the power of bold episode 41 lessons from influence: the ...€¦ · win friends and influence...

The Power Of Bold

Episode 41 Lessons From Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

The Power Of Bold

The Power of Bold

@thepowerofbold www.thepowerofbold.com

I’m Adam Pascarella and welcome to episode forty-one of The Power Of Bold .

* * * [00:26] Hey everyone, welcome to The Power of Bold. We are on to episode forty-one of the show. Before we start, I just want to thank you all for joining me on this podcasting journey. I hope you have learned a lot from our guests—I certainly have. It’s really one of the coolest things about podcasting. If you’re a new listener, first, welcome. And second, I encourage you to go back and listen to some of our earlier episodes. There’s a lot of great content in there. If you would rather consume the content quicker, you can always visit thepowerofbold.com, where you can find a transcript for each and every episode. So I want to take a quick break from guest interviews for this episode. What we’re going to do here is continue with our series on reviewing some of the great books that have helped me on my entrepreneurial journey. Some of those books have included Contagious by Jonah Berger, How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie, and Keith Ferrazzi’s Never Eat Alone . I’ve mentioned this book several times on this show, but it is a classic and one that you can absolutely leverage—whether or not you are an entrepreneur. It is Robert Cialdini’s Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion . This is a book that I guarantee you will find useful, regardless of where you work, how much experience you have, and what your career objectives are. [01:55] I’m excited to dig in to this book. But before we get started, one more thing. I just wanted to let you know about a little something that I have created for you would-be or current podcasters out there. I have gathered all of my knowledge about podcasting and put it into one course that is titled How to Podcast Without Wasting Your Time. I’m really excited about this course as it was designed to help you save time and podcast as efficiently

1

The Power of Bold


“While we often cannot speak with these authors, these books provide foundational knowledge that we can leverage—regardless of technology or advancements in society.”

as possible. Some of the topics that I discuss are the two most important words in podcasting, how to get A-list guests on your podcast, market research and competitive advantage, ways to monetize your show, and how you can leverage delegation to save time while releasing a high-quality show. I’m really excited about this course and I hope that you join me. Before that, though, I want to give away a free, yes free, excerpt of the course. That excerpt is a tutorial on what I call the art of cold emailing. In other words, how to maximize the odds of booking A-list guests for your show—all while saving the most time possible. If you’d like to check out the free training, you can visit thepowerofbold.com/learning. I’ll also place a link in the show notes and you can go from there. OK. So with that said, let’s explore Influence, by Robert Cialdini.

* * * [03:22] So as long-time listeners of the show know, I enjoy reading books. Most of the guests on my show have recently written books about topics related to entrepreneurship, risk-taking, things like that. Essentially the themes that I enjoy exploring on this podcast. And I enjoy questioning these authors about their theses. That said, there is something to be said about looking at old, classic books. While we often cannot speak with these authors, these books provide foundational knowledge that we can leverage—regardless of technology or advancements in society. Now, I’m a prolific Twitter user, and one of the individuals that I closely follow is Naval Ravikant. Naval is a highly-respected individual in Silicon Valley. He is most known for starting AngelList, a company that connects startups with angel investors. But beyond that, Naval is renowned for his intelligence and wisdom. One of his

2

The Power of Bold


“[Influence] is that powerful and that foundational because it discusses human nature, which, in all likelihood, is going to remain the same for the foreseeable future.” “For all of the books that I’ve reviewed or discussed with guests, this is one that you almost have to read for yourself.”

tweets that really stuck out to me was one from late last year. He said that there are certain asymmetric opportunities that we should pursue. Yes, there are things like starting a startup, starting a podcast, and moving to a big city. Yet one of those on the list is “read a Lindy book.” A Lindy book is an offshoot of the Lindy Effect, which is basically the idea that what has been around will continue to be around. When applying that to books, it means that we should be searching for books or knowledge that is going to stand the test of time. While you may be thinking of titles in a Great Books curriculum, I really think that Influence will be (or already is) one of those books. It is that powerful and that foundational because it discusses human nature, which, in all likelihood, is going to remain the same for the foreseeable future. The book was first released in 1984 and has been revised several times. The author, as I stated, is Robert Cialdini. He was, and remains, a professor of psychology and marketing at Arizona State University. Cialdini has written other books, including a newer book called Pre-Suasion , but Influence remains his most prominent book. [05:39] Now, Influence itself. If you look at the front cover (at least on my version), you see that it is pitched as a marketing book. There’s a testimonial from the Journal of Marketing Research which states that “for marketers, this book is among the most important books written in the last ten years.” Along with this, the book is marketed for salespeople, business majors, and psychologists. This is all fine and true, but like I said, I think that anyone can learn from this book. And along with that, you can apply the lessons to your professional and personal life. For all of the books that I’ve reviewed or discussed with guests, this is one that you almost have to read for yourself. It’s that good and that full of insights. Now, it is virtually impossible to summarize all of the lessons from Influence in one podcast episode. He cites a ton of

3

The Power of Bold


“Cialdini cites additional research that humans also have these fixed-action patterns. Ultimately, he calls it the “click-whirr” effect. In other words, we often behave mechanically…”

fascinating research that you simply have to read yourself. So instead of giving an extremely comprehensive review on all of Cialdini’s tactics on influence, I’m only going to speak about some of my favorite insights from the book.

* * * [06:51] So before getting into some of the key influence and persuasion tactics from the book, I think it’s useful to lay the foundation for why all of these tactics work. One of the best case studies that Cialdini uses to set up the lessons from the book is found in the first chapter, which is titled “Weapons of Influence.” Cialdini explains that mother turkeys are loving, watchful, and protective. They spend lots of time tending to their young. However, what is odd about mother turkeys is that virtually all of their mothering is triggered by one thing; that is, the “cheep-cheep” sound of young turkey chicks. While there are other minor factors at play, the “cheep-cheep” noise determines whether the mother takes care of the chick or simply ignores it. Researchers decided to test this extremely reliance when having the maternal turkey interact with a toy polecat (the polecat is the natural enemy of turkeys). While the turkey would attack the polecat when it was drawn by a string toward the turkey, the turkey would simply leave the polecat alone when it played the “cheep-cheep” sound of baby turkeys. In fact, the mother gathered the polecat below her, and when it stopped chirping, the turkey attacked the polecat. This is a pretty fascinating study. So while we may think, “OK, that is simple behavior in animals that don’t have the intelligence or brainpower that we do,” Cialdini cites additional research that humans also have these fixed-action patterns. Ultimately, he calls it the “click-whirr” effect. In other words, we often behave mechanically like these turkeys. A maternal-behavior tape is played (which he calls click) and then a standard sequence of behavior follows (the whirr).

4

The Power of Bold


“So what does this mean? This means that if you are an entrepreneur, marketer, salesperson, or simply looking to persuade someone to do something, you can leverage this mechanical “click-whirr” effect to persuade people to do things”

[08:42] Now, this is an important point: this automatic, stereotyped behavior is prevalent in human action because it is the most efficient form of behaving. And this intuitively makes sense: we deal with so much stimuli during the day, in addition to our own ongoing thoughts about what we’re doing after work or whether we made our significant other angry. The list can go on and on. Because of this, we need shortcuts to get through our day, and we must use stereotypes and rules of thumb to guide us. It’s only getting more and more crucial with so many distractions (most of which enabled by technology) that are around us. So what does this mean? This means that if you are an entrepreneur, marketer, salesperson, or simply looking to persuade someone to do something, you can leverage this mechanical “click-whirr” effect to persuade people to do things. It increases the odds that your target says “yes.” In fact, others we have discussed on this podcast have spoken about this mechanical nature of humans. For instance, Scott Adams calls humans “moist robots” because we can be easily programmed in certain ways. Now, Cialdini does provide a caveat that these tactics are so effective that they must be used ethically. Obviously, I’d agree with that. You shouldn’t use them to exploit, manipulate or harm others. However, the point remains that our automatic, mechanical nature makes us vulnerable to certain tactics of persuasion, which Cialdini outlines in the remainder of the book. [10:22] With that background in mind, let’s talk about some of these so-called weapons of influence. They are reciprocation, commitment and consistency, social proof, liking, authority, and scarcity. For this episode, I’m only going to talk about three of these. They are reciprocation, commitment and consistency, and authority. And please, if you have any interest in any of these topics I discuss (or any of the ones that I don’t), pick up the book. It seriously

5

The Power of Bold


“Essentially, you can trigger an uninvited debt in another person.”

can help you earn thousands of dollars (or more). It can change your life. [10:58] So like I said, I’d like to start with reciprocity, as I find it one of the most powerful tools that Cialdini discusses in the book. Obviously, reciprocity is a simple concept. You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours. Yet there are many nuances to this idea which you can leverage in your day-to-day life. First, Cialdini points out that reciprocity is universal: there is not one human society that doesn’t prescribe to this rule. Along with its universal nature is the simple power of this rule. Whether you look at politics, retail, or something else, reciprocity can get one person to act according to another person’s wishes. [11:41] Essentially, you can trigger an uninvited debt in another person. I’m sure you have come across this before. For instance, one example in the book involves the Disabled Americans Veterans organization. The organization reported that a simple mail appeal for donations resulted in an 18 percent response rate. However, that success rate doubled to around 35 percent when the mailing also included an unsolicited gift (which were individualized address labels). This still happens today (I actually received personal labels from another organization). But just to say it again, that unsolicited gift led some recipients to feel obligated to reciprocate the favor. There’s another example that I find super interesting. It’s something that we have all experienced. You’re at dinner and the waiter or waitress comes to your table with the check. Sometimes, the waiter or waitress will leave you the check along with a little gift (like a mint, fortune cookie, something like that). You may be thinking: is that waiter or waitress leaving the mint or other gift in the hope that they get a bigger tip? While it’s impossible to see if their motives are truly pure, research shows that tips do

6

The Power of Bold


“Cialdini declined, but then the Boy Scout asked him to purchase chocolate bars for $1 each. Cialdini did it, even though he doesn’t like chocolate bars and he does like money.”

increase in these situations. In that study, giving restaurant customers a single mint increased average tip size by 3 percent. However, this is where it gets interesting. If the gift was doubled and the waiter or waitress provided two mints, the tip size didn’t double. It actually quadrupled (there was a 14 percent increases in tips). And if the waiter or waitress provided one mint, walked away from the table, but turned back and said “For you nice people, here’s an extra mint,” there was a staggering 23 percent increase in tips. Pretty cool, right? [13:40] So one way to trigger reciprocity in someone is to do an unsolicited favor for them. It helps to be creative here. But there’s another way as well. Cialdini says it’s a more subtle way and he calls it reciprocal concessions. Basically it is a person conceding something (for example, the price of an item) in exchange for a reciprocal concession from you. Cialdini tells the story of being approached by a Boy Scout who wanted to sell him a $5 ticket to a Boy Scout event. Cialdini declined, but then the Boy Scout asked him to purchase chocolate bars for $1 each. Cialdini did it, even though he doesn’t like chocolate bars and he does like money. And again, I’m sure you have encountered this in your life. A salesperson “does you a favor” by giving you a discount, and you feel more inclined to return the favor by actually making the purchase. My fiance and I experienced the same thing when we were purchasing drinks from a vendor in Paris. Cialdini says it best here: he was presented with a classic example of how a weapon of automatic influence can infuse a compliance request with its power. He had been moved to buy something not because of any favorable feelings toward the item, but because the purchase request had been presented in a way that drew force from the reciprocity rule. An initial concession can be part of a highly effective compliance technique. And you can use this in creative ways, like delivering a huge ask, then conceding to a smaller ask,

7

The Power of Bold


“You have to turn off your body’s autopilot system and actively be engaged. As you can tell, this isn’t a foolproof strategy. But it’s better than nothing in trying to combat the power of reciprocity.” “In fact, this is the shocking thing: this drive to be and look consistent causes us to act in ways that are clearly contrary to our own best interests.”

even though that smaller ask is what you intended all along. [15:21] Really, this chapter on reciprocity is so important that we are just skimming the surface here. Having said that, we’ve only been speaking from the perspective of the person wishing to leverage reciprocity. There obviously is the other side, and you may be wondering how to say “no.” Luckily, Cialdini addresses this. He starts by saying we can simply assume the worst in people and refuse all favors or concessions to us, but this isn’t an enjoyable way to live. Blanket rejection isn’t the best way to go. So what is? Cialdini recommends that we accept the desirable first offers of others, but to accept them for what they fundamentally are, not what they are represented to be. Context is paramount here. For instance, if a person offers us a nice favor and it is genuine and sincere, we can accept recognizing that we are probably going to feel obligated to return a favor sometime in the future. But if the initial favor is a device to stimulate our compliance with a larger return favor, that is a different story. You have to redefine the initial “favor” as part of a sales strategy and a compliance tactic. While this is easier said than done, you have to understand the context as best as you can. You have to turn off your body’s autopilot system and actively be engaged. As you can tell, this isn’t a foolproof strategy. But it’s better than nothing in trying to combat the power of reciprocity. [16:58] Okay, from reciprocity, I want to move on to commitment and consistency. Cialdini actually calls them the “hobgoblins of the mind,” which is a colorful way to put it. Like reciprocity, this idea is extremely simple on the surface. The thesis, which is backed up by research, is that humans desire for consistency. It is a central motivator of our behavior. In fact, this is the shocking thing: this drive to be and look consistent causes us to act in ways that are clearly contrary to our own best interests.

8

The Power of Bold


“[T]hat seemingly benign public commitment was a huge force in convincing a person to perhaps put themselves in harms way in order to fulfill a promise to a stranger that they had just met.”

Now how does this happen in practice? Cialdini provides one interesting example. There was a study in New York City where a researcher laid on a beach blanket with a portable radio. The researcher was laying down five feet from the blanket of a randomly chosen person. After spending a few minutes on the blanket, the researcher would leave, and then five minutes later, another researcher (posing as a thief) would steal the radio and try to hurry away with it. Under normal conditions, the randomly chosen person wouldn’t pursue the apparent thief (only four in 20 people did that). However, the researchers changed the experiment. Before the first researcher left his or her blanket, they would ask the randomly chosen person to “watch my things,” with the person agreeing to do so. When the apparent thief then came along to steal the radio, a whopping 19 of 20 people chased the thief. Just think about that: that seemingly benign public commitment was a huge force in convincing a person to perhaps put themselves in harms way in order to fulfill a promise to a stranger that they had just met. [18:51] Commitment and consistency are some of those things that provide us with shortcuts to life. Once we make a commitment or decision about something, we don’t have to revisit our rationale and challenge our assumptions—even if the underlying facts have changed. All we have to do is just stay consistent and go from there. Along with this, consistency can give us a safe space. It can help us avoid troubling realizations that emerge in our world, whether that is a feeling of shame, guilt, or insecurity toward someone or something. It’s much harder to admit that the facts have changed and we are wrong than to double down on our initial theses. Commitment and consistency nicely dovetail with confirmation bias, which is a bias that all of us have. We search for evidence that confirms our predetermined beliefs. It is one of the more troublesome biases that we have, as it can lead us down some pretty nasty roads.

9

The Power of Bold


“It becomes even more difficult if you broadcast your position to someone else—or even a large group of people. It’s hard to publicly admit to people, ‘I was wrong. My analysis was off.’”

[19:51] One of the most obvious applications of this comes in the world of investing. I could spend an entire episode on this. But overcoming commitment and consistency is something that investors struggle with. Once you commit to a position, whether that’s buying or shorting a stock, for instance, it becomes increasingly difficult to admit that you are wrong—even if the market is moving against you. This is true even if the facts have changed. It’s easy to think, “I still believe in my thesis. The market is irrational. I need to double down.” It becomes even more difficult if you broadcast your position to someone else—or even a large group of people. It’s hard to publicly admit to people, “I was wrong. My analysis was off.” If you want to hear more about this discussion, I’d highly recommend Michael Batnick’s great book titled Big Mistakes, and that’ll be in the show notes. [20:47] Ultimately, Cialdini argues that commitment is the key to reinforce this behavior of consistency. Once we take a stand on something, whether that is something in our professional or personal lives, it is much easier to act in a way that is consistent with that commitment. It may even lock us into something that is just tangentially related to our initial commitment or into a behavior that we don’t necessarily want to take. Cialdini also calls this behavior the “foot-in-the-door technique” and he says it is used in a variety of cases. For example, he cites research showing that individuals who signed a petition supporting state beautification were actually more likely to post signs on their lawns telling people to “drive carefully.” While state beautification and driving seem to be unrelated on the surface, the researchers concluded that signing the beautification petition changed the view that people had of themselves. They saw themselves as public-spirited citizens who acted on their civic principles, so even though driver safety isn’t related to beautification, they complied with the researchers’ request to place “drive carefully” signs on

10

The Power of Bold


“Once a salesperson has an agreement for some purchase, it becomes much easier to ‘upsell’ based on the previous commitment.”

their lawns in order to stay consistent with their newly formed self-images. You can also see this when you are shopping, whether that’s for something like a car or something smaller like an outfit. Once a salesperson has an agreement for some purchase, it becomes much easier to “upsell” based on the previous commitment. [22:20] So like reciprocity, Cialdini says that awareness is probably the best defense against consistency and commitment. But that said, it is not a bulletproof defense. And let’s be clear: consistency is not a terrible thing. In a different context, consistency is a terrific attribute. For example, it shows that you can live up to your word and that you follow through on your commitments. And we need consistency to get through our day-to-day lives. If we stopped to think through the merits of every little thing before making every decision, we would get nothing done. But that said, it is more dangerous in the sales or marketing context. To help with this, Cialdini offers two signs that may tip us off that we may be falling into a consistency and commitment trap. Those are what he calls stomach signs and heart-of-hearts signs. Stomach signs occur in the pit of our stomachs when we realize we’re trapped into complying with a request that we know for certain that we don’t want to perform. If you are feeling in the pit of your stomach that another person is trying to get you to commit to something you don’t want, you can simply tell them exactly what they are doing. Cialdini calls it the perfect counterattack. So following your gut is one thing. But Cialdini admits that our stomachs are usually not perceptive or subtle organs. It usually takes an obvious attempt to trigger these stomach signs and alert us that we are being had. So we have to look somewhere else for a clue. Cialdini says we need to rely on our heart of hearts. This is the one place that we cannot fool ourselves. Again, it’s sort of this idea of

11

The Power of Bold


intuition but it requires more introspection. But he provides a great question to ask ourselves. It is: “Knowing what I know now about something, if I could go back in time, would I make this choice again?” You should trust your first, immediate intuition to that question. Normally, it will guide you in the right direction. [24:23] OK, so with reciprocity and consistency and commitment behind us, I just want to talk about one additional weapon of influence in Influence . Again, like I said at the beginning, these are just three of the weapons of influence. There are more in the book, but to completely analyze them would go beyond the scope of one episode. So if you’re interested in learning more, you should pick up the book. The last weapon of influence I’m going to discuss is authority. [24:51] To start off this chapter, Cialdini discusses the famous Milgram experiment, where Stanley Milgram collected some fascinating conclusions on obedience and how much suffering an ordinary person, at the command of an authority figure, would be willing to impose on another innocent person. You may have heard of this experiment in your high school or college psychology classes, but if you haven’t, you should check out a video of the experiment—it’s fascinating. I’ll put a link to it in the show notes. Anyway, the bottom line from the Milgram experiment is that some research participants were willing to inflict pain onto another human being. Just to be clear, the pain was simulated through artificial screams and nervous dialogue from the victim. It wasn’t real. But despite these screams and claims for the experiment to end, these research participants were even willing to implement the most pain available to give to that random, innocent person.

12

The Power of Bold


“From birth, most (if not all) of us are told that we should obey proper authorities. Because of all of this, Cialdini argues that our obedience to authority figures takes place in a click, whirr fashion with basically no conscious deliberation.”

While this may be due to several factors, Milgram ultimately concluded that people were willing to inflict this type of harm upon others because of a deep-seated sense of duty to authority within us all. The research subjects’ inability to defy the wishes of the boss of the study, who kept encouraging the subjects to increase the intensity level of the shocks delivered to the victims, was the main reason why the subjects continued to “harm” the victims. Milgram said “it is the extreme willingness of adults to go to almost any lengths on the command of an authority that constitutes the chief finding of the study.” [26:29] Cialdini’s ultimate thesis in this chapter is that we are more likely to follow the lead of people who show that they are knowledge and credible toward something. Our society is full of a multilayered and widely accepted system of authority. This is a great thing, as it allows for the development of sophisticated structures for things like defense, trade, and resource production. From birth, most (if not all) of us are told that we should obey proper authorities. Because of all of this, Cialdini argues that our obedience to authority figures takes place in a click, whirr fashion with basically no conscious deliberation. Basically, information from a recognized authority figure provides us with a valuable shortcut for deciding how to act in any given situation. And again, this may make intuitive sense. One area that immediately came to mind for me involves academic credentials. Besides what we learn in college and beyond, degrees are often used as a signalling device. A degree from a top institution like Harvard signals that the person is intelligent and that we should definitely consider their opinion. But that said, advice or input from an authority figure (while often correct) obviously doesn’t mean that they are always correct. Yet we still tend to follow authority figures since it’s simply easier and less taxing than carefully analyzing alternatives.

13

The Power of Bold


“We defer to titles because we recognize that they take years to acquire and that they are difficult to acquire.”

[28:00] Cialdini says that there are several kinds of symbols that reliably trigger our compliance in the absence of the genuine substance of authority. Those things are titles, clothes, and trappings. We defer to titles because we recognize that they take years to acquire and that they are difficult to acquire. It is easier to defer to people like doctors or professors because their title signals intelligence. Clothes also signal authority. You can think of a police officer’s uniform or a doctor’s coat, but this applies to things like well-tailored business suits or other formal wear. Research supports this idea that this sort of attire can evoke significant deference from total strangers. Finally, by trappings, Cialdini is referencing things like jewelry and cars. One study he mentions shows that drivers would take longer to honk at new, luxury cars at red lights compared to honking at older, more economy model cars. It’s kind of funny, but goes to the power of authority in shaping our behavior. Ultimately, Cialdini argues that many of us grossly underestimate the power of authority. We may say, “Yeah, that makes sense, but I won’t fall for it.” Cialdini argues otherwise and cites many studies that show people are unable to predict correctly how they or others react to authority influence. [29:26] So again, what can we do to protect ourselves from the power of authority? Well for one thing, Cialdini says we should remove the element of surprise. Again, having a heightened awareness of this weapon of influence is a form of defense. Also, being aware that authority can be easily faked or falsified can help us avoid some common traps. But yet again, Cialdini argues that like reciprocity and consistency, we don’t want to resist authority altogether. Authority figures generally know what they’re talking about. So we have to be nuanced about judging when authority figures should be trusted and when we should be more skeptical.

14

The Power of Bold


“But ultimately, by being deliberate and rationally analyzing how truthful the expert is here, we can resist the temptations to blindly follow an authority figure.”

Cialdini says we should ask ourselves two questions. First, when confronted with an authority figure’s influence attempt, ask “Is this authority truly an expert?” Asking this will help you focus on the person’s credentials and the relevance of those credentials to the topic at hand. When looking for evidence of the authority status, we can eliminate a lot of the BS. So let’s say that this authority truly is an expert. Before submitting to that person, Cialdini recommends we ask one more question. That is: “how truthful can we expect the expert to be here?” We need to consider the authority figure’s trustworthiness, as authorities (even if they are the most informed) may not honesty present their information to us. We need to be especially wary when they argue (to a degree) against their own interests, as this is a powerful technique to prove their honesty. But ultimately, by being deliberate and rationally analyzing how truthful the expert is here, we can resist the temptations to blindly follow an authority figure. Again, these strategies do not work every time, but they will put you in a much better position to resist the compelling influence of an authority figure. [31:24] So that was just a brief summary of three of the weapons of influence in Influence . We haven’t even gotten to social proof, liking, and scarcity, so pick up the book if you want to learn more about those. But all of this naturally leads to the question: how can I apply these lessons in my life? We spoke about how to resist these weapons of influence, but how can we implement them to fulfill our own professional needs? Really, you are only limited by legal constraints, ethical constraints, and your imagination. But there are many ways that you can take this. Say, for instance, you are trying to win a client for your business. You can trigger reciprocity by doing an unsolicited, yet genuine, favor for the client. To trigger commitment and consistency, you can give away a free sample of your product. When your potential client chooses to use it, the odds increase that

15

The Power of Bold


they feel more committed to your product and are more inclined to buy it. For authority, hang some of your degrees in your office or put on your website any awards or public recognition that you have received. These are just extremely simple example This requires some brainstorming. However, by putting in the work now, you will increase the chances that your sales or marketing strategy leads to higher conversions or larger sales. And it’s quite obvious, but worth saying again. Make sure that you aren’t using these tactics to manipulate people. Don’t use these tactics to accomplish a nefarious objective. That said, these tactics can be a wonderful tool to help you provide real value to customers or clients. [33:01] So that’s my brief take on Robert Cialdini’s Influence . Like I said, we only scraped the surface here and didn’t discuss some of the other weapons of influence. However, what I discussed here are some of the more significant weapons of influence in my mind and ones that I often see in my day-to-day life. If this discussion has sparked any interest in your mind about this book, I would just say go ahead and buy it. It should become a mainstay on your bookshelf and you can leverage the lessons in it, regardless of where you are in your career.

* * * [33:34] So that’s it for this episode of The Power of Bold. Again, thanks for joining me in exploring Robert Cialdini’s classic book Influence . To check out show notes and a transcript of this episode, visit thepowerofbold.com. Also, feel free to visit thepowerofbold.com/learning if you’d like to access my guide to getting an A-list guest on your podcast. Thanks again for listening, and I’ll see you next time.

16

the power of bold episode 41 lessons from influence: the ...€¦ · win friends and influence...

Documents