Richard Greene markets himself as “The Master of Charisma” and suggests that Trump has virtually every communication quality that he coaches candidates to have — with one glaring exception:
Trump is brilliantly conversational. The best I’ve ever seen in a political campaign, and this is a huge advantage. People listen differently, and more, when a candidate speaks in a conversational tone.
Trump speaks in what I call “Lasered, Compelling Messages.” These are headlines that turn a potentially boring topic (border fences) into a provocative and powerful theme (“We have to build a really big fence . . . and Mexico is going to pay for it!”). Very few politicians have the ability, the confidence, and also the naivete, to do this in the way Donald does.
Trump is phenomenal at communicating The Big Picture. This excites the “Visual” part of all voters’ brains, shows vision, gives voters comfort and is quite rare.
Trump knows how to tell and use stories — relatable, interesting, human, “behind the scenes” stories that almost no one can not listen to, understand or enjoy. Storytelling is THE art of public communicating and The Donald leverages it brilliantly.
Trump, in stark contrast to all but Bernie Sanders and, to a somewhat lesser degree, Ben Carson, brings in the absolutely critical “Authentic Passion.” Emotion is what stirs audiences and “Authenticity” is even more important. Even if every word out of Donald’s mouth is thought to be unrealistic or even crazy, the fact that Donald authentically believes it, and is passionate about it, is like catnip to almost every human being. It is what voters crave from all candidates, yet most candidates — throughout history — have somehow not gotten that memo. Add a dose of this to the Democratic front-runner, especially the “Authenticity” part, and her poll numbers would soar. Guaranteed.
But, despite Donald’s 5 great attributes, it is literally impossible, psychologically and even neurologically, to be taken seriously, by all people, as a major political candidate without one more piece.
It is what we call in Neuro Linguistic Programming, (NLP) the “Auditory Digital” aspect of communication. It is a special sub-part of the “Auditory” mode of the human brain and it is the Albert Einstein, fact, detail, analytical part that is generally appreciated by voters but absolutely essential to the “Auditory Digital Types” (highly educated, professional, scientific, mathematical, legal, financial types who also wanted, really wanted to know what books or newspapers Sarah Palin did in fact read).
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I am not suggesting that Trump go into excruciating detail about his plans. No clever candidate, especially at this point, would ever do that. But by:
a) simply citing a real statistic, the names of obscure world leaders, some studies or books that he has read, here or there, and when relevant
b) giving more specificity on simple things (the exact height and precise building materials of his famous wall, for example)
c) citing historic examples to show that he has an intellectual grasp of history (when, for example, other countries, even centuries ago, might have, indeed, agreed to pay for security infrastructure to keep their people in).
If The Donald did these 3 things, or even any of them well, he would communicate that he does have the all-essential “Auditory Digital” part of his brain and forever change the nagging perception that he is not substantive enough to be President of The United States.
It’s really that simple.
Yes, flying about in abstract Big Picture mode is naturally thrilling, but it’s best to occasionally land and get intimate with a concrete example now and then.
There’s a good reason not to be specific about the wall, though. The ideal plan can’t be known until someone tries to build it and sees what goes wrong. If Trump says concrete slabs now, then it becomes devilishly tricky to use, say, chicken topped with razor wire, even if that would be more effective. That goes double if it’s more effective only because Mexico can afford a wire wall but not a concrete wall, so Trump can get his ask that way. Triple if USG can only afford wire.
(Unless Trump in fact doesn’t intend to build a wall, but simply threatens to as a way to seize negotiating leverage. Then, describe anything he likes.)
Could probably be specific about the height by lowballing it, though. No real issue with promising a five-foot wall and delivering an eight-foot wall.
Read up on Scott Adams’ (the artist of Dilbert) “Trump Persuasion series” of posts (earlier called the Master Wizard series) over at Adams’ blog. He’s been banging on this for months.
http://blog.dilbert.com/
The “Big beautiful” wall is the initial negotiating position, the initial big ask. It will negotiate down to a realistic outcome in time. But the customers will be satisfied.
Note that a lot of NLP is a variant on hypnosis and NLP’s founders were fascinated with the hypnotic work of Milton Erickson. Precisely what Adams has been banging on.
And Adams is convinced that Trump is a master of the crafts of persuasion and hypnosis, regardless of what the details of the NLP variant of the craft may dictate. Per Adams, Trump is intentionally vague as part of the practice of persuasion, so the suggestion above for specific details defeats the point of Trump letting his audience fill in the details with their own imaginations.
A good seven minute primer video:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/nnrn59n
Djolds1, check this out and marvel:
http://www.isegoria.net/?s=Scott+Adams