• On Good Things Utah this morning – Are you hoping to influence and impress people? A Wharton professor says: follow the present tense rule to be instantly more persuasive and charming. This subtle change to how you speak will give you an instant charisma upgrade. Some people just grab our attention and win our confidence. Their presence puts us at ease, and their reality distortion field charisma makes everything that comes out of their mouth sound believable and compelling. It’s a skill every business owner could benefit from, but how do you get it? This kind of charm can feel like a magic trick or an inexplicable gift of the universe–or genetics. But science says something different. While charisma clearly comes more easily to some of us than others, research shows that exceptional charisma is built on particular actions and techniques. Just as some people may be born with more musical talent than others but everyone can learn to play an instrument, all of us can learn to be charming.
    • There’s a whole range of skills that go into improving your charisma, including everything from basics like smiling, watching the timing of your responses, and showing genuine interest in others to next-level mind tricks and more manipulative maneuvers. But I recently stumbled on a trick that’s both super simple and not widely known. Certainty goes hand in hand with persuasiveness. The trick emerged in an episode of Stanford Business School’s Think Fast, Talk Smart podcast featuring a long discussion between Wharton professor Jonah Berger and Stanford lecturer Matt Abrahams. Berger is the author of several hit business books on marketing and persuasion, and he came on the podcast to discuss his latest, Magic Words. As the title implies, the book delves into how subtle shifts in language can have large impacts on people’s behavior. It sounds like a great read for anyone in the business of sales or persuasion–so, basically every entrepreneur–but Berger gives listeners a sneak peak at some of the book’s insights. Among them was one of the simplest tips for coming across as more confident and persuasive that I’ve ever come across. The people that we find the most charming, Berger observes, share one basic characteristic: “Whether you look at gurus, you look at startup founders, you look at leaders that are often thought about as charismatic, they often have something quite in common. They often do the same thing, which is they speak with a great deal of certainty.” To read the entire article click here: https://flipboard.com/topic/psychology/wharton-professor-follow-the-present-tense-rule-to-be-instantly-more-persuasi/a-eRFjPbFdQc-4wU4IFKuf7w%3Aa%3A26070011-a76f538f40%2Finc.com And be sure to tune in with us for this Hot Topic and so much more on Good Things Utah.