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The Art of Charm

Minisode Monday #8 | Forthright with Faults

The Art of Charm

http://www.TheArtOfCharm.com

Business, Health & Fitness, Education

4.711K Ratings

🗓️ 4 July 2016

⏱️ 5 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Welcome to the eighth episode of Minisode Monday! We keep finding so many useful tactics and tips that we want to share with you, but they don't fit into the format of a regular show -- hence, Minisode Monday. Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World author and recent guest Adam Grant joins us to talk about how we can argue against ourselves in order to make our arguments more convincing. The Cheat Sheet: We can lead with our weaknesses, not just our strengths. Adam tells us how serial entrepreneur Rufus Griscom convinced investors to fund parenting website Babble by providing three reasons not to. By arguing against ourselves and being forthright with our faults, we show the capacity to be self-critical, balanced, and not delusional enough to believe our own ideas are flawless. By listing these problems off the bat, Griscom made it harder for the potential investors to think of problems themselves. "The harder it is to think about something, the less you think it's a real issue," says Adam. "If you really struggle -- if you have to work -- to come up with some real reasons not to invest in this company, you're like, 'This company must not be so bad!'" People like to show off how intelligent they are. Since Griscom had already pointed out the problems with his business, it put the investors in the position of demonstrating this intelligence by finding ways to solve these problems -- rather than sniffing out further faults. This turned what could have been a conversation focused on the negative into one that gravitated toward the positive. Griscom later used these same tactics with Disney ("five reasons you should not buy Babble"); Disney then bought the company for $40 million. To learn more social dynamics hacks like this one, take the Art of Charm Challenge by clicking here, or text CHARMED to 33444. Let us know about how you put today's Minisode Monday into practice! Leave a comment below, tweet with @TheArtofCharm in your response, or write to Jordan directly: [email protected] (he reads everything)! Show notes at http://theartofcharm.com/podcast-episodes/minisode-monday-8-forthright-with-faults/ HELP US SPREAD THE WORD! If you dig the show, please subscribe in iTunes and write us a review! This is what helps us stand out from the crowd and help people find the credible advice they need. Review the show in iTunes! We rely on it! http://www.theartofcharm.com/mobilereview Stay Charming!

Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome to MiniSode Monday.

0:01.6

Happy to be here with you kicking off the week with something quick and actionable that

0:05.6

you can implement right away that will make you more magnetic and effective.

0:10.0

Today, Adam Grant, talking about persuasion and highlighting counter arguments to your intended

0:15.7

goal.

0:16.7

In other words, arguing against yourself in order to make your arguments more convincing.

0:20.7

A little bit counterintuitive here, but here's Adam Grant.

0:23.7

Adam, you mentioned in the book originals that we discussed earlier that if one wants to

0:28.2

persuade, for example, an investor meeting, of course, this isn't limited to that.

0:32.7

But one should highlight the reasons not to support your idea.

0:36.4

So counterintuitive, yet effective.

0:39.2

Talk about this.

0:40.2

Discuss this.

0:41.2

I learned about that from Rufus Griskem.

0:43.8

He's this great serial entrepreneur who had this idea to start a parenting website called

0:48.2

Babel, where he wanted to tell people the truth about parenting instead of all the lies

0:52.2

we're often fed.

0:54.0

And he went to investors and he started saying, here are the three reasons you should

0:58.2

not invest in my company.

1:00.2

What in the world is he doing?

1:04.0

But he walked away with over $3 million in funding that year.

1:08.3

And I think there are a couple of things that are going on here.

...

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