READ IT AND WIN

Nationally renowned political psychologist teaches candidates how to turn vices into virtues

By Rosanne Dunkelberger

The failings outlined in “The Candidate’s 7 Deadly Sins” won’t give you a fast track to the netherworld. But commit enough of them, and your chances of getting elected are slim to none.

Author, nationally known psychologist and political coach Dr. Peter A. Wish is, by training, a behavioral therapist who was tossed into the wild-and-wooly world of national political campaigns when St. Petersburg real estate mogul, former ambassador and Republican activist Mel Sembler recruited him into the 2012 presidential campaign of now-U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah. Serving as a fundraising bundler, Wish said he “went from an unknown to being on the National Presidential Finance Committee.”

“I built myself up in the campaign to where they invited me to all the retreats and presidential debates,” he continued. “But every time I offered psychological advice on how to humanize Mitt and get him to relate better to voters, they said the same thing: ‘You raise the money and leave the driving to us.’”

Romney dutifully followed the script laid out for him by his strategists, which resulted in him coming across as wooden, aloof and unrelatable. His campaign style didn’t reflect his actual personality, Wish said.

Voters couldn’t identify with his 8x10 glossy image of studied perfection. “I came back to Florida from election night in Boston with a severe case of PCSD — post campaign stress disorder. I observed a campaign that really committed tremendous emotional malpractice.”

Wish decided to write a book to help other candidates avoid the same emotional mistakes Romney did. He shares the Romney story in the introduction and the conclusion to his No. 1 Amazon bestseller, but the remaining chapters offer practical advice — backed by neuroscience, social psy- chology, personal coaching of candidates, case studies and 3 ½ years of research candidates can use to connect emotionally to potential supporters and earn their trust and votes.

Wish’s secret sauce throughout the book boils down to one word — likeability.

Digging deep into the reptilian brain, research has discovered what motivates people to vote for one candidate over another isn’t a reasoned recitation of data and facts, but a gut-level desire for safety and security. “Facts are boring. …We feel before we think,” Wish said. To get support, it is critical to have the voter feel “the candidate likes me, the candidate understands me and I trust the candidate. Voters vote with their gut, not their brain,” Wish said.

“The Candidate’s 7 Deadly Sins” outlines vices including: pessimism, being tentative, reactive, canned, cerebral, arrogant and rigid. The very good news is, with Wish’s pioneering coaching techniques and practice, those bad traits can be flipped into virtues — optimism, decisiveness, deliberateness, authenticity, empathy, humility and agility.

Even if those virtues don’t come naturally to a potential candidate, Wish likens himself to a sports psychologist who can “coach” a person to perform their best. His preferred method for creating candidate relatability through emotional connection with voters is guiding the candidate to develop a personal master narrative. Storytelling then becomes the vehicle for forging the bond. “Candidates need an emotional platform,” Wish said.

While he promotes the emotional side of vote-getting, Wish isn’t oblivious to the importance of money to winning. “When you ask candidates and campaign teams what’s the most important ingredient for any campaign, they always say money,” he explained. “It’s important, but it’s not the only ingredient. Money can’t buy you love. To me, what’s also critical is the candidate and how they present themselves.” The goal: A candidate needs to leave the voter feeling “that person cares about someone like me.”

Wish’s coaching motto is “Make the connection and win your election.”

In his cover blurb, Capitol City Consulting’s Nick Iarossi said about Wish’s book: “Never have I read a book that so effectively combines real-life examples, neuroscience and human psychology to provide a useful how-to guide for establishing an emotional connection with people — regardless of political affiliation.”

Wish, who moved his family to Sarasota from Boston in 1994, has advised Republican and Democratic candidates in state, congressional, senatorial and gubernatorial campaigns. He has been quoted in national newspapers and magazines and appeared on many network television shows. He wrote “The Family Experience,” a syndicated UPI column for the Boston Globe, hosted “Psychologically Speaking” on CBS radio, and was a weekly guest consulting psychologist on “The Good Day Show” at WCVB-TV Boston.

“The Candidate’s 7 Deadly Sins: Using Emotional Optics to Turn Political Vices Into Virtues” is available via Amazon, and Barnes and Noble in hardback, softcover, Kindle or audiobook versions. For more information, visit the book’s website at political-coach.com.