I first heard about Stephen Covey’s emotional bank account concept in the book, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” and it’s really resonated with me.
It’s something that I use in my everyday life, both online and offline, and with my business.
Basically, what is the emotional bank account? Let’s compare it to a real bank account.
Real Bank Account vs Emotional Bank Account
Let’s say you have no money in the bank, you have terrible credit, and you go to the bank and say, “Hey, I want a loan for a million dollars.”
They’re very likely going to say, “Hey, you have a terrible track record. You haven’t shown us anything that makes you deserve a million-dollar loan,” so they’re going to deny you, and they’re going to not give you the loan.
The emotional bank account is the very same thing. It’s just with your connections and relationships with people.
How to Build Up Your Emotional Bank Account
Let’s say you’re a business and you’re trying to sell your products or services, or you’re just trying to build your social media profile.
When you first go interact with somebody, if you’re immediately in the first interaction asking them for something, trying to get them to give you something, that’s like you going to the bank and saying, “Hey, I want this loan. I want you to do this for me, but I haven’t shown you any track record that I’m reputable, that you should trust me.”
The emotional bank account is what allows you to start getting people to trust you, start building good connections and relationships with the people that you meet, both offline and online.
What you want to do is, the first time that you interact with them, you want to offer them value. You want to give them help.
You want to say, “Hey, I can help you with this,” and don’t ask for anything in return.
What that’s basically doing is building up your emotional bank account with that person.
Benefits of Paying Attention to Your Emotional Bank Account
As you continue to make deposits into that bank account, the person’s going to start trusting you.
They’re going to find you valuable, and when they have questions about whatever you’re helping them with, they’ll come back to you and say, “Hey, you’ve really proven to me that you know what you’re talking about, you’re willing to help me. You’ve always offered help to me, and you’ve never asked for anything.”
So when you do finally go and try and get that ‘loan’ and you say, “Hey, can you help me out with this?” or, “Can you buy my product or service?” your emotional bank account is going to be very high.
They’re going to trust you, and you’re going to have a good communication and relationship with that person, so they’re much more likely to know who you are, pay attention to what you’re offering, pay attention to your content.
Emotional Bank Accounts on Social Media
Focusing on my emotional bank account has helped me immensely with my social media.
I’ve grown my YouTube channel to over 10 million views, and one of the things in the very beginning of YouTube that I found quickly was that I always went to people and I said, “Hey, can you check out my content,” and nobody really replied.
The benefit of the emotional bank account and thinking of it in a different way is, I finally realized that I have to go to people and say, “Hey, I love your content. I’m going to share your content. I’m going to get your content out there,” and I’ve offered value to everyone that I encounter.
With business, I do the same thing.
The response you will receive is the complete opposite to when you’re asking for something.
When I go and meet people, I don’t ask them for something immediately saying, “Hey, can you help me? Can you do this for me?”
I always say, “Hey, I have something that can help you.”
I offer value to them, and most of the times, I don’t even have anything that I need from them, so I just help them and it’s like depositing into the emotional bank account.
Then if I ever do need a favor or I want them to purchase a product or purchase a book that I’m offering, or a service, they’re much more likely to be receptive because I’ve put so many deposits into that emotional bank account.
Start Making Deposits Into Your Emotional Bank Account Today
That’s a concept that I want a lot of people to kind of think about.
It changes the way that you look at things, and it puts into perspective that when you meet someone for the first time, start thinking of how you can offer them value, how you can help them out, and make deposits into the emotional bank account with them, and they’ll be a lot more receptive in the future.
You’ll have better connections.
You’ll have better relationships.
And you will get along with people a lot better. They won’t feel like you’re just constantly asking them for things.
I promise you your relationships and your connections in both business and personal life will be a lot better, and I hope that concept helps you!