7-38-55; Steve Sims

How are you doing? This is Steve Sims with The Art of Making Things Happen, the podcast. Seven, 38, 55. Have you ever heard those numbers before? I hadn’t until a gentleman over at UCLA and a gentleman, a friend of mine, Chris Voss, actually put them in his book. You see at this moment in time, we’re not getting to communicate with a lot of people. And this professor actually came up with the seven, 38, 55 law. And Chris Voss did a fantastic book. Chris was actually on one of our podcasts a while back. So you can go to SteveDSims.com/podcast, and actually find all the guests I’ve had on these podcasts and find Chris’. He’s got some great stuff in there. One of my favorites is when he talks about his midnight DJ voice. Chris, you’re a star. You know, you got a fan here.

Anyway, back to it. 7, 38, 55. And I’m going to keep repeating those numbers because you need to remember them. This professor, big long name that I can’t remember, I apologize. And I certainly couldn’t say it well when I did it, he actually stated that 7% of the communication we have between a person and another person comes across in the copy. The words, the text, the message. 55% of the communication comes over in our body language, our visual symbols, our signs. And 38% of it comes across in something that we’ve spoken about before, tonality. Now, as you know, when you send out an email, you’ve only got copy. I’ve said a million times, and I want you to remember, no matter what you send someone, whether it be text or email, it will always be received in the mood the recipient is in, not in the mood that you sent it.

If they’re in a happy mood, they’re going to love whatever you say. If they in a miserable mood, they’re going to hate it regardless. They’re in a bad mood. Now, if you think about the seven, 38, 55 law, 55 of it is in the delivery. It’s the way you amplify, it’s your arms, it’s your smiles, it’s your eyes, it’s your attention, it’s your focus. 38% of it, as probably demonstrated from there is the tonality. I send you a text “Tomorrow, beer 7:00 PM, be there.” That’s very monotone, that’s demanding. That may pee you off if you received that text. But let’s just say for argument’s sake, I actually videoed that message and sent it to you. And I went, “Hey, tomorrow night, 7:00 PM. Beer! Be there!” It’s a lot more exciting. There’s a lot more enthusiasm in there. Same message. It did startle me when I found out that the message only made up for 7%.

But I was actually speaking to a friend of mine and he said, “You imagine when someone, you walk into a movie, or you’re a bus stop and a bunch of people are telling a joke, and they laugh at the joke. You can’t help, but laugh. You can’t help but smile. Your body energy changes. Why? Because you’re reacting to the tone, the excitement, the enthusiasm, the laughter, the body language, the open eyes, the face, all of that. You didn’t even get the message, but it’s still got to you.” Now I’ve spoken to some great comedians in my life. And I remember Jay Leno telling me that it’s all to do with the delivery. Very rarely to do with the joke. So if you think about you, you’ve got a message to get to people. Today especially, where you’re told you can’t go up and shake someone’s hand. You’ve got to use every possible way. If you’ve got a cell phone, you’ve got FaceTime, you’ve got Skype, you’ve got Zoom. You’ve got any way, WhatsApp video. You’ve got a million different ways that you can reach out. Use them.

Now that you know that we’re working on the parameters of seven, 38, and 55, why would you allow any of your communication to be diluted by avoiding some of the biggest, most powerful objects within there? Some of the biggest percentages. Don’t. We’ve got prospects, “Hey, I’d love to jump on a Zoom call with you.” We got clients we deal with, “Hey, I’d love to jump on a Skype or Zoom with you, is that okay?” They may go “Oh, just phone me up.” But even when they’re phoning you up, again remember, if your message is decent and your tonality’s exciting, that they’re engaged, then you’re still pretty good. You’re at a halfway house of something coming through.

If you can get them on a video, then you’re going to push it home, and they are going to understand the sincerity. They are going to understand the message because they’re going to get 93% of engagement in you, before they give a rat’s ass about what your message even is. And if your message is strong, then you’ve got a home run. When you’re thinking within those percentages, why would you ever communicate with anyone that doesn’t have any ability to express tonality, and to express video, which is your face and your body language? Why would you do it? Because is your copy really that good? Are your writing skills really that damn good? Now bearing in mind, if you think about any of the big authors, if you think about JK Rowling for argument’s sake, she never became a billionaire because she wrote Harry Potter. She became a billionaire because she wrote Harry Potter and they turned it into a movie, and you could suddenly see what these people look like.

That’s the bottom line. Don’t miss out on some of the greatest assets you have. Your eyeballs, your tonality, your excitement and your passion. If you don’t have any of that, then you shouldn’t be doing it in any case. But please start using it, we need every attribute we can to be able to appropriately communicate with people today. Now more than ever, we need to do it. This is Steve Sims, and this is another episode of The Art of Making Things Happen, and it is there just for your benefit. If it doesn’t help you grow, or even make you smile, then stop listening, go and subscribe to something that will. I wish you all the best. I thank you for caring. I care, care about each other, all the best. Bye.

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