Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS
Disclosure: Some of the links in the podcast show notes and transcripts are affiliate links (indicated with [Affiliate] in front). If you choose to make a purchase through these links GradBlogger will earn a commission from that purchase at no extra cost to you.
The title of today’s episode is using the “Instant Influence” framework to uncover your true motivation. It is all around figuring out what makes you tick and looking into not just what you’re doing every day but why you’re doing it. And then, using that to influence and create the type of change that you want in the world.
More than just for your business strategies, the framework can be used to evaluate things in your life that you want to change as well.
The framework for this self-discovery is from [Affiliate] “Instant Influence: How to Get Anyone to Do Anything–Fast,” by Dr. Michael Pantalon in 2011. Pantalon is a psychologist and a research scientist at the Yale School of Medicine.
This topic is one I discuss often with coaching clients and masterminds and persons at events. Really, working with people all over. They have chosen to focus on a goal, put their head down and go at it. And when they come up for air, they are frustrated to realize they didn’t get the actual result that they want.
Alternately, they just don’t make any progress because they picked the wrong thing that wasn’t really aligned with their values.
Starting with your why
You really need to dig into the root of your personal motivation. Before you choose a strategy or make conclusions about outcomes, it’s better to really start with this process of, why do you want to do it?
This is similar to the book, [Affiliate] “Start With Why” by Simon Sinek. The 4MAT system by Bernice McCarthy from the 1980s, is quite similar as well. And they both tie in with the “Instant Influence” framework.
I often hear, “I want to sell a course” or “I want to launch a membership” or “I want to write a book” This is starting with the tactic rather than the why.
Take, for example, this conversation with a coaching client who wanted to create and sell a course online:
Chris: “Why not create a simple eBook first?”
Client: “Well, I feel like people don’t like eBooks anymore.”
Chris: “Why do you want to create a course?”
Client: “I really want to help people. I think they’d rather have one-on-one interactions.”
Chris: “Why might you consider creating something different than a course?”
Client: “I guess it’d be faster to create something different.”
Chris: ”Why might being faster to create something be important for you?”
Client: “Well, it’d be nice to have something on my website, anything to sell. I have a lot of people coming through, but nobody’s actually buying anything, because I don’t have any offers on my website.”
Chris: “Well, what other benefits might come out of this? What else?”
Client: “It forced me to figure out how to set up my sales cart. This is something I’ve been trying to figure out how to do and wanting to dive into, but I haven’t had a reason to. It would force me to actually start and finish a project with a laugh.”
Chris: “I hear you’re saying that there’s a lot of processes and building products online that you’d like to learn. Why might you consider focusing on something as fast to create that you can have on your website soon that will force you to figure out it’s up your sales cart and the other processes needed? Why would you maybe consider focusing on something like that?”
Client: “Well, I guess, I don’t really feel that confident with the process of putting a product online. But it’s nice to learn some of those skills and gain confidence in this whole online process.”
The client and I had dug down, determining it wasn’t just gaining confidence and learning skills, but the pride in finishing a project. We closed out by discussing the next steps to take.
Next steps, of course, return us to the tactics. But now, we have a tactic that’s aligned with a strategy and also aligned with a motivation. The motivation is a personal one to get more confidence in creating and selling products online. The strategy is really whatever the easiest way to do that is, and it’s not always going to be the easiest way as your strategy. But in this case, it’s really just probably to practice and just pick one thing, and do it start to finish.
The “Instant Influence” framework is six questions that only take about seven minutes to answer.
- Why might I change?
- On a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 means not and 10 means totally, how ready am I to change?
- Why didn’t I pick a lower number?
- Imagine the change – what would the positive incomes be?
- Why are those outcomes important to me?
- What’s the next step?
This framework is one that you can ask yourself, as phrased above. Or you can use it when you’re talking with other people to identify their motivations, and then move them towards action. And this is actually a really interesting process. It’s modified for something that’s called motivational interviewing to use by doctors and lawyers, and interrogators to get people that are stubborn and won’t change their ways to dig into what is their true motivation.
The questions are all about diving into the personal whys, and then developing the strategy and the tactics from that. It works for everything from smoking cigarettes to doing drugs, to drinking alcohol, because they use it, the motivational interview style or process in medical fields for this exact same reason.
Motivation is the spark that you can dig into to start to facilitate that change.
You’ll actually be pretty amazed with yourself and with other people when you get to this step that you only want them to do one thing, like a small micro step, and their head explodes. And they say a whole big plan on what they’re going to do. And some of the time, when you’re coaching, accidentally, you reel them in and say, “Okay, well let’s just do part of that plan right now.”
When you complete this whole process, your brain has basically connected all the dots and made it so that you now have this whole plan set out to do that process. You might ask, why do you say if any at the end? And this ties more into when you’re talking with another person, it reinforces their autonomy. And if you read the Pantalon’s book, then you’ll hear this quite a bit. He talks about this reinforcing the autonomy throughout the whole process, reflecting motivation, any spark or hint of motivation back.
Ready to try this for yourself? We’re providing a cheat sheet to this framework. Print it off, and give it a try. Go through the exercise with where you’re at today, what you’re doing today. And just start with why might you change? Why might you do something different than what your plan is today? And then, go through the six-step framework for that.
Let me know how it goes. Shoot me an email at chris@gradblogger.com. Let me know about your true motivation, if you found that it bubbled up through the questions for you, and then tell me about your next step.
