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When people describe situations in the absence of compelling evidence in order to persuade others to agree with them or take some kind of action, they're relying on their own credibility.

PERSUASION TIP 12 If you want the audience to embrace your content, leave out any detail that is both unimportant and would give people a reason to think, That's not me. Design into your content enough blank spaces so people can fill them in with whatever makes them happiest.

PERSUASION TIP 9 Display confidence (either real or faked) to improve your persuasiveness. You have to believe yourself, or at least appear as if you do, in order to get anyone else to believe.

This Is Just Between You and Me Research shows that people will automatically label you a friend if you share a secret.3 Sharing a confidence is a fast-track way to cause people to like and trust you. The trick is to reveal a secret that isn't a dangerous one. Wrong: "I buried my boss in the backyard." Right: "I probably shouldn't admit this, but every time Jane serves her dip I only pretend to like it because everyone else says it's to die for." The right approach to sharing a secret is to start small. Make sure the small secrets stay secret before you try anything riskier. One way to judge your risk is to be alert for other people's secrets that are being relayed to you. Someone who is bad at keeping one kind of secret is probably bad at keeping all secrets. You won't be exempt.

Persuaders know that humans put more importance on the first part of a sentence than the second part. Our first impressions are hard to dislodge. And the first impression of those tweets--lots of them--involved imagining Trump winning the election.

Persuasion is all about the tools and techniques of changing people's minds, with or without facts and reason.

PERSUASION TIP 20 People are more persuaded by contrast than by facts or reason. Choose your contrasts wisely.

The persuasion stack isn't science, so I recommend viewing it as directional. Big fear Identity Smaller fear Aspirations Habit Analogies Reason Hypocrisy Word-thinking

Thinking Past the Sale Thinking past the sale is a persuasion technique in which a subject is prompted to imagine what happens after a decision has been made, to bias the person toward making the decision.

You saw Trump use the intentional wrongness persuasion play over and over, and almost always to good effect. The method goes like this: Make a claim that is directionally accurate but has a big exaggeration or factual error in it. Wait for people to notice the exaggeration or error and spend endless hours talking about how wrong it is. When you dedicate focus and energy to an idea, you remember it. And the things that have the most mental impact on you will irrationally seem as though they are high in priority, even if they are not. That's persuasion.

Pacing and Leading Pacing involves matching the person you plan to persuade in as many ways as possible, including the way the person thinks, speaks, breathes, and moves. Pacing builds trust because people see you as being the same as them. After pacing, a persuader can then lead, and the subject will be comfortable following.

Persuasive Words and Phrases Because Would you mind ... ? I'm not interested. I don't do that. I have a rule ... I just wanted to clarify ... Is there anything you can do for me? Thank you This is just between you and me.

Is There Anything You Can Do for Me? We all find ourselves in situations where an organization or person is preventing us from achieving whatever it is that we perceive as just and fair. Perhaps a retail store is refusing to take a return item, or you purchased the wrong model and the one you want is out of stock. You need to persuade someone to go above and beyond the rules to make you happy.