This Sunday was election day for every Belgian adult with a right to vote.
Three different elections took place actually. A local vote, a vote deciding the national government, as well as a vote deciding who will be elected to the European parliament.
And before you click off, let me warn you that I won’t get all boring or political in this email.
Quite the contrary, in fact.
There’s something extremely interesting and valuable that took place in our national election. Something I doubt many people would even think twice about, but yet it happened right there, under everyone’s noses, plain and simple for everyone to see. And it’s one of the most valuable and practical persuasion lessons I’ve seen in a long time.
To give some context:
Here in Belgium, we have the option to vote on one of the 7 different parties (there are a few other smaller parties to vote on, but these are the major ones), depending on their agendas and whichever we like most. As in most first-world countries, gender and sexuality have become quite the popular topic and one of the major points of discussion among the people. So naturally every political party had to take a stand on it and voice their opinion and how they’ll act on this whole shebang.
Naturally, the people who care about this are the loudest group in society.
Resulting in something an overrepresentation of that group in society, leading to the fact that, one by one, every single political party shared how much they care about gender and sexuality, how much they’re going to aid and support the LGBTQ…+ community, even going as far as stating they’ll reform education plans as early as kindergarten to teach kids all about it.
Well, all political parties except one, that is.
Out of the seven (7!) there’s only one party that dared to voice their distaste of what society has become with the gender-and-sexuality movement, saying there should be no place for “gender propaganda” in kindergarten, or any other level of education for that matter (and rightly so).
Even more.
The better part of our entire media landscape is against that particular political party, actively trying to undermine them, make them look bad, digging up dirt wherever (and however) they can, going as far as almost boycotting other people or parties to support them, in short, doing whatever they can to make them as weak and tiny as possible.
And yet.
After the results of the election came in, they secured a tied first place in the national election.
Regardless of what your takes are on the gender discussion, there’s a lesson to take away from this story.
And that’s not to be afraid to voice your opinions, stand up for what you think is right, and dare to fight the crowd.
Who knows, maybe you might just end up winning an election.
Even if you’re not planning on running in any election. Voicing your opinions, and daring to fight the crowd is an immensely powerful way to strengthen your bond with your fans and repel everyone you don’t want, nor care about—leading to a much healthier and higher quality audience (as well as a lot more profits for your business).
If you’d like to learn other persuasion principles to increase your business’s profits, especially through (email) writing, then check out Email Valhalla here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalfrom