Hello, welcome to another addition of the duct tape marketing podcast. This is your host, John Jantsch, and my guest today is Burt Decker, the founder and chairman of Decker Communications and the author of what I think is a great book that I think everyone should read, called "You've got to be Believed to be Heard." So, welcome Burt.

Thank you John, glad to be here.

I have said that many times that communication is the master business skill, and you made a ,career out of teaching individuals and organizations how to better communicate, one-to-one or in front of a crowd. So let's just get right to the real heart of the matter. You know, what does it take to be an effective communicator, or as your book said, to be believed?

Well, there are several things, but there are just a couple basic principles. The first, you really touched on, and that's the most important skill of leadership management business selling is communicating, and that's connecting with people, it isn't necessarily being accurate, it's being persuasive. We have a, our basic two-day course, which has video feedback, that's an essential that people have to know about to, is called "Communicate to Influence, Not Communicate to Inform." So I think that one key principle is that we are taught wrong. In academia we are taught if we say the words, people will get it. We come from a cognitive, logical background in the way we are taught. Life is like a multiple choice. Well it isn't. And in the spoken word, which is very different from the written word, the connection you make at the emotional level with people almost instantly is, as Malcolm Gladwell says in Blank, he calls it thin slicing, and within two seconds you make decisions about people. Whether you trust, whether you don't trust, and so forth. And those decisions continue on with how you speak. So there's a lot of, it seems very simple, but there's a lot of complexity and nuance about it. And the main thing is it can be learned, and that's what we do. We teach people.

Now I think I read this in your, in one of your books, correct me if I'm wrong. Maybe you said this or maybe somebody like FDR said this, or something, I don't know. Yeah, either you or him, I mean, you know. But, it went something like, who he was being spoke so loudly I couldn't hear what he was saying, something like that, does that ring a bell at all?

Actually, oh yeah, that was Emerson. What you do, speak so loud I can't hear what you say.

Yeah, yeah.

Ralph Waldo Emerson. And that's a great quote. I use it actually in my sessions, and it's in my book. Because, because, there's a classic study done by Albert Moravian, that really has great validity, although some people belittle it, but it, and misuse the information. But it says that when you have an inconsistent message, mostly what will be believed is what people see by far, number 1, over 50%...
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