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Sally Hogshead
TRIGGER HAPPY: Brand consultant Sally Hogshead surveyed fields including
neurology, biological anthropology, and history to identify seven universal trig- gers that create fascination.And
nowhere, she says, is it more important to be fascinating than in the competi- tive world of events.
It used to be okay to be just okay, saysSallyHogshead,aglobal creative directorandbrandconsultantwho’s worked with some of the world’s most iconic companies, including Nike, Coca-Cola, and Starbucks. But no more. In an increasingly compet- itive and distracted environment, individuals and companies need to knowhow not just to get attention, but to be captivating.
Hogshead has always understood that “if peo-
ple were not connecting with you and connecting with your message, you would fail,” she said. But beginning in 2006, Hogshead began a systematic, multidisciplinary search to uncover the secrets of what makes individuals and ideas so compelling that they fascinate others. Her book, Fascinate: Your 7 Triggers to Persuasion and Captivation, dis- tills her research and her methods for leveraging “The Big Seven,” which, according to Hogshead, are passion, mystique, alarm, prestige, power, rebellion, and trust.
What changes have you made in your own work based on your research? Superficially, instead of working directly with clients on helping them figure out what makes them fascinating, what I have per- sonally become fascinated with is working with individuals, and helping people understand what are their natural hardwired strengths that make them most fascinating. Mycompany hasshifted focusfromexclusively dealing with
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brands tonowapplying it tohowcan [individuals] become more fascinating within their organizations and to their customers. What we have learned isthat there are very specific waysyou can predict exactlyhowsomeone canmost effectively persuade.
One of the most common complaints against meetings is that they are boring. Are there things that every meeting organizer should be doing to make their conferences more compelling? If you want to make a meeting more fascinating, you should use