Click HERE to view Amy’s most popular speaking topics.

Click HERE to to view Amy’s most popular PAC workshop topics

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Amy knows your audience learns through interaction. Here she coaches a National Association of REALTORS audience member on how to “set the scene” when sharing an advocacy story.

• How to Survive and Thrive When Advocating to Hostile Audiences . . . . and Live to Tell About It

Unfortunately, not all external audiences understand your profession, industry, or cause. Some are tacitly hostile, but you still need to reach them. There are nuances to engaging those who overtly or covertly disdain your position or profession. When you understand and practice the proven tactics, you won’t be hesitant to engage in a productive dialogue.

In this workshop, you’ll learn:

• The likeability factor: why your personal likeability can dispel hostility, the science of likability, and how to be more likeable

• The three behaviors required to build trust quickly with hostile legislators (and anyone else!)

• Specific language to use and questions to ask that accelerate trust and understanding

• Hostility mitigation tactics: how to prepare for potentially hostile meetings and the tactics that reduce meeting fear, dread and stress

• The Pillars of PAC Persuasion

Not all influence tactics are effective when conducting PAC fundraising. You’ll learn why some are more powerful than
others, and how your peer to peer PAC recruiters can integrate them into their presentations and conversations.

• Can You Hear Me Now? Rising Above the Noise by Raising your Personal and Organizational Credibility Quotient (CQ)

• “What’s Your Story?” How to Share your Personal Story for the PAC Persuasion Edge

Narrative is an underutilized yet powerful PAC persuasion tool, particularly in today’s divided electorate. To gain the persuasion edge, your peer-to-peer recruiters and staff need to deliver narratives that inspire and, most important, persuade your PAC prospects. This is a highly interactive workshop where participants learn the elements of persuasive stories and engage in live practice sessions with Amy’s coaching to hone their PAC narratives.

• From Questions to Contributions: Turning Tough PAC Questions into PAC Contribution

This workshop empowers PAC fundraisers to prepare for, and even welcome, PAC objections. Participants will become comfortable answering difficult questions and learn how to build trust with hostile audiences. This highly customized offering features the questions your PAC fundraisers commonly face, with real time role playing and the specific language that creates trust and understanding. We also explore the nuances of nonverbal communications that build rapport.

• What’s Your Story? How to Use the Power of Narrative for PAC Fundraising Success

• Get Real: The Science of Authentic Influence

Senator Bernie Sanders has it. So does President Trump. Ditto for Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Whether it’s called transparency, “being real” or authenticity, the research is in: people crave, follow and buy authenticity —- including today’s political candidates. It has become an element of influence. Are you and your communications authentic? How do you know?

While we may “know it when we see it,” there is a science of authenticity. We have researched the topic to uncover the components of what people perceive as authentic in a communication and the messenger.

In this workshop, you’ll learn:

• What the recipient of your communication must feel before they judge your message as authentic

• The one word that, when uttered, shows that the recipient of your messages does not believe your authenticity

• The power of authenticity to buffer a disliked brand

• The 10-Point Authenticity Checklist, and how to integrate each element into your communications

• How audiences determine what’s genuine—what’s the “secret sauce” for authenticity?

• How to audit your communications for their authentic influence quotient

You will be asked to bring your most important communications materials* and apply the 10-point Authenticity Checklist to your materials. You’ll leave with clear direction on how to ramp up your authentic influence!

• The Underdog Edge: What It Is, How to Get It, and Why You Need it For Influence Success

No matter what your current station in life, there will come a time when you have to “influence up.” To get what you want, you’ll have to change the mind of someone more powerful than yourself—whether a potential client, legislator, your corporate board or CEO. And powerful people are different. The typical influence tactics you may have read about for general influence situations don’t often work with powerful people.

Many influence tips address peer influence (negotiation) and downward influence (leadership). From her book (The Underdog Edge: How Ordinary People Change the Minds of the Powerful . . .and Live to Tell About It, published by Morgan James) which includes the findings from thousands of survey responses and interviews with “underdog” influencers and who they persuaded, Amy shares the seven principles of upward influence, and features the tactics that work in the real world when influencing up. She backs up her findings with the latest peer-reviewed research that validates the approach of successful upward influencers. Her findings de-bunk long – held influence myths like “be passionate and you’ll win” and “one person can make a difference.”

While she discovered over 50 tactics used by persuasive underdogs, she shares the most counterintuitive ones, including:

• Why the past is prologue when influencing up, and how you can leverage your reputation in your favor (even if you are a “big dog” compared to your influence prospect)
• The one tactic you must use if you want to change a powerful person’s mind
• How to build trust quickly with those who are apathetic and even averse to your position
• Why showing passion for your cause dooms your request when influencing up (except when two conditions are present)
• How to recognize your influence prospect’s values and their “taboo trade-offs” when negotiating
• The three characteristics of persuasive teams that make their efforts more persuasive than their opponents

• It’s What You Say and How You Say It: Persuasive Presentation Skills For Government Affairs Staff 

Words matter, and this workshop reveals subtle yet impactful language that leads to comfortable dialogue about your PAC, and gives your recruiters the confidence to have PAC conversations that build relationships instead of misunderstandings. Participants will also learn the vital aspect of their nonverbal communications when discussing PACs and political topics.

• Till Death Do Us Part: How to Build Relationships with Your Legislator

• How to Be a Motivating Team Leader: No-Cost Ways to Gain Loyalty, Enthusiasm and Action

Not all great advocates are great leaders. Do you have an organized structure of member advocates and/or local corporate facility advocates who can recruit and lead your advocacy teams? (And who won’t keep you up at night?) Being a good manager isn’t enough to motivate volunteers. This workshop draws on insights from Amy’s primary research with hundreds of “rock star” volunteer leaders across the nation that were featured in her book, The Underdog Edge www.underdogedge.com. She has discerned the patterns of effective volunteer leaders and created a list of specific behaviors your team can immediately apply to advocacy and PAC leadership challenges.

You’ll learn:

• Over 20 behaviors that will take your volunteer interactions from dull to dynamic
• Why ambiguity de-motivates volunteers, and how to manage it
• The most important quality of a team leader when your team is fighting uphill
• Why “playing favorites” is the right thing to do
• How to engage the principle of “strategic spontaneity” for recognition that serves strategic organizational goals
• Why “under-whelming” your volunteers creates loyal followers
• Easy ways to integrate informal recognition into your weekly routine

• The Purposeful PAC®: Using the Science of Influence for Positive PAC Involvement

• The Grassroots Influence Pulse (GRIP®): The Trends and Tactics That Predict Legislative Results (proprietary TSG research findings)
• Message Framing: Capturing the Pre-persuasion Battleground
• The Seven Deadly Sins of Influence Campaigns
• Why Winners Win: How Fortune’s “Power 25” Find, Keep and Motivate Quality Grassroots Volunteers (proprietary TSG research results)

• Persuasion Tactics that Change Legislators’ Minds (proprietary TSG research results)

• Avoiding the Unintended Consequences of Influence Campaigns
• Online Chatters to Doing What Matters: How to Get Your Stakeholders Off Their Computers and On the Streets

• It’s What You Say and How You Say It: Persuasive Presentation Skills for Government Affairs Staff and Volunteers

• From Activity to Achievement: Next Level Government Relations Metrics that Matter