If they can do it

Persuade yourself and others by studying examples of success

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
tip is that if you show people that others like
them have done something, they will be more confident that

(00:24):
they can do that same thing too. Today's tip, like
several other recent ones, comes from Robert Chaldeeni's book Persuasion,
about ways that you can prepare people to be open
to your requests or suggestions. One of Chaldeeni's principles of
persuasion is social proof, which he defines as the principle

(00:47):
that people think it is appropriate for them to believe, feel,
or do something to the extent that others, especially comparable others,
are believing, feeling, or doing it. In other words, if
other people like you are doing it, you should also
do it. You may see this in your kid's desire

(01:08):
to conform to trends. You may also see it when
your alma mater tells you that some high percentage of
your fellow alums support the annual fund, so obviously you
should too. Chaldeini explains that the power of social proof
is feasibility. If other normal people are doing something, it

(01:29):
doesn't seem that much of a reach for you to
do it. For instance, in my family, I've found that
if one of our friends has taken a trip somewhere
that starts to seem like the kind of place we
could vacation, nothing has changed and nothing was stopping us
from going there first. But we take our cues from
people we see as peers. If you are in the

(01:54):
business of motivating people, you can use this insight to
your advantage. For instance, if you are trying to motivate
people to send agendas for meetings twenty four hours in advance,
you can send around an email noting all the people
who did send their agendas twenty four hours in advance
for the last few meetings. If Beyonce sends her agendas

(02:18):
twenty four hours ahead of time, this means nothing for
the rest of us. But if Wanda in accounting can
do it, well you can too. You can use the
principle of feasibility to persuade yourself. You may be wondering
if it's possible to earn an executive MBA while working
in your current job and parenting, But if you learn

(02:42):
that one of your colleagues did it a few years ago,
well you might start looking into applications, or maybe you
talk to people on your block and realize that your
neighbor three doors down earned a degree while working and
raising small kids. Again, if Beyonce can do it, that
means nothing for the rest of us. But your neighbor

(03:02):
is probably much like you. If she can do it,
you can not. Everybody is inclined to be a trailblazer,
but when we see similar people who have followed a
certain path already, we may be open to joining in.
In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and

(03:28):
here's to making the most of our time. Thanks for
listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,
you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.

(03:52):
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