There is virtually no argument against focus under the sun, but many of us are still so resistant to it. How does focus play into our personal brands and whether or not we can attract the right customers? How can we create focus when it comes influencing people to work with us, and what are some of the biggest mistakes we make? How do we strategically influence a change in behavior by appeasing the reptilian mind? On this episode, Glen Hellman is back to talk about what gets in the way of focus, and how to get better at influencing people.
"To move or change you must be in pain— because change is a risk." -Glen Hellman
Most personal branding is poorly executed because people aren’t focused enough on who they actually want to attract. To really build a brand that attracts the right kind of people we have to be extreme. We don’t need to work with every customer, what we want is to have a strong attraction with a specific kind of customer. A strong brand will repel 70% of the audience but is very attractive to the other 30%.
In order to influence someone to make a change in their behavior, we have to consider that no one will make a change until they understand the pain that will come from not taking the action. Human beings are focused on avoiding pain, so we have to frame the action in the pain it will save them from. We have to quantify the pain points and make people internalize that pain by asking those questions.
The part of our brain that makes decisions sees only black and white, it doesn’t see grey. We make decisions in binaries, so the more ambiguous the difference between our brand and the other brands, the less value it has and the harder it is to pick out.
The only way to get ourselves and our potential clients to pass through the danger of change, is to focus on the pain. Without the pain, it’s impossible to become fully aware of the cost of not taking a certain step or action. We become more influential when we tell a story, and make the risk of the new less scary by using analogies to make someone more comfortable with the change. Without this process, we can’t achieve influence and we can’t make the ambiguous more certain.
Guest Bio-
Glen is well-known as DC’s Mr Cranky. He is the founder and CEO at Driven Forward. He is Washington DC region's leading certified Executive Development, Peer Group Facilitator and Business Coach. He has been a founder, CEO, and a member of the executive team leading organizations to multiple IPOs including a $360M IPO of Progress Software, mergers, and acquisitions including a $92M acquisition of Call Technologies by 3Com. Go to https://drivenforward.com for more information, or connect with him on LinkedIn.
That's all for this chapter of Beers with Max! Hope you enjoyed this week's festivities. As always, if you want to join our virtual happy hour, grab your favorite brew and click the red button below. Til next time, keep your beer chilly and your leads hot!