Hey dummy, you’ve got it upside down

Jason Stapleton

Just now·2 min read

Here’s a simple mental hack.

If you want to change someones mind sometimes all you have to do is change their perspective.

When I was in the Marines, the first thing I did after bootcamp was attend SOI (School of Infantry) where infantrymen learn field craft and small unit tactics.

One day we were in the high desert practicing land navigation. My buddy Pratt was staring at at the map and couldn’t make heads or tails of it.

Finally the instructor came over and quickly scoffed, “Hey dummy, you’ve got the map upside down.”

Pratt, feeling a bit ashamed, turned the map 180 degrees and finally got his bearings.

Our reality is nothing without context and the great thing about context is it’s malleable. We can change how someone perceives an event just by changing the context of events.

Solar panels are a great example of this.

A few years ago I was looking into putting solar panels on my house. When I asked the sales rep how long it would take to break even on my electric bill he said “About 10 years.”

“10 Years!” I thought. “I’m not waiting 10 years to make money on this deal”.

Ultimately I never pulled the trigger.

But had the sales rep understood just a little more about perspective and context he might have made a sale.

What if, instead of “10 years to break even” he’d have said, “On average you’re going to get about a 10% ROI per year.”

WHOW! Wait a minute! That’s a pretty dam good ROI.

Exactly the same information only one is positioned as a cost and the other an investment with a high return.

These kinds of perspective shifts are everywhere. My clients pay me large sums of money to help find them in their products, but you can do the same simply by sitting in a quiet room and giving it some thought.

If you’d like some help I’m holding a workshop this weekend where I’ll go in depth on this an a variety of other communication and branding hacks you can use to increase the perceived value of what you offer.

Here’s the link: https://www.stapletonagency.com/notify-me1611674853063

Registration is free and with over 1000 people planning to attend it’s going to be a great event.

Hope to see you there :)

Jason