I was chatting to a friend in January of 2020. He spends too much time online and is a bit of a hypochondriac.
“Have you heard about the new corona virus?” he asked.
“Oh no, here we go,” I said. “Where did you read this?”
“CNN, just today.”
“Figures,” I said. “I’m sure they will blow it up into a new swine flu by tomorrow.”
Today I’d like to introduce to you the idea of watershed beliefs. For example:
That time in January 2020 was the first time I’d heard of corona virus. It’s colored my whole corona experience since… all the stories, stats, and recommendations I’ve heard and read. To the point that as of today, September 6, 2021, I’m still not vaccinated against covid19.
Had my first experience with corona been different… say, had my mom gotten a mysterious flu-like illness around that same time… wound up in the hospital… had severe complications for weeks… and spent months recuperating… I would probably feel very different about everything that has happened over the past 18 months.
That’s how watersheds work.
Early on, it’s easy to channel a few drops of water down one side of the mountain or the other.
But once water collects into rivulets… streams… and eventually rivers… it becomes dangerous, hard, or even impossible to manage or divert.
And so it is with beliefs.
There are certain moments when it’s easy to influence or form people’s beliefs around a certain topic.
Those turn into watershed beliefs.
But if you find yourself downstream from those moments, you have a dangerous, hard, or downright impossible task.
“Not very inspiring,” you might say.
Fine. so here’s the inspiring bit.
In many situations, it’s possible to go upstream to identify and attack the watershed belief itself. This can be an easy way — and often the only way — to alter the course of a powerful torrent of downstream thoughts and action.
For example, if somebody could truly convince me that news sites like CNN are not a bunch of circus monkeys that fanned and continue to fan corona fears for their own ends… maybe I would question much of my own beliefs about corona.
(But that’s a bit of a tall order. I just saw today that for the first time ever, the majority of Americans, specifically 58%, agree with me that “journalists and reporters are purposely trying to mislead people by saying things they know are false or gross exaggerations.”)
You’re welcome to try to change my mind about the media. But your efforts are probably better spent on identifying your prospect’s watershed beliefs… and then finding ways to attack those. You’re likely to have more luck there.
But what if your prospect’s watershed beliefs are also too hard to change?
Well, then you’ll have to create a new watershed downstream. And divert at least some of the thoughts and actions of your target audience in a new direction… the direction you want.
What are your current beliefs about signing up to my email newsletter? If you’re not set against the fact yet, I’d like to suggest you try it out. You get daily ideas about persuasion, marketing, and copywriting… to maybe change how you see these topics.
In case you’re interested, you can sign up to try it out here.