If there’s one area everyone of us can improve in, it’s the area of communication. I’ve talked with dozens of communication experts over the years. And I’d put Chuck Wisner at the top of my list.
The book is a practical guide for thoughtfully reflecting on conversations so we can avoid the common pitfalls that cause our relationships and work to go sideways. Chuck identifies four universal types of conversations and offers specific advice on maximizing the effectiveness of each:
Storytelling—Investigate the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves and others
Collaborative—Explore the way our stories and other people’s stories interact
Creative—See new possibilities and discover unforeseen solutions
Commitment—Make promises we know we can keep
These conversations unfold sequentially: our awareness of our and others’ stories transforms our ability to listen and collaborate, which opens our thoughts to creative possibilities, guiding us toward mindful agreements.
Our conversations—at home, at work, or in public—can be sources of pleasure and stepping-stones toward success, or they can cause pain and lead to failure. Wisner shows how we can form a connection from the very first conversation and keep our discourse positive and productive throughout any endeavor.
Intrigued? Click the play button below to learn more about Chuck and his new book.
At the beginning of this year, in Episode 456, I highlighted the six books I’m most looking forward to in the first half of 2023. I hope to feature all six here on the podcast. The first was featured in late January (Attention Span by Dr. Gloria Mark).
I’m excited to share that the second book on that list is being featured today. It’s from Wharton Professor Jonah Berger and is called Magic Words: What to Say to Get Your Way.
In Magic Words, Jonah gives you an inside look at the new science of language and how you can use it. Technological advances in machine learning, computational linguistics, and natural language processing, combined with the digitization of everything from cover letters to conversations, have yielded unprecedented insights.
You’ll learn how salespeople convince clients, lawyers persuade juries, and storytellers captivate audiences; how teachers get kids to help and service representatives increase customer satisfaction; how startup founders secure funding, musicians make hits, and psychologists identified a Shakespearean manuscript without ever reading a play.
This book is designed for anyone who wants to increase their impact. It provides a powerful toolkit and actionable techniques that can lead to extraordinary results. Whether you’re trying to persuade a client, motivate a team, or get a whole organization to see things differently, this book will show you how to leverage the power of magic words.
Intrigued? Click the play button below to learn more about Jonah and his new book.
In 2021, when my book was released, I was invited shortly after to speak to a group at LinkedIn. LinkedIn staff were kicking off year two of their book club, and had chosen to do so with Read to Lead.
My invitation to join that group came from Dan Horowitz, LinkedIn’s senior director of LinkedIn ads. It was a great experience.
In The Power of Clarity, Ann Latham exposes the unrecognized confusion and explains how to eliminate it. This fascinating guide to workplace productivity and effectiveness draws upon extensive research and case studies to demonstrate how you can get better results in far less time while also increasing confidence and commitment.
Intrigued? Click the play button below to learn more about Ann and her book.
My guests today ask the question, “What if the greatest salespeople on the planet are the opposite of who you think they are?”
Everyone sells, every day. It’s why the most successful people are better than most at selling themselves, their ideas, or their products. Yet when people hear the word “sales” they think of an overly confident, articulate extrovert at best, or, worse, a pushy, know-it-all huckster.
In part, because of these misperceptions, when they find themselves in a situation where they need to sell, they feel compelled to put on the persona of a “good salesperson.” But there’s a disconnect between who we think good salespeople are and who they actually are.
In any room, they’re not the most self-confident, they’re the most self-aware. They’re not the most sociable, they’re the most socially aware. And they don’t succeed in spite of obstacles, they succeed because of obstacles.
The Unsold Mindset reveals a counterintuitive approach to not just selling, but life. This book is not about “building rapport,” “objection handling,” or “trial closes.” It’s a journey toward an entirely new mindset — because the greatest sellers on the planet aren’t successful because of what they do, they’re successful because of what they think.
Being a good person and a good salesperson aren’t mutually exclusive. The Unsold Mindset will change the way you think about selling and the way you think about yourself.
I hope you’ll click the play button below to learn more about Colin, Garret and their work. For a summary, just keep scrolling.
Let’s say you’re having trouble articulating your thoughts about a particular topic you want to write about, present about, or record a video about.
For those who’ve gone through Note-Making Mastery, you know that one of your first steps might involve looking through what’s already in your central hub or second brain.
Though the website currently touts “create video with our voice,” for now, it’s helping users like me articulate their ideas
Often times you go there to realize you’ve already written bits and pieces on the topic. You just need to connect, in a cohesive narrative, what you’ve already done the work to collect.
But what if there’s nothing there yet?
Maybe you’re in the beginning stages of gestating a new idea. You want to write it down but you know your fingers won’t be able to keep up with your brain.
You could record yourself on your phone, but then there’s the chore of getting it out of your phone later, not to mention being able to make sense of your ramblings.
Enter a new app (currently for iOS only and in beta) called OASIS.
OASIS records your voice, instantly transcribes what you said, AND instantly offers several use cases for coherently sharing those ideas. The interface is simple and looks like this.
Just tap “record” and start talking to capture those fleeting thoughts that so often get away from you
I used it to record about a minute’s worth of thoughts for the very email you’re reading right now. As soon as I tapped “Stop,” I had this on my screen (never mind that Read is spelled as REED):
I get an instant transcript of my recording
What I might do next, is copy and paste the transcript into ChatGPT and precede the transcript with a prompt that looks something like this (hat tip to Dan Shipper for the prompt):
This is a transcript from a writer talking about ideas they might turn into pieces of writing. Please summarize the ideas they had in bullet point form. Don’t include ideas that don’t make grammatical sense or might have been mistranscribed. If there is anything like that, include it in a separate section labeled: Scratch
In fact, I did just that. Here’s what ChatGPT gave me in response:
Ideas:
Explaining the OASIS app to members of the REED to lead community
Using a central hub or second brain to connect past writing about a topic into a cohesive narrative
Starting the writing process by recording thoughts on a phone to avoid finger fatigue
Scratch: None.
Admittedly, this output was not particularly useful in this one-minute sample, but imagine you’ve rambled for several minutes. The more ChatGPT (and OASIS) has to work with the better.
If your transcript is initially difficult to dissect, popping it into ChatGPT with a prompt similar to the one above could make a world of difference in helping you parse your thoughts and ideas, and give you places to go you hadn’t yet thought of.
Back to OASIS.
With just that one-minute ramble recorded into OASIS, I not only got an instant transcript but also suggestions for how I might share my ideas (again, probably more useful with more ramblings):
A sample LinkedIn post and text generated from my ramblings
I scroll up to see a suggestion for a LinkedIn post and a sample text message. If I want to “remix” these initial iterations, I can tap the remix button on the right (or favorite the result, share the result, or copy the result for pasting elsewhere).
As I continue to scroll up, I see that OASIS has also created a “Professional Email,” an “Explain Like I’m Five” message, a “Clarity” sample, a Twitter thread (though there’s not much more than a single sentence with hashtags,) an Outline, and a Blog Post.
All in just a few seconds!
Again, my example is a short one but, for context, here’s the Blog Post that came from my ramblings:
Blog post sample created by OASIS from my ramblings
Needless to say, if you’re the type of person who prefers thinking out loud over typing or writing down your ideas by hand, at least at the outset, I encourage you to check into OASIS (scroll down for details).
Have a great weekend,
Jeff
***
To add your name to the OASIS waitlist, just go here.
I added my email address just this morning and received a text almost immediately inviting me in. You’ll likely be expedited if you take their survey, as I did.
The app is currently in private beta.
This means that if you do get the go-ahead to jump in, you’ll need to download the Test Flight app from the Apple store first.
There are also occasional “at capacity” issues they’re working through.
