Powers of Persuasion
Posted at 6:00 AM on May 5, 2010
by Dale Connelly
(23 Comments)
Filed under: Captain Billy
Radio Heartland has tickets to a show by Carrie Rodriguez and Romantica at the Varsity Theater in Minneapolis this Friday night, May 7th.
The doors open at 7 and the music begins at 8pm. We'll close off entries at 1pm and notify the winners by e-mail later this afternoon.
Enter the drawing.
Obey the rules.
Good Luck!
Our fiscal year-end member drive begins today. I strongly encourage you to make a contribution to Minnesota Public Radio and be sure to mention that Radio Heartland is one reason for your support.
The challenge of the first day is to get as many people as possible to voluntarily hand over some of their money. With that in mind, I contacted a consultant in the money-handing-over field for his expert advice. My question to Captain Billy and his crew aboard the pirate clipper "Muskellunge" - how do you convince people to share their resources without threatening to do bodily harm?
Here's his response:
"Har har hardy har har har har har har har haaar hardy-har."
"That was a good laugh and thanks fer it. I has often been in a position to make th' request of a stranger that he transfer all his worldly goods with me fer safekeepin', much in the way a bank might solicit deposits.
T' do so without issuin' a threat? Hardy har har har!
If'n I had t' get money by me powers of persuasion alone, by golly I'd tell 'em how vitally important it is t' have a thrivin' pirate sector in th' economy, an' how our flamboyant lifestyles is a cultural asset - even fer those landlubbers what don't partake of it directly. Our lives is artwork, personified. How dreadful an' colorless th' world would be without our peg legs an' eye patches an' shoulder parrots an' such!
Th' stark truth of th' matter is this - a world unstructured enough t' include th' possibility of swashbucklin' pirates holds open the prospect of all manner of unsupervised activity. 'Cause if governments had total control, piracy is one of the first things they'd eliminate! Th' curtailin' of less disruptive freedoms would be sure t' follow.
So while it might be true that pirates on a individual level is unpleasant to encounter an' disgustin' t' behold, th' very fact of our presence in th' world is proof positive that yer freedom still exists.
And ain't that assurance worth a small piece of change?
I daresay it is and then some. In fact, I'll be pleased to take all your valuables right now, so put 'em on the table or I'll bend yer pinky backwards until you screams fer mercy!
An' the shirt off yer back, as well! Har har har!
While I can't endorse any of the Captain's demands, I hope you'll find something in his argument that convinces you a contribution to MPR in the name of Radio Heartland is a good idea - personally beneficial for you and a "cultural asset" at least as valuable as the colorful pirate lifestyle.
A reasonable amount will suffice. You may keep the shirt on your back.
Do you think you're a persuasive person?
Comments (23)
no. wish i were more so.
hope the 2500 member goal is met. join now. become a sustaining member. or we'll hide goat pellets in your oatmeal/raisin cookies. :-)
good morning, All!
Morning, all!
Nope. I'm not a particularly persuasive person. Don't really care to influence others' opinions in most cases.
Guess it's already that time again to take out the plastic and visit the contribute link.
In response to previous pinky bending I became a sustaining member. I invite the rest of TB to join me-it hardly hurts at all.
I am in general professionally persuasive and privately ineffective. Also am more persuasive in writing than in person.
Have a great Day!
barb, if you do hide goat pellets in any oatmeal raisin cookies, avoid posting a recorded version of the baking on youtube. :-)
Morning Heartlanders... I also have had my pinky bent and become a sustaining member. Even upped my amount last year - called and said that Radio Heartland was the reason!
Persuasive? Fairly. I think so. Usually. Except with the teenager!
No, absolutely not. At least not in real life. I've had to do it professionally, but that seems like a whole different person.
barb-eeeeewwwww, just eeeewww!
I've written a few persuasive pieces, and have a rough sense of how it is done. You generally try to find something that people care about, like abandoned puppies, and then form a link from that to the behavior you seek. Like, "If you don't write checks to this doggy care center, we will take the abandoned puppies staying there and use them in scientific experiments."
Good Morning all. I'm no Captain Billy, but I have found that I can get people to make donations to what I think is a good organization, the Sustainable Farming Association. In fact I could give you my pitch right now, but maybe i shouldn't because I would be competing with Dale for your money.
It seems I am a little like Captain Billy, because I found I like asking people for their money. When it comes to asking people to do other things, I don't have so much luck, Maybe I should join Captain Billy's crew, where the main thing you do is get people to part with thier valuables.
Greetings! Generally, I don't think I'm very persuasive, but I'm surprised sometimes when I am. Working in and being knowledgeable of natural foods, supplements, herbs, etc., customers will seek me out and ask my opinion of certain brands or how to deal with health issues.
Of course, I'm not a doctor and don't try to take their place, but when folks are confronted with a 32-ft wall of supplements, they're desperate for direction and guidance. If I recommend a particular product knowing that myself and other customers have good results from it, they will typically buy it. But my own family doesn't take me seriously. Total strangers gladly heed my advice. Funny, isn't it ...
i think instead of the endless pleading and banter that goes on during fundraising week there should just be a recording like the one you get when you are on hold on the telephone waiting to speak to a human. maybe there could be some clearchannel playing as background music and some news about tiger woods that repeats and repeats and repeats until we get 2500 new members contacts. if that wouldn't make listeners know what the world would be like without minnesota public radio then to heck with it
Persuasive? Probably only selectively. Clearly not persuasive enough with my one letter to George W. to keep him from invading Iraq. And probably not persuasive often enough with my daughter (especially when it comes to trying new foods - including any sort of oatmeal raisin cookie...).
I am also a sustainer - and encourage others to do the same. it's painless and just part of my budgeting for each month. Heck $10/month for MPR doesn't even match my coffee habit.
It has never interested me much to get other people to change their opinions except in cases where a change of opinion gets me something that I want. I think it has something to do with being an only child and learning early on how to read grownups like a book, but I have historically been really good at that. The other day, however, I convinced a gymnasium full of people to donate their loose change to our local public school music booster organization, and relieved them of over $900 to pay for music camp scholarships for local students. I was surprised at my powers of persuasion, and I hated every minute of it.(Counting all that money was kind of fun, though.)
Thinking further - perhaps the proper persuasive technique for me (that does not involve bending pinkies, but still might cause physical harm) would be to threaten to read my poetry until you join...
Tim - great idea!
Catherine - eeew? if you want goats, you'll have to get used to a few pellets. they're not just for breakfast anymore!
Jim IS good at asking for money. Dale - consider getting him to call folks!
Well, Barb, maybe I can help Dale by giving my pitch right here. It's simple, but seems to work.
"Hello, My name is Jim and I am calling on you to to make a donation to MPR to support the Radio Heartland show and other MPR programing."
Okay, Dale, now you should get a big increase in donations, right?
couldn't hoit
Jim, could you use your powers of persuasion to keep the 5 inches of forcasted snow away from western ND?
I believe I have no right to try to change other people's behavior, really, seriously I do, Then I remember that I have been a teacher, preacher, consultant, and marketer. Now I am off on a pointless quest to try to persuade a small part of the US Health Care Mess to change their behavior. Who will win that one?
Clyde, good luck to you on dealing with the health care system.
Renee, I don't know if I should try to mess with Mother Nature and I don't think she would listen any way, but I hope you don't get all of that snow.
Best wishes to you, Clyde, that will be a tough nut to crack.
Barb, I am ok with goat pellets in their place, I am just firmly convinced that my oatmeal cookie is not one of them.
When I first read Dale's title for this blog, I misread it as Powders of Persuasion. Could not get it out of my head, and this resulted.
The Un-Still Life
If I really could paint,
and not just force powdered dust across rough-toothed paper.
If I really could paint,
I would not paint still life.
I would paint unstill things:
Landscapes in which the red orange yellow leaves fall from the tress,
so that I would have to erase them from the bottom of the paper,
And paint them again, this time in the delicate green of first spring.
Landscapes with rocks that roll or move mysteriously,
ruining or maybe fixing my faulty composition.
Landscapes with the ill wind or the hateful wind or the indifferent wind,
hoping I could paint the difference with powdered dust on rough-toothed paper.
Seascapes full of waves which would tear away the sand,
and I would have to paint sand again,
this time getting closer to the truth of sand.
Seascapes which snatch the unwary from their littoral ramble,
so that I would have to paint death beneath the furrowed water.
Seascapes, or is it lakescapes, of Superior on a day when it smells of fish,
having no idea how to paint the smell of fish in dust on rough-toothed paper.
Paintings in which the sun would drop off the paper,
so I would have to use the purples and grays and dark dark blues
waiting eagerly in my box of sticks of powdered dust.
Then I would finally paint the night scenes I have not dared yet to paint.
Pictures of people (but not portraits)
with a tic twitching in the corner of eye or mouth or nose or temple.
with hair that blows in the wind and shoulders that heave with a sigh.
But they would not talk; they might tell me they do not look like the real person.
Flowers, yes even flowers, but in an unkempt garden,
where dogs would piss on them, where bees would pollinate them,
where the ill wind would strip their petals, where drought would kill them,
and I would have to use browns and ochres and dark dark greens,
pushing the powders ever more deeply into the rough-toothed paper.
I grovel obeisantly before those who paint or like still life.
I am not judging you but looking into my heart
And wishing I could paint my heart in powdered dust on rough-toothed paper.
I guess I can be very persuasive when I put my mind to it, but I'm not very often that focused.
Think I'll go make some oatmeal RAISIN cookies...
I like that poem a lot, Clyde.
wow, Clyde - we're not worthy. beautiful poem. thanks
Barbara - i have some "special" raisins for you :-)
- Become a Member
- Member Connect Accounts
- Leadership Circle
- Sustaining Members
- Member Discounts
- Become a Sponsor
- Tax Information
- Planned Giving
- Vehicle Donation
- Donate Stock