You want to be the kind of person who moves the needle. You want to make an impact, but you also want to encourage real action and respect from your fellow humans.
You don’t want people smiling and nodding before moving on to the next guy. You want people to feel what you create and be spurred to do something to make a change in their lives. Only this will bring income for you and results for them. So, what are some ways to ensure you inspire movement and respect from people around you?
Here are three simple actions that will make people have respect for you:
1. Appeal to their emotions, not logic
You can argue about how important your message is until you’re blue in the face. But you won’t inspire action until you get someone to feel something. You do this by telling a story and painting vivid scenes that people can step into.
They experience the story and the pain and the desire and joy and the relief as if they were there. You show, don’t tell. If you can feel it in your content, many others will too. Emotions sit at the root of action.
Research from Harvard Business Review explained that appealing to emotion over logic in marketing can significantly boost brand success by creating stronger customer connections, increasing brand recall, and driving purchasing behavior. People are often more likely to make decisions based on their feelings rather than purely rational considerations. However, authentic and appropriate emotional appeals are essential to avoid negative repercussions.
2. Be approachable
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People only respect those they like and trust. People are also unlikely to reach out to you and take an interest in you and your work if you are not approachable in the first place.
How best to stay unapproachable? Be a bit robotic. The alternative? Be a human. How to be a human? Be honest and show us your imperfections. Show us how you made a mistake or have this annoying habit of watching video game golf videos for far too long every day (like me). This makes you relatable, more trustworthy, and more approachable.
Research published in The Journal of Strategic Marketing explains that from psychology literature, likeability has been defined as ‘a persuasion tactic and a scheme of self-presentation.’ Early research found that a multidimensional construct with cognitive and affective components describes likeability. More recently, Reysen developed a scale that can be used to study likeability features. By looking at factors such as friendliness, approachability, attractiveness, levels of knowledge, similarity to oneself, and agreeableness, the Reysen Likeability Scale attempts to measure a person’s likeability.
3. Make a call to action
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This is secondary to the others but still often important. People are comfortable being led, and they are more likely to act when they see the direction you are guiding them. Being an approachable, respected human who can stir emotions and encourage action will ensure you thrive.
Research from Stanford University shows that a call to action works by leveraging human psychology principles like reward behavior, urgency, clarity, social proof, and the desire to avoid loss. It guides users to take a specific action by clearly presenting a benefit or positive outcome associated with that action, often with a sense of time sensitivity to prompt immediate response.
Alex Mathers is a writer and coach who helps you build a money-making personal brand with your knowledge and skills while staying mentally resilient.