How to Leave a Permanent Imprint on Everyone You Meet

March 24, 2009 3:33 PM

The only judgment people can (honestly) make is how interacting with you made them FEEL.

As such, emotion is the final arbiter of communication effectiveness. Which means you have a choice:

Will people feel diminished, unaffected, or enlarged after their encounters with you?

TRY THIS: Constantly ask yourself the question, “What new world could I open up for this person?”

All it takes is one powerful insight, one thought-provoking question or one engaging conversation to send someone off to the races. To get her hamster wheel spinning furiously. To change her thinking FOR-ever.

It’s all in the delivery, too…

For example, the seven words that left a permanent imprint on me were “Writing is the basis of all wealth.” (Thanks, Gitomer.)

Now, you can read those words on paper, but it doesn’t have the same effect. So, whenever I pass along that particular nugget to one of my coaching clients, here’s what I do. As you explore my process, ask yourself how you could craft your own system of delivering insight to people that leaves a permanent imprint on them forever:

1. Prepare the person to receive. Paired with direct eye contact, I’ll say, “Erin, I want you to listen very closely to what I’m about to tell you. It changed my life forever and made me a LOT of money…”

2. Punctuate with a five-second pause. After I say, “Writing is the basis of all wealth,” I shut up and stare. This allows my words to profoundly penetrate and, hopefully, disturb her.

3. Say it again. Repetition reemphasizes importance and solidifies memory.

4. Make it tangible. Then I usually write the sentence down on a little piece of paper and physically hand it to her, ask her to write it down herself, or email her later that day as a reminder.

5. Pound it in. Through her brain, past her heart and down to her soul. And I do this by constantly repeating those words over and over whenever we meet: “Remember what we talked about Erin: Writing is the basis of all wealth.”

That’s how you alter people’s pulses.

That’s how you leave a permanent imprint on them forever.

REMEMBER: The only judgment people can (honestly) make is how interacting with you made them FEEL.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
What do people get from communicating with you? How are they changed after having a conversation with you? And do they feel diminished, unaffected, or enlarged after their encounters with you?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For the list called, “37 Personal Leadership Questions Guaranteed to Shake Your Soul,” send an email to me, and I’ll send you the list for free!

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Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
Author, Speaker, Coach, Entrepreneur
[email protected]

Never the same speech twice.
Always about approachability.