…today’s secret…Your opening line is critical.

You’re committed to helping those whose traffic light is either red or yellow. Hooo Boy!

A little longer ‘secret’ today…but, hopefully, worth it.

Our decisions are made in the prefrontal cortex of our brain, the area right behind our forehead.

The mental picture of your participants doing what you want them to do must find its way to this area of their brain. Otherwise, no lasting power inside their noggin.

Any information you give them, whether visual or oral, enters and is processed in the left side of their brain before heading to their prefrontal cortex.

So far. So good.

Here’s the kicker. There’s an area just before their forehead called Broca’s area. ‘Broca’ is the gatekeeper of all information working its way to their forehead.

Anything booooring gets tossed by ‘Broca.’ If it’s uninteresting, predictable, a heard it before thing…it doesn’t get past ‘Broca’ and, therefore, your words get squelched.

Have you ever read a book page only to realize you had no idea what you just read? Blame ‘Broca.’ Protective little dude…

How you get by Broca is by surprise.

TV advertisers crudely try and surprise us by turning up the volume of their commercials. Do you think car dealerships scream and shout on the radio because they like it?

Comedians surprise ‘Broca’ with unexpected punch lines. Everything prior sets up the last line. Skilled comedians can deliver a punch line without any set up. “Take my wife, please.”

Great poets destroy ‘Broca’ with rhythm and unusual combination of words.
“I do so like green eggs and ham! Thank you! Thank you, Sam-I-Am.”

Broca never has a chance with Dr. Seuss.

Authors know that the opening line of their novel is an important line to get the reader past ‘Broca’ and to the second sentence.

…Call me Ishmael. (Moby Dick)
…It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. (1984)
…They shoot the white girl first. (Paradise)

Try this. When your participants sit with you for the first time give them an opening line that will make their ‘Broca’ lie down and beg for mercy.

It doesn’t even have to make sense. Try this opening line….

“…the person that sat in that chair yesterday was a twitchy little bastard.
I was glad he did what he did…”

I promise you their ‘Broca’ won’t know what hit it.

And oh, when you finish the story from that opening line, send it to me.
I’m anxious to read it.

Right Time’s PAS® adds the voice of your marginalized participant to your intervention which means you can improve your decision making, achieve quicker rapport, gain marketplace advantage, and, maybe, increase your funding.