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

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.

The job of visual language is to plant one of your pillars in your audience’s mind in a way that will stick.

Is it positive?

should tap into a core emotion. They do this by following certain rules developed over thousands of years that work with what our brains find satisfying. From Aristotle’s Poetics to Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces, much has been written about what we require of a narrative as an audience to find it resonant. Stories must have an ar

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.

I wouldn’t retrofit my ambition to match something I already knew about, something “fine.” I would stay committed to my specific vision:

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.

Once you let your vision dictate your focus, devoting time and energy becomes easier.

do. It’s one thing to say, “I want a promotion within the organization,” or “I want to run for local office.” Or “I want a raise.” It’s another thing entirely to ask yourself, Where do I sit now? By that I mean: How do people perceive you right now? What are your weaknesses? What are the things that are keeping you from going where you want to go?