One of the facets of Living the Unusual Life is that it elicits lots o’ questions from the world. On endless aspects. Depending on what part of my life I’m putting out into the universe at the moment, I almost always get back a -- “You do what? Tell me about that.”
So I do.
(I mean, I do standup on cruise ships around the world. Surely that’s going to get a question or two. Telling jokes off the coast of Rio, or Dubai? That’s worth a jaunty inquiry.)
One of the main things I get asked is what it means that I’m a Persuasion Coach.
Here’s my answer.
First up, I have a PhD in Rhetoric. Rhetoric is the ancient Greek word for persuasion. Someone with a degree in rhetoric studies effective messaging, in all contexts, starting with the Greeks and rolling right up to the current moment. Rhetoric is the most intense study of the broadest range of persuasion theories, strategies, and tactics that we have. So, if someone says they’re a master rhetorician, they’ve read a thing or two, taught a thing or two, and persuaded a person or hundreds of thousands.
Second, I often say you should reach out to me if you have “important persuading to do.” Because I can help you design powerful solutions to challenging situations. Do you have a business situation that needs real strategy, amazing ads, instant explanations, compelling pitch scripts? Are you trying to do some delicate political persuading, maybe with an entrenched family member who has wandered into a herd you find troubling? Are you wondering why you aren’t as successful across the board -- with closing clients, with online dating, with influencing your kids without threats or commands -- as you want to be?
When persuasion is important to you, bring in pro help. When you absolutely have to have excellent persuasion that gets excellent outcomes, expert help comes in handy.
Third, I’m not just a critic, theorist, practitioner, or observer of persuasion. I’m a coach. I’m in the persuasion trenches with you. It’s my job as a coach to come in and find strategies to improve you. To improve your persuasive capacities. I help you develop persuasive skills, knowledge, materials, a persuader’s psyche, and a set of internalized strategies for different situations. Coaching is first and foremost about helping you be a success. To take you from where you are, to being a more potent, adaptable, spot-on persuader, who not only achieves immediate goals, but goals across a lifetime.
If you need more success, a good coach is a great resource.
Fourth, a coach should see “you.” Not a cookie-cutter, generic “client.” They should see exactly who you are as a persuader, see how you currently persuade, and see how to improve on that. I do a specific audit with every client I take on, in order to inventory their persuasive ALDs -- Assets, Liabilities, and Deficits. Everyone has flaws in how they persuade. Everyone has strengths. It’s my job to look closely at you in order to identify the positives and negatives, explain them, get them out in the open so there’s real clarity on what we need to amp, what we need to diminish.
Fifth, just knowing what you do and don’t do well isn’t enough. A coach has to have a big bag of tools and techniques to help you improve your good stuff, and ditch your dysfunctions. Working with humans is a slippery art form. Everyone is different. As a coach you need to design a curriculum that pops positives, negates negatives, and adds in what a client is missing. And you need to do this in a way that the client can handle. Push someone who hates being pushed? You fail. Be too laid back with someone who reacts well to structure, you fail. As a coach you have to understand strong human patterns. And -- after decades doing this stuff at many different levels -- I think I do.
Sixth, and finally, I like to add a consulting element to my coaching. This is not just about improving you, it’s about helping you hone in and ideate on real life persuasion situations. It’s about helping you develop materials -- scripts, arguments, stories, relationships -- that work. Your effectiveness in everything from business, relationships, politics, money-getting, permission-receiving, and even self-influence -- often comes down to how persuasive you are. Tough situations and audiences need sophisticated persuasion. Having a coach to co-design the persuasion strategies and materials you’re going to use in real situations is incredibly useful.
So, there. That’s my quick sprint through the vaunted halls of persuasion coaching.
If you’re persuaded about the value, ping me.
If you’re not? No prob. I’ll try again later. With a different approach.
One thing about being a rhetorician, you never tire of trying to persuade.