SHOW NOTES:

•The lessons of the newspaper woman.

•The causes of toxic workplaces, more often than not.

•The 90-minute wrench.

•It's not your mother's fault.

•Distress and eustress.

•The key to peak performance.

•It's about how you awaken, and I don't mean "woke."

•Putting it to bed.

SHOW NOTES:

•Never talk to people who can say "no" but can't say "yes."

•Treat the buyer as a peer, not a superior.

• Have a conversation, don't make a presentation.

•Language controls discussion, which controls relationships, which controls business.

•No one is shooting at you, get rid of your fears and weak ego.

•Gain conceptual agreement.

•Money and time are priorities, not resources.

•There are three elements to every sale.

•Play into the buyer's "story."

•Four objection areas, only one is legitimate.

•Don't give off "deal vibes."

•Have a "min/max."

•Always conclude with TDA.

•Think of TDTC.

•Never settle for "best practices."

•Don't be intimidated, change the frame (we never hire consultants).

•Provide options.

•Learn from every interaction.

SHOW NOTES:

If you're in favor of this stuff, listen carefully to the audio. You're driving on the wrong side of the road.

•servant leadership

•holacracy

•one-minute management

•management by wandering around

•management by objectives

• total quality management

•360° feedback

•self-directed teams

•open office (hoteling)

•open book management

•reengineering

•JIT (just-in-time)

•lean

•matrix management

•theory Z

•flat organizations

•matrix management

•six sigma

•open book management

SHOW NOTES:

•This is an almost subliminal technique to create normative pressure psychologically.

•It's pointing out what others are doing, or not doing, or what events, prove your point.

•It's the use of profound analogies.

•Listen to my examples about Amtrack's infrastructure, or the fallacies around Kodak.

•If pictures are worth a thousand words, social proof is worth a thousand pictures.

•Learn who was more important, Brady or Belechick.

• Understand how breaking the rules can save lives.

•Understand why coach does not arrive at the same time that first class does.

•Use these techniques for assurances and probabilities.

•Use them to accelerate your conversations toward your goals.

•But social proof demands that you be well-informed.

To learn how to develop and use Social Proof, go to my website or read below:

THE PROOF BEHIND SOCIAL PROOF

Has anyone ever asked you, "Give me an example of your point?" and you suddenly forgot how to speak? Or have you said, "Let me give you an example...," and then immediately gone into brain freeze without any ice cream?

"Social Proof" comprises pragmatic examples that others can readily relate to which reinforce your point instantly.

When you "open the hood" on social proof, beneath is actually a psychological dynamic which creates normative pressure assuring that the actions of others are appropriate and should be imitated. A desire to "fit in" is created.

While testimonials and endorsements are a type of social proof, they are not as powerful as citing a headline, a major incident, or a famous example. (One problem with quotations, for example, is that for each one there is an opposite, equally true: "Haste makes waste" but "He who hesitates is lost.")

Many people use "false social proof." Kodak was not hiring chemists while digital photography was taking over. Their executives simply thought they could wring a couple of more years of already-projected profits and underestimated the speed of the digital takeover.

Join me for 90 minutes and fill your conversations, narrative, and collateral with social proof that will build your brand and fill your bank account.

People ask what research I invest in for my success. I don't. Then they ask what my investigative habits are. I don't have any. "So what DO you do?" They ask.

I look around.

LEARN HOW TO LOOK AROUND TO DOMINATE CONVERSATIONS AND CLOSE BUSINESS:

October 14, 2025

10:30 to noon, US eastern time

Video and Zoom notes included

Fee: $350 until and including Sept. 30, $500 thereafter.

REGISTER HERE: https://alanweiss.com/growth-experiences/the-proof-behind-social-proof/

SHOW NOTES:

•We think the higher the value, the more we can charge.

•However, at a given point, people believe they get what they pay for and those lines cross.

•The point at which they cross means your brand is strong.

•No one needs a Bentley for transportation, a Brioni for attire, a Bulgari to tell the time. But they assign great emotional value in their association and display.

•The wrench story.

•Many people made money during the pandemic and rough economic times by raising fees. It's easier, of course, to lower them, and to go out of business!

•Mercedes made a mistake going "downscale," then failed to go "upscale" with the Maybach.

•At the outset, raise value to raise fees. When your brand is powerful, change the order.

SHOW NOTES:

•Do you know people who are loquacious, verbose, prolix?

•Ask a "yes or no" question and they respond with opinions, history, and self-therapy.

•Have you been to the Jersey Shore?

Well, I did go once, as a child, but my parents really couldn't afford the vacation, and then when they could, they preferred Cape Cod. I haven't taken my children because my spouse thinks that "Jaws" was a documentary.

•Why so much talk?

-Articulating cognitive processes

-Buying time

-Believing it adds credibility and esteem

-Just a bigmouth who loves to hear him/herself talk

•Tell people what they need to know, not everything that you know.

•Assume intelligent people will ask you questions if needed.

•Don't be afraid to stop people from rambling:

-What's your point?

-What's your question?

•Verbosity attempts to hide the point: politicians do it and it probably helped cost Kamala Harris the election.

•It dilutes your real power, like planting the Mona Lisa in the midst of a much larger painting.

•People forget the major points because they are drowned in minor points. She talked at length about needing ice cream, but I don't remember what flavors she said to avoid at all costs.

•Lincoln's Gettysburg Address took about 2.5 minutes to deliver. Can you recall who else spoke that day for hours?

•The US Constitution is a couple of pages. The rules of golf are over 600. Is it really easier to run the most successful and powerful democracy in history than to hit a ball with a stick?

SHOW NOTES:

People want problems solved, even if you caused them!

Learn how Katz's Deli and Mercedes Benz have turned problems into profits.

Don't look for blame, look for opportunity.

No one is as excited about an expected excellent experience as they are about a disappointing experience turned into an excellent experience.

Customers tend to tell a huge number of people about their experiences, at their levels—peer-to-peer evangelism.

This is why companies that make it their work to make themselves unreachable (welcome to government agencies) are so foolish.

Perhaps, instead of saying, "The problem with you is...." you should be saying, "Let me help you do that even better."

SHOW NOTES:

There are myriad claims on social media that are justified by the author observing (or being a self-proclaimed expert in) "body language." I have always thought this was ridiculous, sort of a faux psychological claim of expertise. Of course, the French have long studied graphology (handwriting) to determine behavioral traits (hard in a world forsaking cursive), and scapulimancy, the study of old, burned animal shoulder bones, has been used by various cultures to contact the gods.

"Body language" is a similar myth. You don't believe me, here's what Psychology Today has to say about it:

"Every day, we get queries from around the world about non-verbals and invariably about detecting deception through body language. The biggest takeaway from the hundreds of messages is that despite the undeniable importance of nonverbal communication, many myths and false beliefs undermine its importance, relevance, or utility. So, we decided to pool our resources and comment on ten myths about body language that are currently trending, and you may notice some have been trending for a long time."

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/spycatcher/202207/debunking-body-language-myths

But why trust me or science? After all, who knows what my body language looks like right now?

SHOW NOTES:

•Let's stop the hypocrisy around this affair.

•This goes on all over, government, business, education.

•I've seen it, many people know the "secret."

•The foolishness is the arrogance that you think it's a secret.

•But the attempts at shadenfreude are ludicrous.

•Who's pointing the finger? People who have cheated on exams, broken traffic laws, evaded taxes, blamed others for their corrupt behavior, lied on applications, snuck into events, bragged about things that never happened, and covered up things that did.

•People reveling in the pain of two people who now have broken marriages and broken homes.

•A man died a week ago with whose politics a woman on Facebook disagreed and said his death "made the word a better place."

•What kind of sick behavior is that? It's low self-esteem.

•We've all done things we're not proud of, and some of us are remorseful. That's what the confessional is for, or Yom Kippur, or your therapist, or a serious, soul-searching hike up a mountain.

•If others learning of a transgression were able to learn from it, okay. But to use it sanctimoniously, to mount the high horse and seek the higher moral ground? That's just juvenile.

•It was their fault (my disrespect is for the guy who is now suing Cold Play as if they did something wrong. They warned about the cameras and no one has the right to expect privacy at a public event).

•My advice is to heed Jesus about those without sin casting the first stone. But of course we're supposed to value secularism today, not religion, not the admonishment to treat others as you'd like them to treat you.

•Better pack a first aid kit, though, because that high horse can give you quite a nose bleed.

SHOW NOTES:

•Why is Scottie Sheffler likely to become the greatest golfer ever?

•Why is mental attitude the key to winning?

•How some sports prompt more honesty than others.

•Handling defeat and victory properly.

•Not allowing a mistake to become a haunting obstacle.

•Why Tiger Woods was overrated.

•Even if you don't play the game you can learn from it.

•Playing prudently to win.

•Never "coming back to the pack."

•Sheffler and Koufax and Sinatra.