058 This is the Most Fun You’ll Ever Have “Explaining the Mechanism” …

The Transcript

This is the Most Fun You’ll Ever Have “Explaining the Mechanism” …

Voiceover: This is Rainmaker.FM, the digital marketing podcast network. It’s built on the Rainmaker Platform, which empowers you to build your own digital marketing and sales platform. Start your free 14-day trial at RainmakerPlatform.com.

Demian Farnworth: Howdy, dear podcast listener. This is Rough Draft, your daily dose of essential web writing advice. I am Demian Farnworth, your host, your muse, your digital recluse, and the Chief Content Writer for Copyblogger Media.

And thank you for sharing the next few minutes of your life with me.

My Strong Feelings About a Booked Called “How Nobody Understands You”

So, I recently read this book called “No One Understands You and What to Do About it.” It’s by one Heidi Grant Halvorson, PhD. She’s a social psychologist with some hefty responsibilities at the Columbia Business School.

Now, any kind of book that begins with “No One Understands You” is going to get my attention.

But to be honest, because I’m what Sally Hogshead would call a Secret Weapon, which basically means I have Mystique as my primary advantage — I’m not really interested in the “What to Do About It Part” when it comes to being misunderstood.

See, I don’t want to ruin the riddle by over communicating.

But because, hey, I’m a trooper, and I love you, and I try to be somewhat of a human being most of the time, I thought I’d give one of her suggestions the old college try.

So, on page 72 she says, “Allowing yourself to be a bit vulnerable is a great way to project warmth. Talk about your struggles and challenges.”

This might surprise you but warmth doesn’t come natural to me. Self-reliance, aloofness, remote observation, logic. Those come natural. So clearly I need help in this arena. I don’t think I need a psychologist to tell me that. But that’s not my obligatory embarrassing admission to increase my Warmth Quotient.

My Obligatory Embarrassing Admission to Increase My Warmth Quotient for this Episode

No. My obligatory embarrassing admission to increase my Warmth Quotient is this: when I was a young man, late teens, early twenties. My calf muscles were tiny. I mean really small. In fact, I didn’t really have calf muscles. There was just a bone there. I had calf bones.

So imagine my delight when I discovered — I think flipping through a Details magazine — that you could get calf implants.

Now laugh all you want, but I seriously considered getting calf implants. If I just had several thousand dollars lying around … the ridicule and embarrassment of having small calves would be over. No one would laugh at me or kick sand in my face at the beach and steal my girlfriend. My life, changed. Dreams finally coming true.

But alas, I didn’t get calf implants. In retrospect, I’m glad I didn’t get them. There are other ways to get calves without buying them.

I guess.

But there’s another reason I bring up this particular story. To introduce yet another way to build credibility and trust … which is simply this: explain the mechanism behind your claim.

Three Examples of Claims that Are Validated By Explaining the Mechanism

Here’s what that looks like. Let’s say you’re a fitness trainer that makes the claim that in just 14 minutes a day, customers can add muscle to every inch of their body — including the calves.

But notice what is NOT suggested: that these will be particularly big muscles. The implication is, at the very least, customers can achieve a toned body.

I think I can handle that.

That’s still a big claim, but the trainer can bring it into the realm of believability by explaining how this can happen.

In this case, let’s say your fitness program involves a chair. So the value proposition can be summed up like this: a 14-minute chair routine that builds muscle on every inch of your body.

As a consumer, you now understand the mechanism: exercises done with a chair.

Use your imagination. What kind of exercises can you do with a chair? You could do those things called stair steps. Or maybe calf raises. Or reverse dips. I don’t know if that’s a thing. I’m just saying it.

Notice, too, the trainer used several of the previous tips we talked about in prior episodes to accomplish this.

One, the claim is very specific about the amount of time it takes and the equipment necessary. In other words, it’s heavy with details. It’s precise. Fourteen minutes everyday with a chair is precise.

In addition, as part of the live presentation the trainer could demonstrate with a video. All of these factors piled up help sweep aside skepticism.

Here’s another example: Defeat Credit Card Debt With Only a Calendar and Spreadsheet. So, the calendar and spreadsheet are the mechanisms.

One more example: Read 24 Books in 24 Hours with The World’s First Speed Reading App. What is the mechanism? Tweet me the answer and I’ll tell you if you are right and share it with the audience.

Also, tweet me one of your embarrassing admissions so we can increase our Warmth Quotient together. Because you know everything is made better when you do it together. Is that a real saying? Did I just make that up?

How You Can Learn What Your Fascination Archetype Is

By the way, you can find out your Fascination archetype if you head over to Sally Hogshead’s site at howtofascinate.com.

So, until next time, take care.