.

“Donut” translates to “Do Not” in kidspeak.  And, who hasn’t a child inside?  It’s an unconscious message to “do not try us.” And, “who?,” you’re unconscious asks, “Fairway.” (digging themselves a deeper donut hole – ba da bum ching!)

Here’s a Family Guy episode (I’m not a viewer, fan or endorser of the show, btw) that illustrates, er, animates what I’m getting at here.

Beware (be aware) of the messages you’re sending, unconsciously.

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What new awareness will you develop in 2012?  See me live, Resolution Execution at the Secret School of Business.

How do top salespeople deal with rejection?  They disappear it!

This goes for non-salespeople, as well, though.  Who of you know someone who’s not in sales, who just isn’t getting the message?  Any ladies out there?  And guys, huh.

Or, anyone else not “off the market” and still in the dating scene, in the eyes of the beholder!?

All of us good-looking people out there :) deal with this all too often.

But seriously, if someone were to ask me about the last five people who rejected me (in sales,) I wouldn’t be able to answer without sounding like a teenager just asked if he ate the left-over pizza, “uuuhhhh.”  (distinctly different than asking a pre-schooler of she ate the last piece of candy, “no Daddy.”)

That’s because I don’t remember.  How could that be!  Oh, how painful it must have been for me.  Nope, …’cause I don’t remember the person.  Maybe the town, maybe the deal if it was big enough, maybe the year.  But, that’s about it.

Turns out I’m not the only one who does this sort of thing.  Now, I’ve always noticed that I have a hard time remembering these things, but I never thought of it as a mental strategy, of sorts.  Though I have recommended it many times.

“Forget about it,” I have often advised.  “Water under the bridge,” to get a buddy back on track after a hard one lost that has to go back into that account.  “Water off a duck’s back,” yeah, even animal metaphors.

Never have I said, “you pissed that one down your leg.”  Well, …actually, that one, too!

But, never the less, all passed tense.

Read this article based on a modeling project of salespeople not done by me.  It’s genius.  And, you’ll be glad you did.

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Photo Credit (illustration credit, actually): The kick-ass Kirsty Barton

“We have two ears and one mouth so we can listen twice as much as we speak.” -Epictetus (AD 55 – c.135)

What a great quote… and a great sales tip!  And, that was a long time ago.  But, it’s as true today as it was back then.  Timeless.

What I especially like, in addition to the overall concept, is the specifics of the original quote.  I remembered this quote as “God gave you two ears and one mouth and you should use them accordingly.”  More of a rules version.

The original version says “so we can.”  Which, to me, is a big difference because it implies the benefit of listening twice as much as we speak vs. “have to” or “should.”  Additionally, it implies this ratio is not automatic.  It takes purposeful effort, by choice.

This two-ears-one-mouth approach to effective communication and persuasion is a great reminder to listen more than we speak.  If you listen closely, people will tell you everything you need to persuade them.  Really.  In their words, in their questions, in their frustrations, in their requests, in their suggestions, in their tonality, in their pauses, in their deletions, distortions, and generalizations you’ll find tidbits of data that you can utilize.

This two-ears-one-mouth philosophy is, also, the backbone of brevity, and brevity, as you well know, is key.

Brian Pagán of the blog, A UX State of Mind, at www.brianpagan.net, really has explained this concept of brevity better than I have, here in this article.  He articulately and visually presents The Three Bears continuum of too much, too little, just right.

I would argue, though, that clarity is the sweet spot and verbosity is opposite brevity, but only after I listened to him state his reasoning!

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“We were given two ears but only one mouth, because listening is twice as hard as talking.” -Larry Alan Nadig, Ph.D.

In the book of James in verses 1:19-20 he tells us that we are to be quick to listen with our two ears and slow to speak with our one mouth. -Read more: wiki.answers.com

“The quieter you become, the more you can hear.” -Baba Ram Dass

You have two ears and one mouth… and two fingers in case I hear this again without any humorous twist on the end.  -Jade Handy #reformcliche  two ears and one mouth joke

Photo credit: GettingStronger.org

Why is Richard Branson so persuasive?

If you’re thinking he’s persuasive, then I agree with you.

Take this example.  Matt Lauer interviewed him regarding Richard’s book, Screw Business As Usual. There is a shortened video version of the interview on Media Research Center’s website.

In the interview, Matt Lauer brings up Occupy Wall Street.  Then, Richard Branson says, “Well, I’m actually a supporter of Occupy Wall Street….it’s peaceful demonstrations, by and large. They’re demonstrating because they don’t like business as usual – they want to see business change. And, I think they’re right in wanting to see business change.”

He’s his own PR department.

Richard Branson is agreeing with his own assessment of the situation.  It happens to be highly likely that the occupiers don’t like business as usual, but that’s just par for the course.  He’s stating their point of view, then agreeing with it.  It’s deductive in nature.

This is quite different than saying, “I wrote this book as a demonstration of my dislike for ‘business as usual’ – I want to see business change.  And, other people agree with me.  Look at Occupy Wall Street, for example.”  That would be inductive.

Instead, he’s merely agreeing with what someone else is saying.  It’s kind of like someone else saying Richard’s view is valid, without him having to actually say it.  Similar to one of my clients recommending that you call me for one-on-one performance coaching.

Some additional insight is that he is utilizing something Matt brought up (not Richard’s idea.)  Then, doubling up and using that in order to utilize what the Occupy Wall Street is “saying” to boost what he is saying via his book.

So, if you think you should try this when trying to persuade someone, I agree.  It’s easy.

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A related article by Jade about being your own PR Dept.: Label Yourself

Photo Credit: Richard Branson by David Shankbone 2010 NYC by david_shankbone David Shankbone

Hears something to hang your hat on.  Give them something to hang THEIR hat on.

In sales and persuasion, it’s tough to be remembered and to stand out, to differentiate yourself.

Every time I’m thinking about Mitt Romney, Jon Huntsman, Rick Perry or Ron Paul, I’m silently yelling at them to give people something to hang their hat on.

How about this…

“At least I’m a family man.”

…for a tagline!

How hard is it to connect with a majority of people in America?  Not very.

Nearly every one in America comes from a family, right?  Nearly every one can appreciate someone who values family values, right?  Nearly every one in America.

Now, how hard is it to argue that you are a family man?  Very.  Because, aren’t you?

One of the things that George W. Bush did well, argumentatively, aside from being a family man and getting re-elected, was hire Karl Rove.  Karl Rove fed George Bush one-liners.  One-liners won George Bush a lot of his support, remember.  Remember “stay the course”?  Stay the course was one of the many taglines that Bush supporters hung their hat on when I would talk with them about his job as President.  They had all sorts of these things.

If you are a family man, according to traditional family values that everyone can relate to, put that out there for your supporters to give, as an excuse, for supporting you.  If, for no other arguable reason that they can come up with themselves, they’ll have that to hang their hat on.

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Other resources on this site: Make it Catchy to Make it Sticky vol.1

Photo credit: hat’s bed By wander.lust andy logan