9 Seconds To Fall In Love

The time it takes you to read this sentence is approximately the same amount of time it takes you to determine whether you’ll keep reading.

9 seconds! That’s all we have to wow and win over others, according to Sally Hogshead, who travels the country speaking to groups about “How to Fascinate”. Her TedTalk, below, deep dives into the notion of fascination and how we as individuals and brands alike, need to capitalize on what makes us fascinating.

Hogshead explains that in the overly-competitive world we live in, the only way to be seen, heard, or convinced is to be fascinating. In fact, she says our brains are wired to be fascinated through various triggers: power, prestige, mystique, alarm, vice, and trust, that all illicit a response. Brands use all of these triggers and we use them as part of our personality. As a marketer with a psychology and neuroscience background, I’m always intrigued when these two worlds collide. Marketing, at its core, is appealing to human emotion — and sometimes we lose sight of that.

I went ahead and took Hogshead’s 28 question Fascination Test. Initially, I found myself skeptical of the process and even more skeptical of the questions. Sometimes with these tests, you answer questions about yourself in the way you want to be seen, and not as who you are. It’s called confirmation bias. Going into this test, I would encourage others to keep that in mind and self-reflect honestly.

28 questions later, I discover that I am The Maverick Leader, an archetype mix between innovation and power. Hogshead explains the benefits and drawbacks to having these dominant traits, specifically being outgoing, adventurous, spontaneous, and outspoken, but needing to know when to dim it down and reel it in.

Sounds pretty dang accurate. I’ve noticed these traits about myself and have gotten similar feedback from peers that although I have a lot of great ideas, I need to know when to tone it down. Something I would have loved to learn is to how to best use these strengths to appeal to others, and which archetypes mine are appealing to. That way, I’ll know how to make the most out of my 9 seconds.

The next step is applying this on the brand-side, and really understand how to trigger target customers. Can’t wait to dive in and share!