Powerful ways to help people to understand your impact

Share how you change the world to attract more support or customers.

Whatever you do, business, charity or individual, you can change the world each day for the better or worse. We all know the difference between getting a smile and a frown, and that frown will actually reduce your strength.

Try it - ask someone to stand with their arm out and show them a simple drawing of a smiling face. Now ask them to resist as you try to press down their arm as they watch that face.

Repeat showing them a frowning face, and you will be able to press their arm down further as that simple frown drawing will have reduced their strength!

You need to enhance your power by showing how you make people smile.

The power of numbers

Data is great. But you need simple, powerful numbers that people can easily understand. At Dyno-rod, when I was there, we regarded ourselves as an emergency service and tracked how fast we got to customers. The goal was under 30 minutes from the call, and we achieved it 90% of the time. Two simple numbers, I know how long 30 minutes is and can imagine getting help that quickly, and I know 90% is a considerable number, so it is clear that 9 out of 10 people get support quickly. Getting it sorted quickly will make me smile if I have a blocked drain.

Emotional impact

But even more powerful than data, is the power of emotion. If you can help someone understand how someone has been impacted by what you do, help them imagine and feel like that person, you will have a powerful message that will attract support or customers.

I have just finished working with a baby bank, totally run by volunteers, providing support to mothers of babies and young children. They work through intermediaries like health visitors or food banks, so they don't get direct feedback from the people they help. We were developing ways in the future that they can track their impact, and I chatted to some professionals. One described how "a mother felt she wasn't a good mum because she couldn't give her children what they needed. She didn't take her children out as she didn't have a double buggy or decent clothes. The baby bank providing the double buggy and clothes so the mum felt she could take them out and could feel like a good mum."

Others talked about how the safety products and stair gates provided stop accidents in homes where parents have no spare money to spend on such items. These are powerful emotional messages that will attract donations and volunteers and funders.

I had an introductory ideas session with someone a couple of years ago that so inspired them that they have kept the ideas and until now to be able to progress them; we are now working together to make the vision a reality.

Find the tales that bring what you do or how you do it to life; the anecdotes you share with your partner, the human interest stories that you can imagine in a paper or on the radio.

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Powerful ways to help people to understand your impact

The power of numbers

Emotional impact

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