Getting ‘Enchanted’

Have you ever had to keep a secret? Probably one of the hardest secrets to keep are not the forever secrets, but secrets that have an expiration date. For the past eight months, I’ve been carrying around a digital copy of Guy Kawasaki’s new book, “Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions” on my iPad. The book is finally available in book stores and online as of 12:01 this morning, so I’m now able to talk about it.

In July 2010, Kawasaki put out an open call on Twitter for beta testers for his new book. I responded, and a few days later to my surprise, I received an e-mail with a Word doc attached to it. No non-disclosure agreement, no legalese. Just an e-mail with instructions from Kawasaki, a request that I not forward the manuscript to anyone and the attached document.

Just sending his manuscript was incredibly trusting. I later found out that there were 44 beta testers. Any of us could have easily posted the manuscript online for the world to see, but none of us did. Why was Kawasaki so trusting to just hand over his manuscript to people who answered an open call on Twitter, most of whom he probably had never met? And why didn’t any of the beta testers post the manuscript somewhere? As I read through the manuscript, making notes on the Word document as Kawasaki instructed, I slowly began to understand. The reason we all kept the book under wraps was because Kawasaki had trusted us — complete strangers — with his latest work, and we were all enchanted.

Kawasaki explains in “Enchantment” how to enchant people to help your cause through likability and trustworthiness.

“It is more than manipulating people to help you get your way. Enchantment transforms situations and relationships. It converts hostility into civility. It reshapes civility into affinity. It changes skeptics and cynics into believers,” Kawasaki explains in the first chapter.

Aside from the various rules of enchantment, the book is filled with examples and testimonials. The most poignant for me is the story of former Punahou football star, Charlie Wedemeyer. Wedemeyer, who coached the Los Gatos High School football team for eight years after being diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease. As the disease progressed, Wedemeyer began coaching from a wheelchair while his wife Lucy relayed plays to the team by reading the movements of Wedemeyer’s eyes, lips and eyebrows.

“Their story should inspire you when resistance is great and changing people’s hearts, minds, and actions seems impossible,” Kawasaki wrote.

Wedemeyer’s compelling story of overcoming adversity is well known, being the subject of a PBS documentary and a TV drama. It’s also a reflection of Kawasaki’s Hawaii roots.

Hawaii makes another appearance in the book when Kawasaki uses local group Kanu Hawaii as an example of how to get people to make a commitment to your cause, and more importantly, consistently support it.

“The goal of enchantment is a long-lasting change – not a onetime sale or transaction. I other words, you want enchantment to endure and, even better, to blossom,” Kawasaki wrote.

Kanu Hawaii encourages its members to make personal commitments like buying locally made products, then sharing that commitment with their social network via Twitter, Facebook and e-mail. Kawasaki explains that convincing people to internalize your values creates loyalty and is key to making enchantment endure.

There is a reason that brands like Amazon, Apple, Häagen-Dazs and Zappos are successful, and Kawasaki explains how they are effective in building brand loyalty. From a social media and entrepreneur’s standpoint, “Enchantment” is a guide for brand management, and the brand in question is you. Once you have mastered the art of enchanting people on a personal level, you can easily apply the concepts from the book to anything. I recommend this book to anyone interested in improving their brand, whether it be a company, a product or themselves.