Overview
Pick a subject. Any subject. Now become an expert on it... instantly.
In almost any field, the ability to connect with others immediately
through knowledge of a particular subject area is vital to gaining
trust, solidifying relationships, and getting ideas across. Convincing
others that you "know what you're talking about? can help win clients,
gain allies, make sales, and much more... but tricks and shortcuts like
peppering conversation with jargon or random facts can seem transparent
at best, and often work against your intent.
This field-tested book gives readers a comprehensive process for quickly
taking in small amounts of information in a given area and knowing how
to use it to convey familiarity. The book enables impression-conscious
readers to:
• conduct fast, targeted research • inject information at exactly the
right moments • read human behavior to determine when others are
"buying? one's expertise • ask the right types of questions to suggest a
knowledge of one's subject • terminate the interaction at the right time
This book allows readers to generate amazing rapport with anyone by
honing in on the one subject that interests them most: their own area of
expertise.
About the Author
Gregory Hartley (Atlanta, GA) is a highly decorated former military
interrogator. Now an interrogation instructor for both the private and
public sectors, he has appeared on ABC News Nightline, CNN,
CNBC Squawkbox, NPR, and in The Washington Post, and US
Weekly. Maryann Karinch (Estes Park, CO) is the author of ten books.
Together, they are the authors of I Can Read You Like a Book and
How to Spot a Liar.
Back to Top
Excerpt
Introduction: The Basic How and Why
Why: The Bottom Line
Is it worth your time to become an expert? The prestige and privilege
associated with being considered an expert seem clear, but doesn't
getting there involve a lot of work?
Yes, it's worth your time. Society rewards experts in all kinds of ways.
No, it doesn't take a lot of work if you adopt the process and
strategies we describe in this book.
What you will learn here is an ideal skill set for someone who wants to
manage people effectively, as well as anyone who needs to forge strong
relationships quickly. A good manager is an expert on everything. That
person understands, "I don't have to know what you know or do what you
do to ask relevant questions. I need to know just enough to ask good
questions that you can't answer, questions that push you to do things
that improve your performance." Or if you're a sales professional, the
relevant questions you ask make your prospect conclude that you
understand the problems she needs to solve.
In my world of interrogation, I use questions and tidbits of information
to convince the source that I know enough to be taken seriously and to
make him comfortable so that he will talk to me. I create an ally
through the way I use information. In some cases, "ally" means nothing
more than a common understanding that we're both soldiers and we're both
professionals. I don't presume that I'm going to turn the source into a
buddy, but I use information to establish common ground. If I know the
same things he knows, then maybe I believe the same things he believes.
That common ground gives me more credibility with him than if I came in
yelling obscenities and threats. I use whatever facts and images I think
will constantly remind him that he's part of the same thing that I am: a
military outfit, a family, the human race. In this acute situation, I do
what is takes—through a combination of planning and preparation and
knowledge of human nature—to be an expert in his eyes.
Many military interrogators have no more than a high school diploma, but
they must walk into interrogation rooms around the world and ask
questions of experts with very little preparation time. In part, the
reason the successful ones can carry this off is a basic understanding
of language, behavior, and motivation.
This is what the expert/manager does, for example, and the result is the
creation of a bond that makes people want to work for him.
Alternatively, he could use his corporate stature to boss people around,
showing that he's someone who doesn't care about his employees and
demonstrating that by not even trying to connect with their subject
areas.
Why would a company want to keep managers like that? Think of the damage
they can do. Let's say you have a couple of these committed nonexperts
running a service business with a force of skilled employees doing
installations and repairs on equipment. The payout to them is $1 a
minute if you include both salary and benefits, and there are 1,500
people who receive this amount. If each of them spends three minutes a
day complaining about their lousy managers, the company loses $4,500 a
day, or more than $1 million a year.
Looks to me as though being an expert means job security—for lots of
people.
How: You're Human and So Are They
The ability to become an expert in two hours depends first on your
knowledge of yourself, and then on your knowledge of human nature. The
part of human nature that matters the most is how people perceive
themselves and how they relate to others.
What is an expert? Stupid jokes aside, what does "being an expert" mean
to you? You must have some description in your head, because it is at
the core of why you picked up this book.
We all look for someone who's savvier than we are. It's natural for us
to believe that there's someone out there who is smarter, stronger,
sexier.
What makes someone who seems smarter, in effect, better than you? Is it
your belief that the person has demonstrated more knowledge than you? Or
is it something else? In this book, we will help you to answer those
questions for yourself and give you a system for developing genuine
expertise that has a foundation in human inclinations.
Anyone can pretend to be an expert; in American society, we call people
who do this con men. You will not learn how to be a con artist by
reading this book. You will learn how to become an expert.
Here's my definition of expert: Think of a complex video game. It
wouldn't exist without a skilled programmer, but a 12-year-old
aficionado will play it more skillfully than the computer wizard who
constructed the line-by-line code. The programmer is the technician; the
12-year-old is the expert. The kid's ability captures the intersection
of technology and humanity. This programmer may enter a conversation
about the game feeling as though he has the upper hand—until he cannot
answer when the 12-year-old asks, "When I pressed these two buttons and
moved the joystick, why didn't the guy's head blow off?"
Without question, in order to become an expert, you need to know how to
research, what to research, and how to communicate with precision in the
time allotted to you. At the same time, your tool kit must include the
ability to do the following:
Make a connection. The combination of human connection and value of
information imparted is what separates expertise from robotic repetition
of facts.
Read your audience. You need to know when someone is buying your
information and when he is not.
Rescue yourself from disaster. Tapping into personal interests, asking
certain types of questions—there are many rescue techniques that depend
on your knowledge of human nature.
Terminate the conversation at the right time. Everyone knows that a
half-hour's worth of information delivered in an hour has lots of holes
in it.
This book is built on the ability to apply some basic communication
tools relied on by first-class interrogators. We will give you those
tools and exercises to perfect their use.
In this book, I step you through the process of grasping essentials
about human nature, identifying different types of people, assessing to
what extent you must plan and prepare for those different types of
people, and then presenting yourself as an expert. As a bonus, we give
you a solid course on ways out if you find yourself being challenged and
put in a corner.
By the way, if you're an idiot, don't try this.
Back to Top
Table of Contents
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Flow of the Book ix
Introduction: The Basic Why and How 1
Part 1: The Role of Human Nature
Chapter 1: The Human Side of Expertise 9
Chapter 2: Developing Your Skepticism 27
Part 2: Planning and Preparation
Chapter 3: Body Language of Experts, Con Artists, and Everybody Else 41
Chapter 4: The Driving Forces—Who, What, When 77
Chapter 5: Models of Expertise—Strategy, Techniques, and Tactics 91
Chapter 6: The Role and Shape of Research 125
Chapter 7: Packaging Information 151
Part 3: Execution and Rescue
Chapter 8: Delivering the Goods 169
Chapter 9: Knowing When to Stop 191
Chapter 10: Rescue Schemes 207
Conclusion: Are You Closer to The One? 229
Appendix: Wisdom of the Ages 235
Glossary 239
Index 241
Back to Top
