Second Cup: If you've got the aspirin

Help people see why they need what you're offering

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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.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Today's tip is that you should help people see why
they need whatever you are offering. If you have the aspirin,
what's their headache? Today's tip comes from the work of
Dan Meyer, a mathematics teacher educator. Meyer focuses a lot
on student motivation and what scholars have called intellectual need.

(00:40):
How do you get kids to want and need to
learn whatever math, algorithm or method you are teaching, or,
as he puts it, if math is the aspirin, then
how do you create the headache? Sometimes this is a
good question. I am not sure what the average person

(01:01):
encounters in his or her daily life that the cosign
will solve, but the general point is good. If you
are offering a product or service, it behooves you to
help your customers figure out what problem they have that
you are solving. You want them to see why they

(01:21):
need you. In my case, I help people think through
time challenges they are facing. Too much to do, not
enough time for fun, doing all the urgent stuff and
never getting to anything important. Guess what, I've got some
ideas that just might solve these problems. You've got a

(01:41):
time headache, and listening to before breakfast or reading my.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
Books might make you feel better. There is probably a
similar approach in your line of work. If you are
a nutritionist, you want to get your patients to notice
when they are lethargic or jittery, or have constant dumay aches.
You want them to believe that the changes to their
diets you are recommending will relieve these issues. If you

(02:09):
are applying for a job, you want to think what
problems the organization is facing that you can solve. I
have worked with several people who have identified specific problems
with my business and then shown what they can do
to solve them. We can have certain forms of aspirin
in our family lives too. You may believe that your
middle schoolers should start studying for tests before the morning

(02:32):
of the tests, and you would probably be right in
this belief. But until he gets a bad grade and
experiences that headache, he may not be particularly interested in
the aspirin of your advice to plot out a study
calendar for the week before a test. I don't pop

(02:52):
aspirin just because I'm guessing you don't either. The pain
needs to be noticeable.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
Now.

Speaker 1 (03:01):
Of course, I'm not suggesting that you go around persuading
people they have make believe problems that you can solve,
but most of us have at least some struggles of
some sort, even if we don't think about them all
the time. Helping people see specific ones can make them
more receptive to whatever you can do to help. In

(03:23):
the meantime, This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's
to making the most of our times. Thanks for listening
to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,

(03:44):
you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.
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