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[00:00:45] Jason S. Bradshaw: Our guest today has previously worked on the editorial staff of Penguin Random House, where he worked with New York Times bestselling authors. He has helped people just like you increase their impact, and he himself is a bestselling author. I am delighted to welcome to the show, Neil Gordon.

[00:01:04] Neil Gordon: Thank you so much for such a lovely introduction, Jason.

[00:01:11] Jason S. Bradshaw: Neil give us a little bit about your background. How did we get to this point in your career?

[00:01:38] Neil Gordon: None of that's true. And none of that came even close to happening. Because the truth is that while I had a rather high proficiency for reading as a small child, like in kindergarten or first grade, the more I went through school, basically the worst of a reader I became. And I went from being in the 99th percentile with reading to the 54th percentile by the time I was 13. And by the time I was 16, I took here in the States, we have the SATs, and I got a 330 verbal score, which put me in the 5th percentile of everyone who took the test that year. And all of this is to say that while my brain turned to mush, a couple of key books that a friend of mine had me read in college and right after college led to me having a pretty significant shift in how I saw the world, especially one book in particular, a novel called A Prayer For Owen Meany by John Irving. And that so shattered my worldview that I just started reading voraciously, trying to figure out what is it about the written word and language as a whole that could have such a profound impact on me. And several years of floating around trying to figure that out led to me... I'm glossing over a lot of course, but I wound up getting an editorial assistant job at Penguin. It was at the time Penguin, before it became Penguin Random House. And then got promoted and didn't climb very high up the ladder, but then just went out on my own and developed an expertise in persuasion and everything that I do with people today.

[00:03:34] Jason S. Bradshaw: Now I didn't give away the title of your book in the intro, but the book, The Most Powerful Sentence of All Time. Now, talk about a book title that grabs your attention. Can you tell us a little bit about the book?

[00:05:33] Jason S. Bradshaw: Now, if you are watching along at home or listening on your favorite podcasting app, you're probably starting to get a hint that this isn't a traditional business book or a self-help guide. You've written it in the style of a fable. What made you go down this path?

[00:07:37] Jason S. Bradshaw: Yeah. It's not, the 12 chapters in sequence with a tip in each chapter, so to speak. Although obviously there is key insights in each chapter, but it's not written as in the same sort of style.

[00:07:55] Neil Gordon: I did blitz those things at 2.7 x speed. Honestly, Jason, it's just like boom.

[00:08:10] Jason S. Bradshaw: I was thinking about, who this book is for? Who should read it and, the easiest way is to ask who do you think Neil should read your book?

[00:08:36] Neil Gordon: If you have an idea, a solution that is unconventional or a departure from what's typical, this is arguably the most important book that you could ever read, because what we see typically as a liability, an unconventional fringe way of doing something, can actually be one's greatest asset. It's just a matter of using that lack of conformity as a strength. That being said, that could include small business and founders who have innovated in some way, and they want to get their solution out into the marketplace. Nonprofit leaders who have a unique solution with their organization, and they're struggling to get people to buy into it. As well as educators. Educators could utilize the concepts in this book to persuade others. When we think of persuasion, we often think of sales and fundraising and all of that. But the truth is that an educator is attempting to persuade students to not only pay attention, but to assimilate the ideas and to somehow synthesize them for growth and forward movement. All of these things include sharing unconventional ideas, and when you do that has a profound effect. And frankly, corporate leaders who are struggling to get buy-in for an unconventional idea. I actually neglected to mention that, Jason, but that's also a very big part of who falls under that larger category.

[00:10:30] Jason S. Bradshaw: Facts are, I'm not suggesting you don't use facts, but there, you can have a very dry conversation and use facts and not get the outcome that you're looking for.

[00:10:38] Jason S. Bradshaw: That's what I love about the book and about your work is that it's about making the message heard and helping people understand the message as opposed to just hearing some facts.

[00:11:00] Neil Gordon: I would say that if we had to distill it down to just one, it winds up centering on the first of the concepts. There are clearly stated delineated concepts that are shared throughout the book, and the first one winds up being something that a lot of people might agree is true when they hear it, but because of how they show up, it's clear that they're not walking that particular talk. Let's put this in the context of a public speaker who is gonna have 45 minutes on stage to deliver a keynote address. What most people believe is that their job in that situation is to provide as much information as possible. But the more information they provide, the more value they provide. They're making the larger assumption that humans are machines or sponges just looking to absorb as much content as they can. But we're not robots. We're not machines. We are living organisms and we have feelings and we have distractions and frankly, rather shot nervous systems given our addiction to devices these days. With all of that said, the job of the speaker, the job of the person persuading others, no matter what in any context, isn't to provide information. It's to convince others that change is possible. Because that's what motivates, that's what empowers people. To go deeper, you could see a speaker, and then the next step might be to read a book or to go through a course or a workshop or to hire the speaker or any of those things, 'cause that's where the real substances, that's where the change happens, is through the work, through the implementation of tools. But before we get to that point, we need to first convince them that this is something they can do. And so the main concept, to circle back to your original question, Jason, is that people buy or they buy in when they believe change is possible. That's how you empower others. That's how you create momentum. You convince others that they can do the thing you want them to do.

[00:13:50] Neil Gordon: Imagine if somebody got up on stage, Jason and said, alright, if you wanna make seven figures in the next year, I'm going to give you 150 things that you need to do. Okay? Somebody sits there in the audience and they're like wait... I need to do 150 things in order to achieve this. Thanks. I'm good. I will live just fine on my far more modest income. Because who would wanna sit there and do 150 things? In reality, that's probably a conservative estimate of things that needs to be done to create a seven figure business. However, if you start off with overwhelming people with all of the stuff right out the gate, they're gonna leave that experience thinking, oh man, I have a lot to do if I want this. And I don't think I can.

[00:16:06] Neil Gordon: Okay, so the one is the message or the solution or the idea. That's the one part. And the other part is the context you create for that idea or for that solution. It's like a one two punch. You have the solution and then before you explicitly state it, you build up to it. Starting perhaps with a problem that audience is struggling with. The objections and the agitations. When we think of it like a copywriter- they have the classic problem, agitate, solved formula for a piece of copy. You start with the pain point, the thing that they're really struggling with, the thing that they can't stand in their life, and then you twist the knife, you agitate that pain even more. This is really hard because you feel this way and then people will reject you and et cetera, et cetera. But then you solve it in the third part. You do that. And so basically it follows that the problem in agitate are what the copywriters already know is that's creating context for the solution. And when you do that, you get people emotionally invested in solving the problem. You get people feeling like they've gotta get on with this. What a lot of speakers do and other people do, is that they go right into their solution. They go right into, here's what you gotta do, or they list learning objectives. Here are all the things we're gonna talk about today, whatever it is. But if you instead start with, you know how hard it is to make that first five figure month when you've been struggling as a poor freelancer for several years kind of thing, and then, and you think you have to just do more and more work, but then you burn yourself out and it really sucks because blah, blah, blah, blah. I am simplifying the content. I mean, there are other things I have my

[00:17:57] Neil Gordon: speaking clients do. But that is basically how you create context. You just get them invested in solving the problem and you show them how much it sucks 'cause that sets them up to wanna solve it, and then they open to your solution like a flower to the sun.

[00:18:41] Jason S. Bradshaw: But then the moment that we start hearing about the pain, or being reminded about the pain of that last experience, we suddenly realize hang on. I don't wanna live that problem again.

[00:19:01] Neil Gordon: The first one is that, as we talked about, is that people buy when they believe change is possible. Okay? This is about creating the conditions where your audience believes that they can do the thing that you want them to do.

[00:20:03] Neil Gordon: The next concept is that the less something needs to be interpreted, the more empowering it is. So what I teach people about this sentence is that it's a cause and effect sentence. It's one action that leads to one outcome. The key to solving this problem is blank. But when I teach this to people, they invariably try to pile on more outcomes and more actions. The key to solving this, is this, and this or when you do this, you're able to do this, and this and listing a bunch of stuff 'cause they think more is better. That leaves us needing to interpret, is one of these more important than the others? Is one of these easier to do than the others? Which one comes first? And so that interpretation unconsciously becomes noise. It becomes less empowering for people. They don't want to do it. It's just too muddy in their mind.

[00:21:37] Jason S. Bradshaw: Yeah. So just to remind you listening along at home, if you happen to phase out at any point during that because the firetruck went past or someone walked past your office, the four concepts of the silver bullet are people buy when they believe change is possible. Contrast creates clarity. The less an idea needs to be interpreted, the more empowering it is, and people are most likely to embrace a solution when it's provided within the context of a problem they care about solving.

[00:22:18] Jason S. Bradshaw: We'll provide links to that book and all of Neil's work in the description below. But Neil, if someone wants to work with you, how do they go about it? What sort of things do you help people with?

[00:23:17] Jason S. Bradshaw: Neil, I absolutely love your work. I write down to your URL now, talk about having clarity in your message. If you wanna check out Neil's work, neilcanhelp.com. You can't get any more simpler than having your URL as that very clear message. And the website itself is quite engaging as well. So you're a master at communication. And as your website says, you can help someone turn their message into a movement.

[00:23:57] Neil Gordon: I would say that they will benefit a great deal from taking maybe five minutes to write down what kind of pain, painful thoughts perhaps, their ideal customer or client is grappling with as soon as they wake up in the morning and trudge to the bathroom. As in they wake up and they rub their eyes and when they think about their day oh man, I can't believe I have to blah, blah, blah, or I am dreading blah, blah, blah. Take 5 minutes to write that down. It's what I call the trudge to the bathroom test. If you can capture what they're truly thinking and feeling in that dark moment of grogginess, then you have a way to market yourself and attract people to your work, that will really mean something to both you and them.

[00:25:00] Neil Gordon: Thank you so much, Jason. I appreciate it.

[00:25:10] Jason S. Bradshaw: And of course, if you're watching or listening, I should say, on your favorite podcast app, we'd appreciate a five star review.