The art of persuasion

As an attorney, it's my job to be an advocate.  They say a good attorney can successfully argue both sides of a story and can persuade you to take each side.  And we can talk and argue.  A lot.

 

 

So that's my personality.  T on the other hand is more of an introvert.  He's not much of an arguer.  But he has to give presentations at work in front of large groups of engineers, many of them executives, and so I've offered my advocacy skills to help coach him.  The other night he did a practice run of his power point presentation, and even though all of the concepts were WAY over my head, I tried my best to quiz him as if I were in the audience.  I also helped him in the "giving things a positive spin" department.  For example... "we weren't given much time, so I was only able to collect this much data."  To this I told him to say "I was able to successfully utilize the time allotted and produce this accurate data."  Sounds better, right?  It's all about how you say it.  It can be total bullshit, but that doesn't matter.  So long as you have confidence in what you say, they will believe you actually mean it.

 

 

I had to do this all the time in court.  So many times I had nothing for a case or the worst client ever, but...you have to try to win your case.  So you spin the facts (not lie, but make them sound better than they are) to make your case seem better.  Most Judges could see right through it, but, you had to do it anyway.  SO my words of wisdom to T were this:

 

 

"You have to own it.  Say it with confidence, even though it's crap.  Talk that person into believing that this is the only thing they want to believe in."

 

 

I was pretty good until I made this analogy.... "Hell, I could sell poop Popsicles to a group of vegetarians if I made it sound good enough." 

 

 

No, I don't know where that came from.  And T just busted out laughing, immediately posting that on Facebook as one of my many "Nain-isms" 

 

 

But did it work?  Yes, it did.  I got a text from T after his presentation "Well, it's done.  I sold poop Popsicles to a group of vegetarians!"    And he'll never forget that phrase ever when he has to do a presentation again.  Mission accomplished.