Messed Up? Use It to Your Advantage

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Messed Up? Use It to Your Advantage"

Podcast Information:

• Title: Help Wanted
• Host/Author: Money News Network
• Episode: Messed Up? Use It to Your Advantage
• Release Date: March 13, 2025

Hosts:

• Jason Pfeiffer, Editor-in-Chief of Entrepreneur Magazine
• Nicole Lapin, Money Expert

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Introduction to the Pratfall Effect

In the episode titled "Messed Up? Use It to Your Advantage," Jason Pfeiffer delves into the intriguing concept of turning personal mistakes into advantages within a professional setting. Drawing from psychological research, he introduces the pratfall effect, which posits that individuals can become more likable by acknowledging their flaws—provided they are perceived as competent beforehand.

Real-World Illustrations

Jason opens with relatable examples to set the stage. He describes a viral coffee shop sandwich board that boldly states, "Come in and try the worst coffee one woman on TripAdvisor had in her life" ([03:35]). This humorous and self-deprecating approach not only attracts attention but also humanizes the brand, making it more approachable.

Another poignant example involves a video of Idina Menzel struggling with the finale of her hit song, "Let It Go." Jason observes, "People absolutely love her for this. Love her for this" ([05:00]). Despite the mistake, Idina’s openness about her imperfection endears her to fans, highlighting how vulnerability can enhance relatability and admiration.

The Science Behind the Pratfall Effect

Jason provides a thorough explanation of the pratfall effect by referencing a seminal 1966 study by psychologist Elliot Aronson. In the experiment, participants listened to recordings of a quiz taker who either performed well or mediocrely, with some making a small mistake like spilling coffee. The results revealed that the most likable individual was someone who excelled at the quiz and then made a minor blunder, whereas those who performed poorly and made a mistake were viewed less favorably.

He succinctly summarizes, "People admire perfection, but they don't relate to perfect people. Mistakes make people more relatable and human" ([06:45]). This relatability fosters trust and strengthens social bonds, as audiences perceive the individual as genuine and approachable.

Why Mistakes Enhance Likability

Jason elaborates on why mistakes can increase likability. Admitting errors showcases humility and authenticity, which resonate deeply with audiences. As he puts it, "When something goes wrong, you can ask yourself, does my audience already view me as competent? And if so, does this make me more likable? Then that mistake wasn't bad at all" ([11:20]). This self-awareness and honesty can transform a perceived flaw into a strength, enhancing one’s professional image.

Applications of the Pratfall Effect

1. Marketing

Jason explains how brands can effectively use the pratfall effect to their advantage. He cites KFC’s UK campaign where the company humorously acknowledged a shortage of chicken by altering their logo to "fck" and issuing a sincere apology. This candid approach not only addressed the issue but also humanized the brand, making it more relatable and trustworthy to consumers.

2. Leadership

In leadership, admitting mistakes can build a culture of trust and openness. Jason emphasizes that leaders who own up to their errors demonstrate accountability and a willingness to grow alongside their teams. This transparency fosters a supportive environment where team members feel valued and understood.

3. Personal Communication

Jason shares his strategy for incorporating mistakes into public speaking and writing to enhance engagement. He outlines a three-step formula:

1. Display Competence: Start by showcasing your expertise.
2. Describe the Mistake: Candidly acknowledge a mistake.
3. Pivot to Learning: Immediately transition to what you learned from the experience.

This approach ensures that mistakes serve to humanize rather than undermine one's professional persona. Jason notes, "You can choose which mistakes to share and how best to share them" ([11:55]).

Practical Steps to Utilize Mistakes

Jason offers actionable advice on leveraging mistakes constructively:

• Evaluate Competence: Ensure that your audience already perceives you as competent before sharing a mistake.
• Select the Right Mistake: Choose errors that highlight your humanity without casting doubt on your abilities.
• Frame the Narrative: Present the mistake in a way that emphasizes growth and learning.

By thoughtfully sharing mistakes, individuals can enhance their likability and strengthen their professional relationships.

Conclusion

The episode "Messed Up? Use It to Your Advantage" underscores the value of embracing imperfections. By understanding and applying the pratfall effect, listeners can transform their mistakes into powerful tools for building trust, relatability, and a stronger professional presence. Jason Pfeiffer and Nicole Lapin provide insightful strategies that encourage authenticity and vulnerability as pathways to greater professional success.

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Notable Quotes:

• Jason Pfeiffer ([03:35]): "Come in and try the worst coffee one woman on TripAdvisor had in her life."
• Jason Pfeiffer ([05:00]): "People absolutely love her for this. Love her for this."
• Jason Pfeiffer ([06:45]): "People admire perfection, but they don't relate to perfect people. Mistakes make people more relatable and human."
• Jason Pfeiffer ([11:20]): "When something goes wrong, you can ask yourself, does my audience already view me as competent? And if so, does this make me more likable?"
• Jason Pfeiffer ([11:55]): "You can choose which mistakes to share and how best to share them."

This episode offers a compelling exploration of how embracing and strategically sharing mistakes can significantly enhance personal and professional relationships, turning potential setbacks into opportunities for growth and connection.

Transcript

[Jason Pfeiffer]

You're here for tips on leveling up your career, but here's a bonus tip on leveling up your investments. Check out Public Public is an investing platform where you can invest in stocks, options, bonds, ETFs and crypto all in one place. Public is a modern brokerage and has brought innovation to aspects of investing that were dinosaur y. I'll give you an example. Public is one of the only brokerages to offer self directed investing in bonds, Treasuries, which have historically been sold primarily through a government website. But with Public you can invest in Treasuries with just a few clicks right from your phone. And Public allows you to make fractional investments in bonds. So before fractional bonds on Public you had to buy government bonds starting with a $1,000 investment at a minimum. And if you wanted to invest in any more than that, you could only invest in $100 increments. Now you can buy bonds for as little as $100 and for any dollar amount on Public. That's just one example of how Public is making it easier to invest. But there are a ton more and you can explore them for [e-mail] helpwanted. To get started with your portfolio today, go to public.com helpwanted this is a paid endorsement for public investing. Full disclosure and conditions can be found in the podcast Description Listeners, we're always.

[Nicole Lapin]

Talking about smart ideas here, and using NerdWallet to find the best financial products for you, like credit cards, is more than smart. It's genius because the nerds already did all the research, so it's easy to find the right card for you in minutes. I'll prove it. I want to upgrade my card, so let's use NerdWallet's Card Finder tool together. Okay. First question. What's my credit score? I think it's good. I think it's in the seven hundreds. Next question. What kind of rewards do I want? Probably travel. I'd like to travel some more this year. Next question. Am I planning to make a big purchase soon? I sure am. I'm getting married this year and there are a big number of big purchases. So yeah, check that box. Next question. How much money am I spending monthly? I'm just gonna put in a little something something. And here they are. Several really great recommendations and some travel. Okay, honeymoon. Now it's your turn. Get matched with your card [e-mail] terms and conditions apply. Credit products subject to lender approval. See nerdwallet.com for details.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

This is help Wanted the show that makes your work work for you. I'm Jason Pfeiffer, editor in chief of.

[Morgan Lavoie]

Entrepreneur magazine, and I'm money expert Nicole Lapin. On Tuesdays, Jason and I answer the helpline and help callers solve their work problems.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

And on Thursdays, I give you one way to improve your work and build a career or company you love.

[Morgan Lavoie]

And it starts now.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

You messed up or something went wrong. Your first instinct, no matter what, is to just hide. You know, to act like it didn't happen or to feel a wave of shame. But wait, you should know this. According to research, your mistakes make you more likable, so long as you present them properly. Today, I'm going to show you what to do and why it works and how to use errors to your advantage. But first, let's start with a simple, funny, charmingly effective example. So would you buy coffee from these people? Maybe you've seen this image floating around online. I love it. I saved it a couple years ago. Like, trot it out every once in a while. So imagine a sandwich board, you know, like a big chalkboard that's sitting outside of a coffee shop. And just in big, blocky letters, somebody wrote this. Come in and try the worst coffee One woman on TripAdvisor had in her life. It's pretty great, isn't it? I love that sandwich board. All time favorite sandwich board. And this image, it's gone viral for years. Every time I see it, I. I want to try their coffee. And I was thinking about this sign recently because it reminded me of a charming Idina Menzel video. Did you see this by chance? So let me just describe it. So this is a. Just a, you know, video that somebody in the audience made at one of her shows. And it says, queen Idina Menzel struggling with Let it Go finale. And so first, what you hear is star. Okay, so she. She did not nail that note. I'm no singer, but she didn't nail that note. And then the next thing you see is her just admitting it to the audience, like. Like the Star Spangled Banner. You all know I screwed it up. And then she takes another couple cracks at it. Oh, my God. I just. I want to be perfect, but it's a really hard song to sing all the time. Let the snow break. Anyway, it keeps on going. People absolutely love her for this. Love her for this. And it got me wondering why, like, why do our brains find errors so appealing and charming? Is there a reason for it? And better yet, is there a way to control for it? After Some research. I found an answer. So this is actually a known psychological phenomenon. It is called the pratfall effect. And it might just be the most liberating science you've ever heard. So let's talk about the science of lovable mistakes. Here's the origin story. In 1966, a psychologist named Elliot Aronson published an interesting experiment. He gathered a group of college students and split them up into four groups. Each group listened to a recording of someone taking a quiz, but with some key differences. So here's what each group heard. The first group heard the person doing okay on the quiz, and that's it. The second group heard the person doing okay on the quiz and then accidentally spilling coffee on themselves at the end. The third group heard the person ace the quiz. And the fourth group heard the person ace the quiz and then spill coffee on themselves at the end. Afterwards, participants rated how likable the quiz taker that they heard was. And here were the results. The most likable person was the person who aced the quiz and then spilled coffee on themselves. The least likable person was the person who did okay on the quiz and then spilled coffee on themselves. And the people who didn't spill coffee, whether they aced the quiz or not, were rated about the same. In short, what we learned is mistakes can make someone either more or less likable based on how competent they already appear. In 1966, Aronson called this the pratfall effect. So why does this work? If you ace a quiz and then spill coffee on yourself, you're lovable. But if you fail that quiz and then spill coffee on yourself, you're just a hot mess. Over the years, researchers have repeated this, but also found many nuances to it. The effect can change based on someone's self esteem, the context of the mistake, and more, but the general pattern holds. So again, why? Here's the thinking. People admire perfection, but they don't relate to perfect people. Perfection makes someone seem intimidating and inauthentic. Mistakes, on the other hand, make people more relatable and human. Their vulnerability triggers our empathy. And when someone slips up, we feel like they're not hiding anything. And that builds trust. For example, that Idina Menzel clip was posted by a fan of hers, and she wrote in the caption of that video, she wrote, I love going to see real and genuine people on the stage. And this was one of my favorite moments of the night. So you see it right there. This fan wasn't there to see Idina be perfect. She was there to see Idina be a real person. And flaws enabled that to happen. So how do you use your flaws? There are endless applications of the pratfall effect, but here are a few that come to mind. First, number one, marketing. Did you or your brand make a mistake? Did something go wrong? Well, ask yourself, can I use this without undercutting my competency? The coffee shop sandwich board was a perfect version of this. By acknowledging, quote, the worst coffee one woman on TripAdvisor had in her life, end quote. It displayed confidence and competence. It was almost daring you to try their coffee. And I'm also reminded of this brilliant apology from KFC a couple years ago. Do you remember this? So it ran out of chicken in the UK because of a distributor issue, and then it published this ad in some UK papers. Imagine a kind of messy red background and then a tipped over bucket of kfc, except that it says fck instead of KFC fck. And then underneath it says we're sorry. A chicken restaurant without any chicken. It's not ideal. Huge apologies to our customers, especially those who traveled, et cetera, et cetera. Anyway, so it was funny, but it was also earnest. The first words were we're sorry. KFC pledged to make it right. The ad was so well received because for customers who love kfc, this humanized the company. So, okay, so that's the first way to use pratfall effect. It is with marketing. Now let's talk about leadership. Number two, leadership. No leader is perfect, which is why overconfident leaders are insufferable. So long as your team trusts you, they will appreciate when you acknowledge your own mistakes. It shows that you accept responsibility and that you're open to learning and growing alongside them, and that you won't hold them to impossible and unfair standards. And here's a third way to use the pratfall effect in writing and speaking. I share my mistakes in this podcast all the time. Anyone who's listened knows that Nicole does it too. And those episodes always drive the most engagement. People reach out and thank me for my vulnerability. I do the same thing on stage in my keynote talks. Many of my talk segments are actually built around a mistake that I made and then what I learned as a result. Again, people thank me afterwards for being vulnerable. And I don't mean to sound calculated, but to me, none of this is actually being vulnerable. I know that my audience will like these things. That's because I'm following a very pratfall effect like formula for sharing my errors. And here it goes. The formula is this. Number one, I display or explain that I am good at something. Number two, I describe what went wrong. And number three, I immediately pivot into what I learned that helped me become better. When I give a talk, for example, I never open by describing a failure. Instead, I spend time displaying my competence and only then get into a failure story. This way, I'm using my mistakes to humanize my skills rather than to define myself as a failure. And now, here's the best part. To be clear, I am not saying you share every error that would come off as performative or like you're just incompetent. Instead, I'm saying this. Now you have a choice. You have a way to evaluate which mistakes to make and which mistakes to make. Actually, I'm just going to keep that in there. That was a mistake. That doesn't make any sense. You are not going to be able to choose which mistakes to make, but you can choose. You can choose which mistakes to share and how best to share them. Usually when I stumble, I cut things out from the episode, but that was just so meta that I'm keeping it. Anyway. When something goes wrong, you can ask yourself, does my audience already view me as competent? And if so, does this make me more likable? And if the answer to both those questions is yes, then that mistake wasn't bad at all. It was the thing that makes you even more competent and even more likable and even more awesome than you already are. Help Wanted is a production of Money News Network. Help Wanted is hosted by me, Jason.

[Morgan Lavoie]

Pfeiffer, and me, Nicole Lapin. Our executive producer is Morgan Lavoie. You want some help? Email our [e-mail] for the chance to have some of your questions answered on the show. And follow us on Instagramoney News and TikTok MoneyNewsNetwork for exclusive content and to.

[Nicole Lapin]

See our beautiful faces.

[Morgan Lavoie]

Maybe a little dance?

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Oh, I didn't sign up for that.

[Morgan Lavoie]

All right, well, talk to you soon.