“Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin…”

was the introduction to a radio show called Listen With Mother when I was young.

I remember listening after making sure I was sitting comfortably.

And most of the time that’s the state we’d like people to be in when they read our messages and watch our videos.

Of course, that radio show was in another era. No adverts because it was on the BBC (our public broadcaster) and at the time no incessant trailers for other possibly related programs, lasting almost as long as the commercial breaks.

And it wasn’t Peppa Pig or Paw Patrol or any of the other programs on permanent loop on Nick Jr.

But it was a regular time to sit down with my mother and listen to the stories.

If you stop to think about it, that hasn’t really changed.

Sure, the medium has changed.

We’re not usually entertained by minstrels roving from town to town (although some still do that) but the internet has allowed any of us to take their place for audiences so small (yet often profitable) they’d never have been affordably reachable even 20 years ago.

Sitting comfortably is another way of describing comfort zones.

You can get a quick demonstration of one of your comfort zones by doing this quick exercise:

• Clasp your hands together – they don’t have to be tightly gripped, just fingers interlocked
• Notice which thumb is on top
• Change the order of the interlocking so that your other thumb is on top instead
• Notice whether that feels weird or uncomfortable

For most people, it does.

When I first did that exercise at a self help seminar, it took me maybe a dozen swaps to get it to feel comfortable. Now, it’s just something I do when I feel like it although I still have a dominant thumb that’s normally on top.

But the other thumb logic applies everywhere.

It’s in you when you resist trying something new.

It’s in your potential customers for the same reason.

The trick – like swapping the order of your thumbs – is to get people to gradually shift from their current state to one where they’re more likely to do what you first intended.

Joe Sugarman called this getting them to slide down a slippery slope when they’re reading.

One sentence leads them naturally into the next until they’re at the “buying” stage – nowadays a buy button, back in Joe’s earlier days more likely a toll free number.

Stepping into your other thumb zone isn’t always easy.

Most of the time it feels uncomfortable. Because it probably is.

And it’s easy to slip back into your old ways (habits) and forget about whatever it was you almost tried.

So here’s a challenge for you:

• Pick something that you’ve been thinking about doing for a while but where you feel “other thumb”
• Do it enough times that you get more comfortable with it (or find out it really isn’t for you)

I think you’ll like the result.