What are your thoughts on learning something new?

Towards the end of lockdown, I started learning to play the sax. I was always put off because there’s so many buttons to press - should I say keys? - I’ve got no sense of rhythm and I can’t read music.

But I kept an open mind and pressed ahead, regardless.

I’m pretty good at the Hawaii 5-0 theme tune now.

The main thing I’ve found (among other things) is making sure my fingers are hovering above the right keys.

They’re touching but not quite. They’re poised to pull the trigger on a note at just the right time.

I think my sax needs a service though.

The G key clicks when I press it. Maybe I’m just pressing too hard. I dunno. It’s probably time I got an actual teacher instead of relying on YouTube.

Anyway, in the spirit of learning new things, I’ve been re-reading Nick Kolenda’s book called:  

Methods of Persuasion: How to use psychology to influence behaviour.

Nick's a professional mind readers and researcher in consumer psychology. One technique he uses and talks about, and is backed up by research studies, is the Priming Effect.

It’s the idea that you can influence a person’s behaviour through the words you choose. 

He talks about a study by Bargh, Chen, & Burrows in 1996 (1). Through the disguise of a quiz, they exposed people to ‘elderly words’, i.e. bingo, retirement, wise, etc.

What they found was that the people who were exposed to these words walked out of the room significantly slower compared to the control group who weren’t.

Nick suggests those words primed a schema (a mental short-cut) for the elderly, which then activated behaviour that people associate with being elderly - walking slowly.

This, I think, is a really powerful copywriting technique to shift people’s beliefs and influence their thinking and behaviour.

If you’re interested in learning more, you can tap the link below and find the answer to the question I posed in the subject line:

How to get more clicks?
 

www.nickkolenda.io/tactics/button-verb-simulation

Right, I’m off to scroll YouTube to find out about that clicking sound on my sax.

Angie

(1) Barg, J., Chen, M., & Burrows, L. (1996). Automaticity of social behaviour: Direct effects of trait construct and stereotype activation on action. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71(2), 230-244. 

If you spot any typos or run on sentences or dangling thingamies, please be kind and let it slide. Save your energy for something better.

😤 Had enough of these emails? The easiest thing to do is unsubscribe. Scroll a bit further down to find the link. 

🧐 New Around here? Did someone forward you this email? Feel free to get involved and sign up at https://thebookfunnellady.aweb.page
🤝 Work with me? If you'd like a copy critique, help with your book description, or email marketing, or a funnel audit, just hit reply. 

🤔 Got a question? Have you got a burning question about copywriting? Feel free to hit reply and ask away. You never know, other authors might be wondering the same thing!