By Sally Gilhooley

Just twenty-eight years old, Laurie Puhn, President of Laurie Puhn Communications, has written a best-seller, Instant Persuasion: How to Change Your Words to Change Your Life. She teaches its trademarked communication method nationwide to thousands of employees at Fortune 500 companies and has presented her “being-good-pays-off” theme on more than 200 TV and Radio programs including ABC’s 20/20 and Fox 5’s Good Day, New York. Her advice has struck a chord with audiences across the country and she has been featured in The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Newsday and Redbook.

Puhn, who earned a B.A. in Economics from Harvard in 1999 and her J.D. from Harvard Law in 2002, says of her premise, “I see that there is a lot of trouble in the world and a lot of it comes from feeling that we are very different from one another. That notion prevents us from achieving insight and resolution in solving problems. Essentially, what I am doing through the book, speaking engagements and television is marketing ‘Being Good.’

“I am trying to enlighten people to the truth that the better we are as human beings, the more respectful and kind, the greater the payoff for us in our own lives. That is my theme and, in a quirky way, I call it ‘I market being good.’”

While serving on the Board of the Harvard Mediation Program, her experiences as a legal mediator helping people resolve disputes outside the courtroom led her to her subject matter. She translated complex law and mediation principles into simple communication rules people can use in everyday life to create Instant Persuasion, (Penguin, 2005/Tarcher, 2006,) a Literary Guild and Book of the Month Club selection nominated for Best Motivational Book in 2005, now in paperback. By using what Puhn calls “Principled Persuasion,” the book details thirty-five creative ways to reduce conflict and reach goals with honesty and integrity.

Puhn believes that by following the Golden Rule and learning how to present yourself you can get promoted at work, have a lasting marriage and friends. She says, “You don’t have to be smarter, richer or luckier to get what you want. You just need to be persuasive.”

Alan Dershowitz, Harvard law professor, says, “Laurie Puhn brings her remarkable talents as a lawyer, negotiator and all-around-very-smart person [to] this easy-to-read book, a must for anyone who wants to change minds - in other words, all of us.”

Puhn, Match.com’s Communication Expert, explains, “People are constantly struggling to get that little bit of edge in life and many think that edge comes from being manipulative and dishonest but I offer the alternative that the edge comes from being respectful and showing appreciation for others.

“You can be assertive and live with values and be successful because people appreciate you. If you operate with principles, people come to rely on you and trust you in business and in your personal life. We all know which friends we can turn to.”

When taking Instant Persuasion on the road and speaking across the country, Puhn, a member of the National Speakers’ Association, adapts its key techniques to suit individual audiences whether in business, academia or the health care service industry. “

Traveling around the US has been a wonderful enhancement in my life and a great way to find out what people think,” says Puhn. “I can test the material.”

She has established The Laurie Puhn Institute whose mission statement sets a goal to educate and empower people with the “Instant Persuasion Method” - to lead, persuade and communicate with others to achieve peak performance in the professional and personal arenas of life.

Last summer, Puhn was featured as the Communications Expert on an ABC 20/20 special about “Rudeness in America.” She consulted on the piece and developed a quiz as well as a list of dos and don’ts for viewers to test their rudeness level. She comments, “We see so much confrontation on television and there is a trickle down effect into our personal relationships that can be disastrous.”

Puhn views the media as a means to accomplish her ends and “one of the most powerful ways to reach people and call attention to issues that need help in today’s world.” She feels “a spiritual purpose” behind her message and adds, “Knowing I have valuable goals sustains me. I believe one person can make a difference and why not me?

“When things go wrong we wait for somebody else to do something and that is why we fail to solve some of our problems.” Puhn feels our culture has “gaps” because we think others will take care of things but, often, they won’t. She wants to inspire others to say, “Hey, wait a minute, I do see a problem and maybe I can do something.”

“I call it the defining moment between a participant and a spectator,” explains Puhn. “The participant says, ‘What can I do?’ and the spectator complains and says, ‘I can’t believe they didn’t do anything.

“By participating, one can wake up with joy and self esteem and feel good about the problem because they are actually doing something to help solve it. It changes the meaning of the problem into an opportunity to contribute to the solution.”

Puhn hopes that, through the media, she can “shine the spotlight on people who are doing great things and raise money and attention to people’s commitment to helping others.” In April, she gave the keynote address at the Spring Into Awareness Luncheon, sponsored by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society Long Island Chapter’s Women Against MS Committee, at Carlyle on the Green.

When her grandfather developed Parkinson’s disease, she became interested in helping with the effort to find the cause. She is working with the Thomas J. Hartman Foundation for Parkinson’s Research and is on the committee planning a 60th birthday celebration for Father Tom that will be part of the Foundation’s Cure for Sure dinner June 13th at the Huntington Townhouse.

“Father Tom has been a wonderful friend and mentor to me for the last ten years.” Recalls Puhn, “I met him when I was 16 through Project Understanding, a scholarship program run by the Roger Tilles Foundation to create interfaith understanding between Catholics and Jews.”

An activist while still in her teens, Puhn started a young adult ethnic coalition that led to her receiving the first young adult Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. junior recognition award. She was also the youngest board member of Women’s Space of Great Neck. She initiated a Character Matters Program at Great Neck North High School that brought community leaders together. Its annual awards program honors students not for academic or athletic achievements but, says Puhn, “purely for their community service through volunteer fire department work, starting a literacy program, work with the elderly, voter registration or environmental or other service area.

“Character Matters motivates and rewards students who show respect for others and underscores what I believe, that character is what matters most in life. We have a Character Hall of Fame showing all the names of the award winners. At present, we’re planning to bring the program into other schools as well.”

Puhn’s philosophy and her work have not gone unrecognized. She was the first young adult on the women’s Role of Honor of North Hempstead, an honor created by another mentor, former mayor May Newberger. County Executive Thomas Suozzi presented her with a citation in recognition of her efforts to create better communication and understanding among Long Islanders.

What’s new with Puhn? Recently, she appeared on Good Day, New York and is scheduled to be on ABC’s The View. She is working with a major television network and a production company developing her own television show. And, she is working on a second book but the subject is still under wraps.

Outstanding accomplishments aside, Puhn is still a typical twenty-something who loves to dance, likes hip-hop music, happy hours and having a glass of wine with friends at a sidewalk café in New York City. She enjoys spending time with her parents and sister, Jennifer, recreation director at a senior living center in Great Neck. Her father, Howard, a champion golfer, is retired and her mother, Ellen, a speech pathologist, works with her.

Puhn can be reached at www.lauriepuhn.com