Leaders Light The Path

PODCAST EPISODE

Judging from the first impression

We’re told to not judge things (and people) by the first impression, but how does that fit with reality?

Read more thoughts on the art of communicating week-daily at https://michaelgerharz.com/blog

Transcript
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Should you judge a book by its cover?

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Of course!

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That's what covers are for.

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A good cover sets the expectations for reading the book.

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It tells us what it's about and what it will be like reading it.

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It makes us curious.

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It makes us pick the book up and read the back.

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It's one of the first touch points in our process to choose the book.

But some might ask:

what about all the extraordinary books with terrible covers?

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Well, what about them?

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I've enjoyed a lot of those, sure.

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But that misses the point.

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I've picked them up despite their cover.

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Or maybe just because of their cover, as it had been spot on to trigger

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something in me that I didn't even notice.

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Or maybe I was just referred to the book by someone who enjoyed it so the

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cover wasn't even part of the game.

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The point is that a cover is a shortcut to what we think about

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the book before we read it.

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It is a decision-making tool.

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Decisions are almost always made based on incomplete information.

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Books are no exception and, by the way, neither are people.

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Covers prime this decision-making process just like the way you show

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up primes the decision-making process of the people in your audience.

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So, how do you show up?

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And how can you deliberately use the way that you show up to prime

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the thinking of your audience?

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