Message in a Minute: Paint the picture of what’s possible

There’s lots of (very good) advice out there about showing people what their lives may look like?after?they make the change your idea represents.?My latest?Message in a Minute video?(and this post!) explains why it makes sense to…

Paint the picture of what’s possible

That’s especially important when the change you’re asking people to make isn’t one they’re looking to make right now.

To explain that a bit more, here’s the video’s Red Thread:

• GOAL: Have your audience feel good about a change you’re asking for.
• PROBLEM: The best messages—and the best stories—resolve the very natural tension between what people want and what they need. That kind of happy ending satisfies our very human expectations of the way things “should” be—namely, that?being smart, capable, and good?deserves a reward.
• TRUTH: Mental movement doesn’t come from satisfying endings, it comes from new beginnings—from the?curiosity?that’s a key?condition for change.
• CHANGE: Don’t just give people a happy ending with your message,?paint the picture of what’s possible?once they achieve it.
• ACTION: Draft your Goal Revisited and then put it where it will do the most good: the beginning to create the curiosity that creates engagement in your message, or at the end to create the curiosity that keeps the engagement going.
• GOAL REVISITED: Not only will people be curious about and satisfied with the happy ending they’re looking for, you’re potentially giving them a?new, even better ending to pursue (which then starts the curiosity cycle all over again!)

How to apply it

There’s one big and obvious reason why you’d want to tell your audience about what it looks like on the other side of the change you’re asking them to make:?It shows them why the change would be worth it.?(And as I’ve talked about recently, that’s one of the?three beliefs they need to have?before they’ll change.)

It gives them something to?want.

Some folks call it the “promise,” others the “new day-in-the-life.” No matter what you call it, though,?painting that picture of what’s possible for your audience also helps draw the contrast between their current “before” and your “after.”?That contrast creates a curiosity gap that activates people’s?own desire?to learn more about how to get that new and improved result.

It turns a?want?into a?need.

That curiosity gap, in turn,?raises the probability that people will lean into your message and engage with it more.?With something so worthwhile out there—something different and better than what they have now—they’ll want to know how to solve the puzzle.

And?all?of that?helps people feel good about the change, your message, and often,?you.

That’s especially true those times where the change you’re asking for?isn’t?one that people are actively looking for right now or, possibly, are resistant to making.

In those instances, I recommend something a bit counterintuitive:

Hold that picture of what’s possible until the end.

That’s due to one of our very human quirks called?“persuasion knowledge.”?That’s what happens when we realize someone is trying to persuade us to do something, and (because?we always want to feel in control?of our choices and destiny) we resist… often just for the sake of resisting and feeling that control!

Yeah, you don’t want that to happen with your message. You?especially?don’t want that to happen if you know the change you’re asking for will legitimately help someone get something they need.

But sometimes there’s a tension between what someone wants (their?Goal) and what you believe they need (the?Change). The thing is, often because of persuasion knowledge, your audience will often ignore—or disbelieve—anything that isn’t what they want right now, whether?you?think they need it or not.

You have to solve the problem they?think?they have before you solve the problem you?know?they have.

That’s why your message needs to start with their Goal and your case needs to clearly show how your Change satisfies that goal.?That’s?the happy ending they’re looking for, and the happy ending you will give them. That kind of happy ending to your message is satisfying in and of itself, of course. It’s a problem solved, a need met, a goal achieved.

There’s a deeper reason, too, and it connects to people’s basic human need to be seen as?smart, capable, and good.

It feels “right” to us that we get what we want.

We?deserve?it for being a smart, capable, good person.

While closing that loop for your audience is often all you need to do,?sometimes you want or need to keep the engagement going after they get what they want.?You want or need to continue the relationship in some way. Maybe you want them to move to the next stage of your sales process, or to keep reading, or to dive deeper into all you offer.

In that case it helps to remember the role of?curiosity?in creating mental movement. More specifically, how, once our curiosity is satisfied—once we think we know the answer to a question we have—we’re not curious anymore. In other words, as I said above,

Mental movement doesn’t come from satisfying endings, it comes from new beginnings

That means you sometimes want to create?new?curiosity, even as you’re satisfying “old” curiosity. In those instances, that’s when it helps to?hold off that picture of what’s possible until?after?you’ve shown them how you’ve given them what they want.?Once they’re satisfied with that, you can then show them all the?other?possibilities they gain from taking action or making change.

I call that the “Goal Revisited,” and I have a whole chapter on it in my?book. But I also love marketing guru Seth Godin’s phrase for it, the “free prize inside.”

That “extra” you’re giving them—which is often exactly what they need, even if they didn’t realize in the beginning—makes them feel even better about the change and your idea. Sometimes, it makes them feel even better about themselves.

And that’s the best free prize of all.