This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. The products that I advertise are the ones I believe in.
As a person who speaks to an audience everyday, let me share with you one secret I’ve found about the simple power of three to make people believe you!
In my professional career I use the power of persuasive speech each and every day. I construct arguments, create presentations, layout AV support technologies, and then present that information to an audience. Without disclosing my ‘day job,’ sufficed to say that I’ve learned a few tricks about believability and credibility along the way.
You can make people believe you in any context, you don’t have to do it for a living. You can use this success tip to make your spouse believe you, make your co-workers believe you, or even run for President.
Even Donald Trump uses the power of three to make people believe him.
So what is this, then?!? To make people believe you with the power of three is about simple, subtle REPETITION. If you repeat your main point, in 3 different ways, at 3 different points in your conversation then something magical happens to the person listening to you!
Repeating your main point with the power of three creates air of truth in what you are saying because of the frequency in which you hear it. 3 times is a charm!
Think back to some of Donald Trump’s recent (2015/16) speeches, he promoted his political platform by saying “I’m going to make America great again!” Interwoven in those speeches, this phrase gets metamorphosized into several variants like, “America is going to be great again!” and “Let’s make America great again!”
Making people believe you with the power of three is a very powerful tool!
The thing you DON’T want to do is to simply repeat your point three times in a row like some mindless mantra! You want to encode your message in 3 different ways, at 3 different points spread out over a conversation. It takes practice!
If you think about it, you’ve been practicing this technique your whole life! You may not have been applying it to how you speak, however. Repetition is the key to learning. When we practice a sport we get better by practicing over and over. When we learn to write or spell we get the hang of it by repeating our penmanship or syntax.
They say “practice makes perfect!” Our brains are hard-wired to learn and believe things this way! Our brains accept truth by the power of three! By the power of repetition!
Think about it this way. In the picture below are 3 elephants. All three are obviously elephants, yet each of the elephants in this pack of pachyderms are unique and distinguishable from each of the others. So should your main point be when using the power of repetition in creating an argument (in the legal sense) in which you would like to make people believe you with the power of three!
SIGN UP to stay up to date on the latest posts from the Family History Foundation.