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Lesson Info

Persuade Your Way Into a Job

We're gonna talk about what Aristotle thought is the most powerful tool of persuasion and I personally think framing is pretty powerful. We're gonna talk about you now. In particular we're gonna talk about leadership and how to gain those qualities of leadership whether you're in a room or you're speaking to a group of people. C leadership. So, those C-words, I mentioned them before, but now we're gonna spend some time on them. Caring, craft, and cause. So I'm gonna throw some Greek at you just to show this comes from someplace. Aristotle called them eunoia, phronesis, and arete. You do not have to write this down I translated it for you as caring, craft, and cause. So let's talk specifically about what they are and the reason, I did have a reason to mention the Greek part because they have to do with something a little bit different from the way we describe these three words that's why I'm gonna spend some time on them. Let's talk about caring. Caring, really, eunoia in Greek, has to ...

do with disinterest and we are so alien to this term or the term is so alien to us that we don't even translate disinterest right in fact your computer dictionary will tell you that disinterest and uninterest are the same things, that if you're disinterested it means you're apathetic, right? The original purpose of the word disinterest was to be free of special interests. In other words independent enough that you could carry out the interest of other people. So, you think Mother Teresa was one of the most disinterested people who ever lived? She's a Saint. Now, was she uninterested in her patients? No, she was concerned about their interests instead of her own. She was disinterested, she was caring, okay? That's what eunoia means, disinterest. So, really, really important here because it's not just a matter of being disinterested it's convincing your audience that you have their best interest at heart. So if I said to you, "I don't really have to do this, "I'm doing this because I know how important it is for you "to learn these skills of rhetoric "because I know you are good people "and I want you to make the world a better place." Okay, I'm be disinterested, right? So I personally benefit from this 'cause I enjoy it and it helps sell books, so, I'm really not that disinterested but I'm going to try to convince you, or I would, if I were trying to convince you that I have your interests at heart instead of my own, okay? Meanwhile you're thinking, "Is he really disinterested?" Keep going. That has to do with self-sacrifice, right? How much I'm willing to sacrifice for you. Back in the bright days when parents spanked their children the classic thing to say was, "This is gonna hurt me more than it hurts you," greatest lie in history. That is, I'm sacrificing myself here because it's really hard for a parent to spank the kid, I'm gonna do it anyway, that is disinterest. This is the expression of disinterest, alright? We're gonna keep going with some of this it takes awhile to get used to this. So the next thing is to show your disinterest by talking about what the other person's problem is, not your own, okay? So one of the ways you do not do this especially if you're a man is to say to another person, "You know what your problem is?" By the way, when I simply wanna annoy my wife, I'll do it out of the blue, "You know what your problem is?" She'll smack me, if I ever wanna be smacked, I just do that. So, what you wanna do is to simply understand what the problem is, and listen, and then say, "This is what I'm hearing..." It's a great thing to do, not just in a meeting, but in a relationship, and then say, "I think I may have some ways for you to work on this, "and let me help you, I'm here for you." That's basically what caring is, "I am here for you." And that's about showing deep understanding and a way to respond to that understanding, okay? That's caring, it's one of the three C's, eunoia, caring. Craft is a little bit easier for people to understand we're gonna talk a little bit later about how to do a kind of C3 analysis of your resume or your website. How are you gonna portray yourself in the C3 terms? So, in terms of craft, that's generally what a resume does. What is craft? Phronesis is translated from the Greek as practical wisdom. So this has to do with street smarts but also it has to do with book-learning at the same time so imagine a surgeon, a neurosurgeon, brain surgeon, has lots and lots of book learning, had to read a lot of stuff, study anatomy, and all that sort of thing, right? So, all the learning in the world, and you think, who has really the best medical education is probably the most recent one. On the other hand would you want the youngest, least experienced neurosurgeon to operate on your parent's brain? So that's where it's not just your book learning it's your street smarts, your experience and knowledge, and how it applies to specific situations. I am old enough to have studied biology in high school at a time when you dissected frogs. You guys didn't do that. Some of you did? Yeah? Really? Oh, maybe... Okay. Some of you are pretty young to have dissected frogs. Anyway, one of the things that you learn from dissecting a frog is that no two frogs are alike. And it seems like every frog... And I dissected more than one, every frog I ever dissected had organs in all the wrong places. And you know what? Surgeons will tell you that. Like humans never have organs in the right place, my daughter is a nurse and she says this, like, nobody's parts are where they should be. And you know it's funny when you think about this is we're not just talking medicine here we're talking about life. So every situation is going to be unique. If you apply the same rule book to everything you're going to screw it up. I learned this the hard way in having kids. So we had the first kid I learned how to be a parent from the first kid experimenting on that kid. Then I thought I knew how to be a parent. Second kid comes along, throw out the rule book, nothing I did that worked for the first kid applied to the second, that's life, that's life, right? So practical wisdom is not just a matter of being able to apply your knowledge and your street smarts and your education to specific situations it is convincing your audience that you can. So here we're back in the dark art of persuasion, of rhetoric, here, which is not so much what the reality is as what your audience perceives of that reality. So, what we're talking about here is tools that convince people you know what you're doing. Not necessarily to know it, right? So again, it's up to you to use it wisely, powerful tools. Applying to a particular problem is really important because what you can say whenever you hear a problem... If you are doing a really good practical wisdom thing the greatest answer that you can give to any problem is, "That depends." So one of the greatest ways to convince people that you have great practical wisdom, drives people crazy sometimes, but in the long run, it works much better, is to say, "That depends." So if somebody says, "What is the perfect website "to use to promote my photography practice?" Your answer is gonna be, "Well, that depends, "depends on your audience, "depends on the kind of photography, "are you talkin' about fine art here, "or you taking pictures of machinery?" You know, it depends. Let me ask more questions for you, let me be your audience for a little bit until I find out exactly what your problem is. Then I'm gonna say, "Okay, I get it, "I understand you now, I'm a caring person, "so let me talk about the solution "to your particular problem." So you've gone from caring now to craft, okay? So one of the ways that you advertise how well you know what you're doing is you have case studies and endorsements and when we get in a little bit into websites and promoting yourself we'll talk a little bit about how to do that and I'd love to be that kinda interactive because I know that you guys are in this space, many of you. Then there's cause, cause is the really tricky one, but again, it can be the most powerful. What do I mean by that? Well it's interesting because Aristotle's term for it was arete, have you ever heard that expression? If you studied the Christian church or the Bible when you were a kid arete was referred to, and it means virtue. And if you look at movies of Roman soldiers they're always shouting, "Strength and honor," you know? Actually they weren't shouting strength and honor, their motto was, virtue and honor, not strength, 'cause virtue, virtus, was considered a manly thing. So it's funny women acquired virtue around Victorian times and men just completely lost it. Don't ask me why. So virtue has to do with understanding certain values. And sharing the same values as your audience. Not only that, but your audience has to believe that you embody those values, that you carry them out, and if you look at... There are many politicians, especially these days, who, in Congress, say, who will be very much in support of women's rights and very feminist in their politics who turn out to be total jerks in their private life. They lose virtue, right? So in one context it may be awesome and in another context they may be on unvirtuous so they've lost their cause. We'll get into cause a little bit more. The other thing that you do and we talked about this a little bit earlier with framing you wanna stand for something larger and going back to GE again, we don't just make widgets, we don't just make things that allow newborns to breathe, we stand for something larger than that, which is the ability for parents to enjoy their children, and bring them home, or whatever, you know? Or humanity, whatever your big cause is. This is something that you can do with any kind of website or resume or even talking to people to say, "Look, I love my work, it's why I do it, "but, I also hope that what I do "does something larger than just simply taking pictures "or doing things on social media "or helping sell stuff," whatever you do for a living. I wanna do something even better and I really believe that when I do my best it leads to this thing, and the question is, what is that? So you think about what I do for a living, I teach clients how to manipulate people but, at the same time, I deeply believe that the tools I teach of rhetoric actually can help bring groups together, make the world a better place, and save America, and Europe, while we're at it, maybe China, I don't know. That's my cause. Now, do I really believe in that cause? Am I actually making the world a better place? The point is, whether my audience believes it. That's the dark art of rhetoric. I'm gonna be talking increasingly about the ethics of this and I wanna hear you challenge me now, some you look really uncomfortable, and I love that, when I start talking about the manipulative parts because this is a dark art, okay. Standing for something larger means we bring good things to life. I bring good things to the world because of whatever I happen to be doing, okay? Now if you're in a job interview it's kinda awesome. We're gonna talk a little bit about this but I'm gonna introduce it right now. Toward the end of your interview what's great is when the person says, "Do you have any more questions or anything?" You can say, get a little emotional, and say, "Hey I just wanna say, this is really important to me. "Because I don't think this job is just about..." Whatever I'm supposed be doing. "But honestly, if I do my best at this job, "I really believe that this can help me "do what your company is doing," or something, you know? Bring in a cause, get a little emotional. "This is really important to me "because it's about something bigger than just this job." We're talking framing, aren't we? So your cause is a re-frame of whatever you're doing. Caring, craft, and cause. So let's look at your resume or your website, but let's talk resume, do you guys still... Do you have resumes? You all do? Okay, good. One of the great things to do with your resume is to audit it, do a C3 audit. So look at your craft, that's probably what's gonna be stronger. Now look at what's weakest. And you think about this, if you think about, you know, do you have a line at the top saying what you want? Like, seeking whatever you're seeking, or... Yeah. Do you wanna talk about that? You guys wanna say what your resumes try to do? Or you want me to keep going? Okay, so, we'll keep going, and then, let's... But think about your own resume and bring up a question, or something, start thinking really carefully about what you're trying to do. One of the things you might wanna do at the top is not to be too hyperbolic about it, don't exaggerate, and don't sound like P. T. Barnum, or something, but, what you wanna do is not just photography in a specific area or creating websites in a particular way but you wanna create websites or photography that change people's visions of whatever your field you're in. You take through your technical practice, through your expertise, that's your craft, you really wanna help people see things differently and that's one way to establish your cause 'cause probably your cause is missing. And the thing is you don't wanna lead people too far here 'cause they're gonna think you're just getting a little carried away with yourself poetically, okay? So then there's the caring part. Notice I said help people? You can combine the two so the very top your resume can say, I help people, or I'm looking for a place that lets me help people, or I have this particular service, or consulting practice, that allows me to help people to, whatever that is, and it can't just be, fix their toilets. You know, you think about... So let's get specific here, let's talk about a resume for a plumber. I'm doing this deliberately 'cause people don't respect plumbers a lot, and they should. Look how much they make. Clearly we value them for good reason 'cause think what we would do without plumbing. Alright, so let's talk about the craft part of it. The craft is, I have fixed this many problems, you know, hundreds, let's say. I have worked for 20 years, I have been trained in these things, I can practice in these particular kinds of plumbing things and various industries, and in people's homes, or whatever, okay? That's craft. But the caring part is, I help people not think about plumbing. Wouldn't that be great a top line? (laughs) So that's caring, I help people. The cause is, plumbing should be invisible. Don't people get that right away? Right, that's your cause, that's your plumbing resume, so now go out there and be plumbers, we don't have enough in this country. All right, beyond that, do wanna bring up your particular work and can we talk about your resume? You're really gonna put yourself on the spot? Let's do it. You are, I know what you are. I'm a pastry chef. You're a pastry chef, which is awesome. Yes, it's amazing. Do you have a resume? Yes, I do, but eventually, right now I'm working on building up my kind of portfolio on Instagram, and hopefully, I'm hoping that one day, that will replace my resume so instead of telling people what I can do I can actually show them the pictures, and say, "This is what I can do." Show, don't tell, very important in convincing people who you are, that's awesome, you're talking about photography now? Yes, I'm also a little bit into photography but that's... I'm not trying to be a photographer I'm trying to have that supplement my other job. So to be able to show people better what I can do. Okay, so, let's get specific, though, what is it that you wanna show them you can do? What is it? My skills. Your skills in what? In baking and pastry. Okay, so you're really selling yourself as a baker. Yes. Okay. That's a really hard thing, isn't it, pastry, baking? Yes. Yes-- I'm telling you yes, I can't do it-- I'll take your word for it. Alright, so, how... But let's talk about this. What's great is that you are showing examples and that's where, essentially, a picture of a beautifully-baked delicious-looking pastry, sorry my mouth's watering. (laughs) I'm picturing it. Is a case study, isn't it? It's more worthy than a thousand words. It is, but what if you turn this into storytelling? I like it. Okay, what is a story when it comes to pastry? It's a process, isn't it? And it's overcoming certain difficulties. So your typical case study consists of two parts, a problem and a solution. So what's the biggest problem in pastry baking? Biggest problem for me or biggest problem for you as a client? Good question, so let's talk about only... We're in the craft part of it right now and you're proving your craft which we're getting into, so it's really, what problems do you face and overcome in simply baking? Nevermind the client right now. Is it accuracy? I'm not sure. Well, yeah, accuracy, knowing exactly what you're doing, and having the time to do it, and having the time to do it properly. So not having to-- Well, you just described, sorry to interrupt you, but you just described everyone's job, right? (laughs) I had no idea I was a pastry chef. Do that again, say that again, what were those three things? So, accuracy, not making mistakes, and having the time. Yeah, that's pretty good, right? Okay, especially with pastry, the accuracy is really important. Essential. And you think about accountants, consultants dealing with data, people producing a website where they have to code stuff, right? And having the time is really interesting, so what do you mean by having the time? Well, you can't... Pastry is the kind of thing that you can't rush so you have to allow certain things to bake all the way through and you can't pull it out while it's half-baked 'cause essentially you're gonna have to start all over, your pastry will collapse onto itself, it's not gonna be good enough. If you rush the chilling process, again, the same thing's gonna happen, you're not gonna get the product of the highest quality that you're looking for. If you don't allow the gelatin to settle the way... Again, your pastry, your jelly is gonna be runny, and you don't want it, and you have to restart all over, so-- You should teach a CreativeLive course on pastry, I'm thinking... Let's keep going, I wanna learn how to do this. You know, what's interesting is that this is so analogous with so much else that we do and the question is, how do you prove to people that you can do it? So you described something, very specific problems having to do with your craft. Now, one of the things that you can do if you're talking about a case study and you can do this visually, on Instagram, which is kinda awesome, show when things go wrong. Little bit of a caption with each one and you can say, here's what happens when... I messed up, there it is. Yeah, well, you don't have to say you messed up, 'cause you're just teaching. Like you can deliberately do this, here's what happens if your timing is off here, or here are the critical ingredients, like, if you don't add enough water or flour? Shows you what I know-- Flour, water, anything, anything off the proper ratio and it's messed up. And that's just awesome, so one of the greatest ways to prove your craft, and at the same time show what a caring person you are is to teach. So, I really didn't realize this, I'm a little slow on this, but, I just... I wrote a rhetoric book just for myself and for my wife who wanted me to get this out of my system. I didn't realize that by teaching it people would think I must know this stuff and would hire me to help them with their persuasion problems. What if I had done that in reverse? Like, I wanted to be a consult... I didn't grow up wanting to be a consultant, very few kids say that. But you know it's interesting, by teaching, people thought that I knew enough to be able to help them. So in terms of being a pastry chef, or a photographer, or someone who builds websites, or works in social media, or in almost any kind of industry or work, it's really good to show your craft by teaching. So you've got your resume, you look at what your weaknesses in your resume are and probably your weaknesses are gonna be in portraying what a caring person you are, how much you wanna help people. And you can use language to do that, especially at the very top. You can talk about what your cause is, again, in the very top, I help people to... It's a really great thing to put in the top of a resume. But then, you could, with other media such as Instagram, teach. Here is how I do what I do and at least you can understand it better, and of course, the implication is, you'll never be as good as me. (laughs) And I know I will never be the pastry chef you are. Probably don't need to. And don't need to, 'cause there's you. So, okay. Now, how are you going to tell the story? Well you can do that through a story... A case study is problem and solution. A story is a process. It's a series of steps. So, this is... You tell a story that's called the hero's journey, have you ever heard of this, the hero's journey? Okay, I'll be brief about it, basically it comes down to the hero leaves her comfort zone, faces obstacles, brings together allies or expertise, and solves the problem. And comes away with some knowledge to share with other people. You think about that, that's totally applies to pastry baking, right? So, okay, you... Here you've been making the same kind of profiterole, that's a thing, right? Yes it is. And you're used to doing this but you encountered this particular problem and realized a lot of people encounter this, you've got a serious ratio problem going on here. So, then, you end up thinking a little bit differently about how to apply ratios and here's a little technique that everybody can use in their own kitchens that you apply. And you do that, do it with pictures, you can do that with a little story on a website. And you think about this, of course we're not just talking about pastry here. We're talking about everybody's life. I love the way... What you're talking about is so analogous. Okay, that is... What you can do is either talk about a case, study, problem, solution, boom, boom, paragraph, paragraph, even, one sentence, one sentence. Or, you do it with a series of pictures. I had this problem, I was used to doing it this way, I encountered this problem and I realized other people have that problem, I solved the problem, you can too. See this makes sense... I can see you thinking, it's totally great, the gears are moving on how you're gonna do this in your own work, I think that's wonderful. Okay, caring, crafting, cause. Caring shows you really care. By teaching something you're showing that you're sacrificing your time and effort to make other people better. That's such a caring thing for you to do, thank you, but at the same time, you're showing your craft in making people believe you know what you're doing. And then it shows that you have kind of a higher cause and sometimes you have to express that. You're bringing good profiteroles to life.