Hey ,

What's up?

Yesterday which was Friday, I went to Alaba International Market to get a phone repair job done and get a few things from the market,

And on my way back, I had almost gotten home when I saw a little girl of between 7 and 9 years old who was a (fairly new) pupil of the school I teach in.

The girl is fair in complexion and very pretty for her age... (PS: I love fine people very much... Not that I hate the "not-that-fine" ones but you get the point.) 

When I saw her, I realized that it had been a while since I saw her in school, 

And I decided to converse with her and then ask her, 

"Good evening sir" 

(She must have greeted me, but I didn't hear because I had my earphones on initially.) 

"How are you?" 

"I'm fine." 

"What's that your name again?" I asked.

"Emmanuella", she replied. 

"Ehehn! Have you been coming to school? (It's been a while since I saw you) " I asked. 

"No!" 

"Why?" I shot back. 

I honestly did not expect to hear the next few words that came out of her mouth. 

For a young girl to say that to me? 

It had to be really that serious. 

And in a moment, I will tell you what she told me and the reason why she said those words to me. 

But first, in my last mail, I promised to continue talking about the principles of Persuasion you can use to Skyrocket your sales, 

And I intend to make good on that promise, so here we go quickly. 

But wait first! 

Before I tell you this next principle of Persuasion, 

I want to remind you that the bedrock of Persuasion is appealing to the emotions of your prospects and customers. 

Your customers are not robots. 

They are human beings with feelings and emotions and fears and desires and wants and needs... 

So if you have that at the back of your mind you will be able to know how to persuade and sell better to people. 

So here's the second Principle of Persuasion. 

SHIFT THE BLAME OFF YOUR READER'S SHOULDER.

Yes.. You heard me right. 

Take the blame off your reader's shoulder. 

One of the things humans hate the most is taking the blame for their own situations, 

Even and especially when they are quite blatantly and obviously responsible for their own mess. 

So if you tell them it's their fault, instead of getting them to let their guard down, they instead become defensive and sometimes even angry at the person who tells them that, 

And you want to sell them your product, but no one makes buying decisions when they're angry, so we don't want to trigger them now do we? 

Good. 

So ideally, you want to make them feel at ease by letting them know that it's not (entirely) their fault. 

For example, if you sell weight loss products, your ideal customer is a fat lady who keeps eating like a glutton and is wondering how come she can't seem to lose weight. 

So instead of telling her that it's her fault because she eats too much, 

Shift the blame off her shoulders and tell her it's the fault of her body cells not being able to properly process or digest fat, or it's the fault of the snacks' manufacturers for putting too much cholesterol in their products, or it's her DNA that makes it impossible for her to lose weight. 

Anything else, but her, do you understand? 

Good. 

Did I say you should lie? 

Of course not.

Just do your research, and find other things that could be responsible for her problems and put the blame on them instead. 

Kapish? 

Good!

Let's have a crack at one more example shall we? 

Imagine a man suffering from diabetes, 

You probably shouldn't go around telling him it's his fault for consuming too much sugary product fts. 

• You can say it's the fault of the companies who manufacture food products and put large amounts of sugar disguised as other ingredients,

• Or you could blame Genetics. He could have inherited the tendency to develop the disease from his parents and/or ancestors,

• Or you could blame it on his glands (pancreas) for not being able to secret the right hormones to deal with excess sugar in his body. 

You see that? 

Again, the idea here, is to take the blame away from your customer and make them feel relaxed... Even though sometimes, they are probably the cause of their problem. 

And how do you know what things to shift the blame onto? 

It's simple. I've told you before so you already know it. 

What? 

You don't remember? 

What do you mean you don't remember? 

Come on !

Okay... I'll tell you. 

Conduct research. 

There you have it. 

Do that and you will be good to go.

And how do you conduct research? 

Again, I have told you before... 

But even if I were to remind you about it, that will definitely not be today. 

Now, let me go back to my initial story about the pretty girl I was speaking with. 

As I said earlier, I asked her if she had been coming to school, and she said she hadn't. 

And when I probed further to find out why she hadn't been coming to school, that was when she told me these words that caught me unawares:

"There's no money to pay my school fees and my brother's school fees". 

"And there's no money for the food that we will be taking to school everyday". 

And she said all of this with a (half) smile on her face. 

Wow!

Just wow! 

I froze for a few seconds. 

For the girl to be saying that to me confidently without fear or shame, that would mean that things were probably so bad at home that her parents or guardians couldn't or didn't even hide the real reason why they were not going to school from her, I thought. 

"Don't worry. God will provide" was all I could muster to her,

Because quite frankly, I was taken aback and I wasn't expecting to hear those words from her, let alone with the confidence and conviction with which she said it. 

At that moment, it dawned on me that

Scratch that! 

I already knew it, but I was just reminded of how bad things have gotten in this country.. 

• How hard it is to get by, 

• How difficult it is to make money legitimately, 

• How high the prices of goods and commodities have risen, 

• How much the the Naira has been devalued, and more evidently, 

• How difficult it is to raise a family in these trying times. 

I immediately understood what she and her family were going through, 

Because trust me, my own family has gone through our own fair share of suffering, not that it's something to be proud of or anything. 

The point here is this. 

It is pure suicide to depend on only one source of income in this present economy of Nigeria, 

Especially if you have responsibilities that you have to fulfil. 

It just won't cut it. 

And even if you don't have responsibilities yet as a young person, 

I think it is wicked and cruel of you to still be fine and okay with always calling home and asking them to send you money anytime you run out of cash just because you can, 

Especially when you know what the family goes through... 

It just ain't right, and you should do something about it. 

You should get yourself a source of income, and if you already have one, you should get yourself another one or a side hustle...

Because Nigeria isn't smiling, and things don't look like they are going to get better very soon, 

Especially since pretty soon, we're probably all going to be eating "agbado, cassava, corn, etc" , and "more youths will be recruited into the army"... You know what I mean. 

If these don't motivate you to start looking for a side hustle, then I don't know what will. 

And if you are are ready, a great place to start a side hustle is in the Digital space by learning High-Income digital skills. 

Pick just one skill, learn and master it and then start milking it. 

And yes, it is going to take you quite some time to learn and master that skill enough for you to start making good money from it. 

It could take anywhere from around 3 months to 1 year or more depending on how much work you put in and how determined you are. 

Don't let anybody tell you otherwise. No skill is easy to learn, but if you are determined, there ain't nothing you can't do. 

The earlier you do this, the better for you.. 

But then, it's up to you to do what you want.

I have said my own piece. 

Do what rocks your boat. 

That said, I'll see you tomorrow. 

Make sure you go to church okay? 

Have a nice evening ahead. 

To your digital success, 

King Danisan™. 

PS: If you are new to this newsletter, welcome. 

Get yourself ready to receive daily mails from me. 

You do not want to miss out on the value I dish out daily. 

See you here tomorrow okay? 

Bye.