Unlocking the Power of Emotional Selling and Brain Glue: A Deep Dive with Behavioral Specialist James I Bond

What if you could make your words stick in people's minds, influencing their decisions and their choices? This week, we're unlocking the power of emotional selling with James I. Bond, a behavioral management and business marketing specialist. James captures us with his journey from running a Montreal-based advertising agency to becoming a renowned figure in behavioral management. He breaks down the power of emotional selling using astonishing examples and reveals the secret behind "brain glue," a technique that enhances the chances of making a sale.

Let's dive into a captivating exploration of advertising techniques employed by pop culture figures such as Marilyn Monroe and Cindy Crawford. James unpacks the art of capturing attention and making an impact, exploring the relevance of asymmetry, repetition of sound, and symmetry in advertising. He also introduces us to chiasmus, a powerful "brain glue" tool that has been harnessed by influential figures like Malcolm X and Zig Ziglar to make their words stick.

Turning to the realm of marketing, the episode delves into the usage of analogies and metaphors in selling products. James shares the story of the "lawn mower" metaphor for an electric razor, sparking a fascinating discussion on the significance of creative product naming. As we wrap up, we glance at some early "brain glue" tools and how they've contributed to business success. This episode is a must-listen for anyone looking to understand the power of emotional selling and the impact of brain glue on marketing and leadership success.

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Chapters

• 0:02 Catalytic Leadership Podcast
• 9:53 Emotional Triggers in Selling
• 16:22 The Power of Advertising Techniques
• 25:07 The Power of Brain Glue Tools
• 34:24 Power of Brain Glue and Selling
• 39:31 Brain Glue in Marketing's Power

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Welcome to Catalytic Leadership, the podcast designed to help leaders intentionally grow and thrive. Here is your host author and leadership and executive coach, dr William Attaway.

Speaker 2: 0:16

Hey, it's William and welcome to today's episode of the Catalytic Leadership podcast. Each week, we tackle a topic related to the field of leadership. My goal is to ensure that you have actionable steps you can take from each episode to grow in your own leadership. Growth doesn't just happen. My goal is to help you become intentional about it. Each week, we spotlight leaders from a variety of fields, organizations and locations. My goal is for you to see that leaders can be catalytic, no matter where they are or what they lead. I draw inspiration from the stories and journeys of these leaders and I hear from many of you that you do too. Let's jump into today's interview. I'm so excited today to have James I Bond on the podcast.

Speaker 2: 1:04

James is one of America's leading behavioral management and business marketing specialists. He's the author of the multi-award-winning book Rain Glue how to sell easier by making your ideas sticky. For 13 years he ran one of Southern California's leading behavioral management firms, working with a who's who of American business. Early in his career, he ran an advertising agency in Montreal, working with a wide range of Fortune 500 and smaller firms. He's a past workshop chairman and sold out workshop leader for the resource partner of the US Small Business Administration, has been a featured guest speaker at three Southern California universities and has been a popular guest on a wide range of marketing and business podcasts. Today he is with us, james. I'm so glad you're here. Thanks for being on the show, william. Thank you for having me. Thank you, I would love for you to share some of your story, james, with our listeners, particularly around your journey and your development as a leader.

Speaker 3: 2:07

How did you get started? There are lots of different pieces of this one. I'm the oldest of four kids, boy, girl, boy boy. My middle brother was a fabulous salesman and I was a good technical person. We actually built an advertising agency in Montreal and family and business doesn't always mix. I love my brother John dearly, dearly, but I've learned a lot from him, but not in business, let's go there. It really made me mad that he could sell me better than I could sell me. I remember we won major clients in Montreal.

Speaker 3: 2:51

I moved to Southern California about 37 years ago. We actually named our middle daughter. We gave her the initials LA, lauren, asia, haa, nice. So go, how long have you been in Southern California? How old is Lauren again? Okay, we'll do that.

Speaker 3: 3:09

I remember we had an opportunity when Avon Cosmetics of Canada a big project for them. We're sitting with the buyer from Avon and he looks at my brother John and me and he says John, it's between you and his other company. We'd rather work with you guys, frankly, but you're more expensive than the other guys. My brother John, with his brilliance of marketing, understood this and said why do you think the other guy's so cheap? There's a long pause, me not understanding everything at that point. This was quite a while ago. There's a long pause and I suddenly realize, wait a second. The guy says I get your point, let me write up a purchase order. I'm thinking like what? We didn't have to lower our price. He's actually working with us because our price is higher. Wow, it started me understanding emotional selling.

Speaker 3: 4:08

Something happened that was more profound than I thought. I started becoming fascinated with the concept of emotional selling. I was in school. I did mechanical engineering at school, but I loved psychology. I became passionate about psychology and art. That's how I got into advertising. Actually, I was fascinated by it, but I'm a logical person. We had the opportunity. We won major clients craft foods, timex watches, avon cosmetics, avid laboratories, seagrams or World Headquarters is there? It's funny because I'm not a drinker so of course, we won Seagrams.

Speaker 3: 4:43

Like I say, we had an opportunity to win the anti-drug campaign in America with powerful logical reasons why you should not do drugs. Then we lost. It blew my mind what we lost to. We lost to a commercial with a guy holding an egg saying this is your brain. They're cracking a shell and dropping the eggs into a sizzling frying pan with exaggerated sizzling sound. This is your brain on drugs, any questions?

Speaker 3: 5:12

When I saw that ad, two things happened. First is it blew my mind. This was infinitely more powerful than the ads that we created. Our ads were strong, logical reasons why you shouldn't do drugs. But this was emotional, not logical. There was no logic. I guess it fries your brain. Your brain gets fried.

Speaker 3: 5:28

I remember that ad. It's powerful. Oh it was incredible. I knew it was incredible. I knew it was like we deserve not to win because we don't understand emotional selling. It terrified me because I don't understand how to do emotional selling like that. I know logic, I can throw logic all day at you, but emotion, it fascinated me.

Speaker 3: 5:50

I wrote your brain on drugs on a three by five card. Next to my computer I put a box I called it the passion box. Every time I saw an ad or heard something that was emotionally powerful, including a quote somebody might say I had. President John F Kennedy said ask not what your country could do for you, ask what you can do for your country Interesting. So I wrote that on a three by five card, I put it in my passion box and I would start putting things in the passion box. My wife hated going to doctor's offices with me because in a doctor's office you get a magazine you don't normally see. I'm Vogue Magazine, I don't subscribe to Vogue and I'm going through Vogue Magazine. I go wow. And she goes do not tear it out of the magazine. I said no, no, this has to go in the passion. Look at this, it has to go in the passion box.

Speaker 3: 6:36

And she was like she sat far away. I do not know that guy and after more than 10 years of putting incredible quotes and ads inside the passion box, it's almost overflowing. We'd moved to Southern California. I met John Gray and John Gray was telling me he's an author and he was telling me about this incredible book he wrote, which I have a copy of, actually called Men, Women and Relationships. But he was frustrated because it only sold a few thousand copies, ultimately 20,000 copies. But he knew this was fantastic. Everyone who read the book thought it was the best relationship book they've ever seen. And yet he couldn't get tons of people buying the book. So he got this crazy idea what if I change the title to Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus and then tweak the content just slightly so it's consistent with such a refer? Some there from ours I wonder if I've been a throughout the book, but it's the same book. What do you think happened? Almost overnight, half a million people bought his book, you know from twenty thousand half a million.

Speaker 3: 7:43

Okay to a million to two million to five million. I know I know Steve Harrison, steve Harrison, I helped him with marketing and I in my book I say he sold over ten. He sold over ten million copies. And Steve said no. And I'm like, oh no, did I mess up? He said no, no, we're over 50 million copies already sold. So he went from 20,000 to 50 million copies just because he changed the title of the book. Yeah, I mean like I thought my brain was gonna explode now. So as I'm writing, men are from Mars on a three by five card. I suddenly realized it's a metaphor because men aren't really from a different planet. I don't know, some people probably think we are, but then I can understand why, but anyway.

Speaker 3: 8:23

But no, but we're not really. It's a metaphor. And so when I got home I'm wondering is metaphors the secret to emotional selling? I mean, certainly is with the brain, your brain on drugs with an egg? I mean, it's not an egg, it's not your brain is an egg, but it's a metaphor. It's like it that, a metaphor or simile. So when I got home I dumped the passion box on my bed and I quickly discovered 14 brain triggers. That metaphors is one of 14 brain triggers. And and it blew my mind. I suddenly realized you know, we said we're, we Invent products or find something that we love for emotional reasons. I, I said Ziggler changed my life.

Speaker 3: 9:05

I was at a conference early on. I mean he's passed away now, but I was a. I went to one of his conferences early on with my wife and he said something. It's just so powerful. He said Selling is a selling. You do. You don't have to teach somebody how to sell. Everybody knows how to sell.

Speaker 3: 9:22

We and selling, and if you think of it this way, selling as a transference of passion, if you're passionate about something, if you saw a movie that you love, I don't have to teach you how to sell that movie. You're gonna go. Oh man, I just saw this movie, it was so. I saw the Martian. I love the Martian, or a hidden figures. You know, I was the black women who were in the NASA and they got building named after one of them and it's just amazing and they're fabulous movies. You don't have to tell me how to sell that. It's like oh man, this is such a good movie, blah, blah, blah and everything else. It's transference of passion.

Speaker 3: 9:53

And yet we're trained From school to be logical, be very logical. If they have debate classes, you know, it's like be. What's a logical reason why you should not do this? And yet it's overcoming the biggest problem. And the problem is more than there are two major studies from Daniel, from Daniel, from Daniel Connament, two majors guys. One guys a Harvard Professor and the other one is a Nobel Prize winning psychologist and they showed how more than 90% of buying decisions are emotionally triggered. Logic could be a part, but it's a motion.

Speaker 3: 10:28

You know, they say in marketing we always say no, like trust, you know, make sure, you know, make sure a person knows life, you and trust. You don't always have that Opportunity, but I mean, if you had somebody who's trying to sell you something you didn't like, the person You're not gonna buy from them. Usually, like you know, I'll struggle instead of buying from you because I can't stand you, you're an idiot or whatever. Okay, so you want to have that, but often, particularly with advertising and marketing, we don't have that luxury, I mean, unless you're a famous person. Okay, but you gotta get famous. Yeah, I didn't get there, and so that's why bringing glue becomes so powerful.

Speaker 3: 11:00

It was, you know. So I remember this term. Jack and Joe went up the Hill. Okay, how many people know? Remember that one? Okay, and even if you don't, you kind of know it's gonna come. Okay, it's because Rime sticks to the brain. I mean, I the last time I heard that was maybe 10, 20, maybe 50 years ago. I'm pretty old, but the point is it sticks to the brain. I could be on my desk bed is a James, james, jack and Joe went up the hill. The bill of water, you know, on my desk bed. I'd remember it because it sticks to the brain. And so what I remembered was I, you know. What I realized was there are certain things that stick to the brain and when you understand what they are, it makes it easier to sell your product or idea because it's the it's. The emotion centers of the brain are connected to Decision-making.

Speaker 3: 11:58

Yeah and so you know, we think logically, but I'll go back to this. Is your brain on drugs? I mean, I realized or men are from Mars, were from Venus, how did I buy? Men are from Mars, we're from Venus. I was at a bookstore. I mean, today it's online like Amazon or whatever, but I was at a bookstore. I'm looking at a book, book, book. Okay, men are from Mars, we're Venus. Okay, what men are from Mars? Women from Venus, with the heck's that, and I picked it up. By the way, if somebody picks up your product, there's a better chance they're gonna buy your product. That's from Amazon or online. If somebody clicks on it to read it, there's a better chance you go. But so you want to get their attention? Yeah, okay.

Speaker 1: 14:03

I picked up, I started looking oh wow, this is great and then I got bought the book, okay.

Speaker 3: 14:08

So I'll give you an example of how this applies With a stay-at-home mom. There's a stay-at-home mom who created a Facebook page she had. She didn't spend any money at all. I mean, think of how many people spend a fortune on social media marketing, right? This stay-at-home mom spent zero on marketing and has more than five million fans. So how does she have more than five million fans? So she created a Facebook page and she said, okay, so you know, I'm a mommy, so let's see what does mommy need? Mommy needs time to herself. Mommy needs a rest. I know what mommy needs mommy needs vodka. So how did? How does she get five million fans? I like, I'm one of her fans. I must know somebody who's one of her fans and somehow I saw one of her posts okay, as they shared it. So I'm looking at post. Oh yeah, this is pretty good or pretty funny. And I said who's it? It's by mommy needs five, because you always see, you know, if you see something you like, you often see who it's from. Mommy needs vodka.

Speaker 1: 15:13

What did I do?

Speaker 3: 15:14

like the book in the bookstore Whoa, what's that? Okay, I clicked on it to see her and it took me to her page and I saw the post on our page. I loved her post. I said I got to be a fan, I became a fan and that's how she got five million people. Because, you know, she started. You know, people started sharing some of the post. She has you probably had real friends anyway, but she starts sharing the posts and then people started looking at, like I did.

Speaker 3: 15:36

You know, okay, it's a cool post from mommy needs vodka, but it wakes up your brain and when it wakes up your brain, suddenly you have a better chance. You have a better chance, if it wakes up their brain, of getting them to buy from you. Okay, man, it's. I have this. I have this metaphor which is one of brain glue tools. I want to give you a whole bunch of examples of brain glue as we go through this, but let me give you this example first. Okay, why brain glue works. So when you get out of your home, you're driving. You're going somewhere, maybe to work or to use some place. Okay, you're driving past all these buildings, you know, maybe homes Down the street or apartments wherever you live, you know every day.

Speaker 1: 16:13

You're not gonna go.

Speaker 3: 16:14

Oh, look at that one. Oh, look at that one, I'm looking you know, you know you ignore them.

Speaker 3: 16:18

You're driven past them so many times. We just drive down the street and you're not even looking. One day You're driving down the street and in one of your neighbors, out of his window or out of their window, is flames. Are you gonna stop? What's that? Are they? Are there hosts on fire? Do they know? Is our house gonna burn down? You know it's a trigger, there's a brain trigger, and so what you want is, in advertising, advertising, it's the same thing as you look at ad, ad, ad, ad, ad, ad, okay, ho ho, ad, ad, ad, ad, okay. And then what you want is you want yours to have flames coming out of it. You want to add it. Well, what's that? Oh, uh, david Ogilvy was in the early days of the advertising business. Okay, so there's something called asymmetry. You know there's symmetry, which is there's something in Brinkel called reintegration, which is the mind's need for completion. Okay, and it's like, if you.

Speaker 3: 17:13

I'll give you a great example of well, my wife likes symmetry. Okay, there's some guys that you'll see on TV and you got like a lazy eye and it drives her crazy. She covers half their face and they look like one person. You cover the other half, you look like a totally different type of person. You'd have a lazy eye and it drives my wife nuts more than me. But she loves symmetry. So symmetry is very important, but asymmetry is also important where something is off balance. Okay, like some guy who has a lazy eye grabs your attention.

Speaker 3: 17:40

Okay, so David Ogilvy is he's. You know, he was one in early days of the advertising industry. He was, like, really famous and he was doing ads for Hathaway shirts. So you know people. If you know Warren Buffett, his company is called Berkshire Hathaway because he bought Hathaway shirts, because they were so rich. Okay, and cause he liked the shirts. I guess so.

Speaker 3: 18:05

But so you're running an ad, a full page ad, in a magazine for a shirt company. So what would you have? You have a good looking guy in a shirt, nice pair of pants, you know, shoes probably, and a nice background. Okay, so we flip page, page, page, page page. And David Ogilvy recognized that. So what did he do? He put an eye patch on the guy, like he's a pirate. Okay, an eye patch on the guy. And then the headline was the man in a Hathaway shirt. He never explained why the guy had an eye patch on. So what's happening? You're going flip page page. What's this guy with an eye patch on? What the heck is that all about? Man in a Hathaway shirt, huh. And so what did he do? He grabbed your attention with the eye patch and then he wrote the words a man in a Hathaway shirt. So now you understand. The eye Hathaway sticks to your brain. Okay, good, and it's really powerful. So a lot of people don't know this.

Speaker 3: 18:55

How did Marilyn Monroe become famous? Okay, here we go. So her name was Norma Jean, I think Mortensen, and so she was you know. So her manager said Norma Jean isn't that good a name. If you want to be successful, you should change your name. Marilyn is a good name. So she went okay. And then her I think it was her stepfather named Monroe. So she went Marilyn Monroe.

Speaker 3: 19:17

Well, marilyn Monroe uses a literation, a repetition of sound. That's the start with okay, mwah, mwah. And so, in business, I started realizing how many blockbuster products use a literation, repetition of sound Rocky Road, ice cream and I'll talk about Rocky Road in a second but that's a powerful one. Okay, because Rocky Road uses a lot of tools, but Coca-Cola, paypal, best Buy, tiktok, lulu women is a lot of women remind me of. Okay, you know, they use a literation which is a repetition of sound and that sticks to the brain. It's one of the things that sticks to the brain. So so Marilyn changed her name to so a Norman Jean-Changer named the Marilyn Monroe.

Speaker 3: 19:58

Her then her idol, back then an early movie star, was Jean Harlow, and Jean Harlow has platinum blonde hair. So Marilyn went to the same hairdresser that does Jean Harlow's hair and had her hair colored the same color, platinum blonde. So now Marilyn is now Jean Harlow, is Marilyn Monroe with platinum blonde hair, and she looks really good. She's got a beauty mark on her cheek, so she covers it up with makeup. But one day she's looking at photographs of Jean Harlow and she notices on some photographs Jean Harlow has a beauty mark on her cheek and on some photographs it's on her chin. And then she goes wait a second, I bet she doesn't even have a beauty mark. I bet she's just putting a dot on her face to bring attention to herself. So Marilyn decides instead of covering my beauty mark, I think I'm gonna darken it, so it jumps.

Speaker 3: 20:49

So people, when people look at me, they see it and she believe that that had a lot to do with her becoming famous. I mean she's good looking and all that stuff. But you know. So there are famous people. There are a lot of famous people who used that concept, as the advertiser did. Okay, with the guy with the eye patch. Cindy Crawford is a good example. Cindy Crawford is a super model and when she was young in her biography she talks about this when she was young, she had a big beauty mark or birthmark above her left lip and it drove her nuts and she begged her mom, can you take me to the doctor and have this removed? And right now she says I am so glad my mom didn't, because I believe my beauty mark is a huge reason why I became a super model and she is a massive super model and so like these are like tools. When I started understanding these tools, it blew my mind because I realized how many emotional triggers are used by top using brain glue by people who are massively famous by products that are massively famous, et cetera, often with spending almost no money on advertising. Okay, so let me give you a whole bunch of examples of things that, like, really blew my mind. To relate to brain glue okay, yeah, I created this list, so I'm so excited about it.

Speaker 3: 22:10

Stranger danger they tell this to young kids now. So you know, and it sticks to the brain because you wanna be careful of stranger danger. Okay, you know online. What are you afraid of? Stranger danger, so that works for kids. Okay, give a hoot, don't pollute. It was really powerful. Okay, why don't they just say stop, you know polluting. Stop throwing garbage in the street, okay, but no, give a hoot, don't pollute. It's powerful. How about this one? The whiter your bread, the quicker you're dead. Ha Ha Okay.

Speaker 2: 22:41

I've never heard that one.

Speaker 3: 22:43

So Wonder Bread invented sliced bread. Yeah, so when people say, well, that's the smartest thing and that's the greatest thing since sliced bread, they don't realize they're actually referring to Wonder Bread. And Wonder Bread would bleach it, so it would be like bleach white. But back in the early days of you know bread, when they introduced Wonder Bread, for 10 years they dominated the bread market because they had sliced bread. Okay, and because of that I kinda hooked people onto it and it was unique because it's white bread. But their competitors there was a. Well, we have COVID. They had a Pellegra, an illness that comes from lack of vitamin B3, which is required for our body, and people would actually die from it, just like they're dying from COVID. They died from COVID. Well, not that many anyway, I don't wanna get into COVID story, but so they recognized it because Wonder Bread bleaches this bread. It kills lots of the nutrients inside the natural bread. And so the competitors said they would talk to journalists and they would say so you have to understand, the whiter your bread, the quicker you're dead. And the journalists would go like what? And they would fall in love with that headline and they would explain it because there's a lack of vitamin B3. And because of that they're helping everybody get sick and dying. And so journalists took that quote because it stuck to their brain and they started putting full page headlines the whiter your bread, the quicker you're dead.

Speaker 3: 24:09

Breads like Wonder Bread. They bleached their bread, killing us. Now Wonder Bread went from dominating the bread industry to almost bankrupt. What they did was they invented fortified food. Now they put the niacin, which has lots of B3, and then other vitamins and minerals inside the food. So they invented the idea of putting of enriching food products. If they didn't do that they would have gone bankrupt. Because a competitor came up with the phrase the whiter your bread, the quicker you're dead, and that resonated with everybody. It sticks everybody's brain.

Speaker 3: 24:40

President John F Kennedy says ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. That's something called chiasmus. I'll tell you how chiasmus works. So chiasmus is a flip where rhyme is A-B-A-B. Chiasmus is A-B-B-A, a flip. And I'll explain how that works. Winners never quit and quitters never win. When the going gets tough, the tough gets going, you get going. My wife hates this song. It's when you, if you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with Right. He says turn that off. I see it's that song. I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy. See the flip. I have this one. I'm older so I can relate to this one. I'd rather wake up and pee than pee and wake up.

Speaker 3: 25:30

Always true, always true, I believe it's gonna relate to that one, but that's chiasmus, and chiasmus is really powerful. So famous people like Malcolm X, the civil rights activist, love chiasmus, okay, and so he used. He said we didn't. He's a black guy who's trying to tell people you know, if you want to say you have no idea how hard it is being a black person in America, now go in one ear and out the other. Not that people don't care about it, but because we've heard it so many times. Well, what he said was we didn't land on Plymouth Rock. The rock landed on us Interesting, okay, and it just resonates in a totally different way. He has another line which is great and a lot of people don't realize it came from him. He said when you stand for nothing, you'll fall for anything. The power of chiasmus, the power of brain glue tools, these are tools that are wired into us and when you understand the tools and how powerful they are. So how powerful could this tool be? Could it get a guy off from an almost certain guilty verdict in a murder trial? They're gonna throw this guy in jail forever because he killed his wife and their wife's girlfriend, a boyfriend right? No, if the glove don't fit, you must have quit. Okay, what? What? If the glove don't fit, you must have quit.

Speaker 3: 26:47

There were OJ Simpson's trial. I remember after the trial there were two of the jurors who were being interviewed and one of them was answering the questions while the other one was nodding her head in agreement. And the journalist said with all that evidence against OJ and there was a ton of evidence against him with all that evidence against OJ, why did you find him not guilty? And with confidence, she said we knew if the glove don't fit, you must acquit. The glove didn't fit, so we had to acquit. You know, they found a glove that they believe was a murderer's glove and so it's like it's stuck to their brain. And so I can see them in the jury room every time they say, well, look at this piece of evidence, look at this yeah, yeah, but the glove don't fit, you must acquit. Yeah, yeah, but how about this piece of evidence? Yeah, but the glove don't fit, you must. The glove don't fit, you must acquit Because it sticks to the brain, where all this evidence doesn't stick to the brain as much as something that uses a brain glue tool. Famous people use it like a zig-ziggler. You need to get a checkup from the neck up to avoid stinking thinking. That gives you hardening of the attitudes you know he uses lots of. He loved brain glue type tools. He didn't call him brain glue back then, but he loved brain glue type tools and it helped him become famous.

Speaker 3: 28:01

I have this great one from Warren Buffett. I work with Warren Buffett's team. They brought me in because I'm one of America's leading behavioral management specialists. It was lots of fun. But Warren Buffett has this great line Only when the tide goes out do you realize who's been swimming naked?

Speaker 2: 28:15

Great quote.

Speaker 3: 28:17

Oh, what a I mean. Now, what's he basically saying Is only when times get tough do you realize who's really capable? Okay, yes, yeah. But if you say that, okay, it goes in one and out the other, because you've heard it or you can relate to it. Okay, it's logic, but emotion. Only when the tide goes out do you realize who's been swimming naked? You got a visual on that one, but it's really. It's just. It triggers parts of the brain. It does two things. It triggers parts of the brain so it becomes memorable, so it sticks to the brain. But it also triggers the parts of the brain that have to do with the emotion, parts of the brain where decisions happen.

Speaker 3: 28:53

And so when you so how do you like to invent a product and your biggest competitor steals the idea from you and makes so much money that you have to stop selling the product because nobody's buying yours, everybody's buying his. Ooh, that'd be horrible. Yeah, welcome to Pop Tarts. Okay, so post cereal is competitor to kellobs. And so the head of post cereals decided to come up with this little cake that has real jelly inside it for strawberries and raspberry and blueberry and stuff like that, and you put it in a toaster, cook it a little bit in a toaster and then pop it up. And okay, and he was so proud of himself that two months before he launched the product he bragged about, we have this new product coming out. What's it called? Country squares. You put it in your toaster and, da-da-da.

Speaker 3: 29:43

So the head of kellobs, who had sent what you put it in a toaster, and come up, oh, fantastic, you got all the people working for him. You have to invent, figure out how to do this. Right now. You got to figure out how to do this. They figured out how to do this and he said well, what are we going to call it? Well, back then Andy Warhol was famous and he was a pop artist and so everybody knew the term pop art. Also, if it pops out of the toaster, pop, it pops out of the toaster. So you got the sound that goes on it also, which is another brain group tool, pop. Okay.

Speaker 3: 30:11

So he went we have to call it pop tarts. He called it pop tarts and it's, and he launched it a week before post-launch country squares. Okay, cause, post figured, nobody's gonna be competing with us. We have this great product. Huh, pop tarts. It sold out immediately. They couldn't believe how much inventory. They ran out of all their products. And so what he did was the head of Kellogg's ran full page ads and major newspapers saying we apologize, we ran out of pop tarts because you got so many people loving so much, but hold on, in less than a week we're gonna have more pop tarts on the shelf. Okay for you to get. And instead of people buying country squares, they waited for pop tarts to become available and they bought pop tarts and eventually, post-stop selling country squares because they couldn't make a dime off the product they invented.

Speaker 3: 31:05

Okay, I mean it, just just. And when you understand the power of this? That's why, if you don't understand Briegel, if you don't understand the power of this, then guess what happens. Your biggest competitor can steal your idea and make a fortune from it. There's, you go to Home Depot and JB Weld is considered the most powerful adhesive glue. It sticks plastic to metal, to wood and all that stuff, and all these things stick together with JB Weld. But who beats them? Gorilla glue, gorilla glue. It's like gorilla glue. Oh, wow, you know.

Speaker 3: 31:41

I mean, odwala was juice that was owned by Coca-Cola, and so these guys came up with the juice to compete with them and they called it naked juice. Okay, so they were embarrassed, so they came up with naked, with small on the label, and so they were not selling. They were selling a bit, but not a lot. And then so one of the they had a graphic designer working with them that said we need to redesign the package and make the word naked big. And they said, okay, fine, we'll do that. They, when they introduced a new label of naked juice, it exploded past Odwala and became the major juice brand in America, all because of the word naked.

Speaker 3: 32:19

Again, I'll go back to the mommy who created a Facebook page and has five million fans and spent zero. How about? You know? These guys understood and you have to understand it. You don't have to spend a lot of money and suddenly it gives you a, it makes a trigger go off into buyer's brain where they go, because you're driving down the street and you're going. Oh okay, flames, huh, what you want? Flames coming out of your product. Somehow that will really get your attention.

Speaker 3: 32:44

Let me give you another example. So I'll give you two examples. So this mom and her son, who have no business experience whatsoever they live in Utah, so the mom is sitting on a toilet, which is a great place to come up with product ideas. Okay, she's sitting on the toilet and she realizes you really have to raise your feet about six inches off, because sitting on a toilet it's bad for how your body is structured and if you can raise your feet a little bit it's better for your body when you're going to the bathroom. I don't want to get too much into that, but you know. But, and so she raised this and she created this little idea of a toilet stool.

Speaker 3: 33:24

And so first they were thinking should we call it toilet stool? I don't think that's really a good name for a product. My wife says they should call it the stool stool. I don't think that works. Funny, I got it, but I don't think that works. But so she said so. She said, well, so toilet, what's another word for toilet? And she was like going through a synonyms and she said, oh, potty. Okay, and then we'll kind of how are we sitting here? We're squatting. Why don't we call it the squatty potty? Within two years, in less than two years, they had a hundred million dollars of sales. These are people who had no business experience. A hundred million dollars of sales. In fact, they got a shark tank and the investors in a shark tank, they were standing in line to invest in them. Why? Because squatty, potty, whoa, wow, oh, that's interesting. Oh, I get it. That's a neat idea. It sticks to the brain. It helps people understand what the product is, but it sticks to the brain and so that became massively successful.

Speaker 3: 34:24

So this guy so I don't know why I'm getting into the toilet and stuff, but anyway this guy created an electric razor for man's private areas. I don't want to get too much into that, but okay and he's thinking of things and he came up with an analogy or metaphor which is a really powerful brain glue tool. And he said France, you know, they must have been sitting, he must have been sitting with friends. And he came up with this idea and he said it's like a lawn mower. Hey, what happens if I named the product the lawn mower and I named my company, manscaped for landscaping, a man with a lawn mower? He started laughing all his way to the bank.

Speaker 1: 34:59

Okay, he started to go to the bank.

Speaker 3: 35:01

It became massively successful. I think they sold like over a hundred million dollars worth of out of his electric razors. Okay, and he had a major company like Braun came to him and said they wanted to buy out the company and he said, no, I can. You're offering me more money, you're not offering me enough money. I mean he's like laughing because he's making so much money. So I mean I don't own a lawn mower, but if I did, I wouldn't share it with friends. So let's start there, okay, but I'd share this with my friends. I said, hey, guess what I just got? What a lawn mower, a lawn mower. Why You're lawnmowing? No, no, no, it's for shaving pants, private areas, the lawn mower. They started laughing and they shared it with their friends. Hey, guess what?

Speaker 3: 35:43

James just bought A lawn mower you know, but I mean, it's word of mouth explodes, okay, it spreads like crazy. And that's what you want. Is you want to create a name for your product or your idea? Just like going back to stranger danger. Give a who don't complete.

Speaker 3: 35:59

I have this mom that said but you want to come up with a name that resonates with the brain. I have this mom that says she's trying to get her kids to bed and she used the brain glue tool. She said I would read them a story and I'd say mommy, read me another story, could read us another story. She has twins and then an old, a little older kid Okay, read me another story. And she said it truncated me, nuts. I wanted to tell them no, I can't read you any more stories, you have to go to bed. So she said we came up with this little phrase when the story's read, we go to bed. And she has a kid say, okay, when the story's read what? We go to bed, mommy. Okay, good. So she'd read a story and I'd say, mommy, another story. When the story's read, okay, we go to bed, mommy. And they go to bed. She said it works. It's amazing. It works, you know, because Brain Glue it has to.

Speaker 3: 36:48

Brain Glue is about selling our ideas. No, I mean, obviously, a lot of our ideas are products. Okay, so it's about selling products. If you sell a product and you don't know Brain Glue, you have a massive disadvantage. I work with Jack Canfield, who wrote Chicken Soup for the Soul, chicken Soup for the Soul. He sold 500 million Chicken Soup for the Soul. He sold 100 million Chicken Soup for the Soul books and 400 million of the other books in the series Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul, chicken Soup for the Cancer Survivor Soul. 500 million books, I mean at more than two bucks a book. He's made over a billion dollars selling books. He doesn't need me telling him anything he fell in love with. So I'm gonna tell you an error I made.

Speaker 3: 37:27

Okay, he fell in love with my book. He got pissed off at me. He said you know I have so many books to read. I started reading a book and I couldn't put the dancing down. I said I'm sorry, I'm gonna use that as a quote. You know he said on one condition. So here's the condition.

Speaker 3: 37:43

My book used to be called Sell More. With a Right Brain Marketing Strategy, that's logical. That's not. That's not emotional Cause I'm a logical guy this is for. If you're logical out there, you need this book, cause it shows you how to take your logic and make create emotional selling from it.

Speaker 3: 38:00

But so he said the whole book is about Brain Glue. You need to call it Brain Glue. And I'm like, you know, with Amazon. You know if you get like 80, 90, 100 reviews of people reviewing the book, then they help promote the book more. And so I think it was an 80 reviews or something. And he said no, you gotta change the name of the book. I'll give you all the quotes you want. We love this book.

Speaker 3: 38:19

He's forcing everybody he bought copies for everybody in this company and he's forcing them to read it and apply it because it's easy to apply it. So my book is really easy to apply the tools. But he kept saying like you can't, you know you're torturing us by making us go right brain emotional selling and you're left brain titled. No, you don't get to do that. Okay, sir, yes, sir, you know I mean a guy sold over a billion dollars for the books. I can't say no to him and he was right, but I mean.

Speaker 3: 38:49

But it's just, we tend to fall back on logic and that's why a lot of people say well, how do I apply Brain Glue? You know if I'm a logical person and the first thing is you have to get the logic out of your system. So come up with if you're trying to come up with a name for a product or a way to describe it, come up with a shopping list of logical ways how you want to describe it, like the toilet stool Okay, so the toilet stool is fine. Once you do that and get that out of your system. So now you're comfortable because you've written down or captured. Whiteboards are really good, but you know you can use a mirror, by the way, and whiteboard pens that you can raise them off. Mirrors it's really great. Or windows, but get that out of your system and then start applying the Brain Glue tools and it becomes fun and I've got so.

Speaker 3: 39:31

An early tool I had for Brain Glue was switch your pitch if you want to get rich, okay. And then another one that was Brain Glue teaches you how to light the fire of desire in your buyer. So if you want to light the fire of desire in your buyer, brain Glue can help. I went to chat GPT and I said I started showing you some examples of what Brain Glue is and trying to get one. Of course it has a hundred stupid, the stupidest things you can think of, but I have one good one. I thought why Brain Glue? Because playing glue doesn't stick to the brain. I was like, oh cool, ah, okay, yeah. But it's just this whole idea of you know, when you apply Brain Glue, it changes your life.

Speaker 3: 40:10

I mean, you know Jack Canfield. I mean, he's a guy who sold over a billion dollars worth of books, but he's written lots of other books. He wrote Success Principles, which is fabulous book, by the way. Most of his books are really amazing. But he said if I have read your book earlier, I would have changed the title of many of my books because it helps me understand how to create a title that resonates more with the brain. You know, he said it helped him because he's Jack Canfield and he became famous and all that stuff. So when you're famous, you can do almost anything.

Speaker 3: 40:39

So let me give you an example of something that's like a mistake that we make often. Okay. So a lot of people think, because here's the mistake we make. We see an ad from a rich company or rich people and we think, wow, that's a fantastic ad. I gotta figure out how to create ads like that when often it's famous because they repeat it over and over and over again or because it uses a tool that doesn't really help you. So remember the Got Milk ads yeah, and Milk Mustache, yeah. Here's an article in Business Week from about 10 years ago that's called Got Milked. After $385 million, sales still continue to decline. Why? Because the Got Milk campaign.

Speaker 3: 41:25

I'm old enough to remember like my grandparents had it, but that milk used to be delivered to your doorstep. Everybody drank milk. And why? Because it has calcium and they would say it's strong and strengthens your bones. Okay, so we figured calcium is very important. And then eventually they realized that calcium is good for all these other. You can get calcium out of spinach. It's green. How come it has calcium? Because so you can get calcium pills and stuff like that. So there are a lot of sources for calcium. So you don't really need milk for calcium, although it's good.

Speaker 3: 41:55

But the second thing is a lot of people have lactose intolerance. Now, I don't have lactose intolerance, but I sort of think maybe I might have it. So I'm always limited by how much milk I take. So if you have lactose intolerance and somebody says Got Milk, you might love the. Or Milk Mustache, you might love the advertising. You might have a daughter who has one of Milk Mustache posters or had-ins. I have got milk and Milk Mustache books. I mean they're really incredible. But you can buy the book or love the ad and not buy the product. You have to remember that when you're writing.

Speaker 3: 42:31

Kia is a good example. I saw this ad for Kia and I think it says I'd love to see you in a Kia, but it doesn't give you a reason why you'd want to buy the car. Squatty potty at least says you're squatting all the way around the pot. I mean, but Kia is competing against all these Ford, chrysler, general Motors, honda, nisei, all the different companies, and so why should I buy a Kia? So if you're gonna come up with a quote or a slogan, at least come up with one that's gonna resonate, although you have to be careful sometimes. I'll give you one. Okay, I'm gonna give you a slogan. This is a major company and they eventually they stopped it in North America because they said we apologize, that we were offending people. Okay, screw yourself. That's their slogan. Now, when you understand who it's for, people go. That makes a lot of sense. Okay, who could the slogan screw yourself before Ikea, ikea furniture.

Speaker 3: 43:35

If anybody ever bought furniture from Ikea. It comes with screws and off in a screwdriver. You gotta screw it together yourself, Screw yourself. Okay, they still. I think they maintain it throughout Europe, but they don't use it in North America anymore for yourself. You know, but it's certainly got attention.

Speaker 2: 43:53

That's funny, james, this has just been a master class. I mean, my goodness, there are so many different applications to this. You know, in reading your book myself, I was really blown away by the practicality of these tools. I know people are going to want to stay connected with you and continue learning about this. What is the best way for them to do that and where can they find your book?

Speaker 3: 44:17

Well, it's on Amazon, so that's easy, and it's in bookstores. But if you go to yesbraingluecom, you can actually get a lot of information. I have a cool Jack Hanfield doing a quote, talking oh it's my favorite book of all time, or whatever he says, but it actually gives you a lot of tools that come from Brain Glue. You know, I mean Brain Glue. It's one of those things that if you're trying to be impressive to somebody else and you came up with a phrase that comes out of Brain Glue like I use chiasmus as a good example it sticks to their brain and people go whoa, and that's how a lot of people who are famous became famous. You know, Warren Buffett isn't the only rich person who became famous. You know people. A lot of people are rich or famous because they're rich. You know, but you don't hear quotes from them. You know Bill Gates. You hear quotes and you come up with Bill Gates, okay, and he's famous, and yet Warren Buffett has a ton of quotes that people use all the time. Journalists love him all the time too. So anybody who's trying to be memorable, you know, Brain Glue shows you how, and it shows you how to do this. Okay, and it's easy. That's what people are loved by this. You know, if I go through all the different types of Brain Glue phrases, you know people go like, oh, wow, these are really great, but I don't know if I can ever come up with one. And they start going through the book and they go, oh, this is so easy. Yeah, and they start coming up with them themselves, which is really fun. You know, it's fun for me because they share it with me, but it also is creating millionaires. I can't tell you how many people are contacting me and saying I have this candle manufacturer. She made candles for Ellen DeGeneres and some of her other famous people and then she realized, you know, I want to make candles with a brand that really resonates, and so we came up with some brand. One of her products is called nose noodles Funny, Okay, it's actually really funny. But we also changed it in a company to betterlifecandlescom, something like that, and it's just, you know, helping people understand it. She said I want to focus on candles that don't just smell good but actually help people in ways that you know. You can actually have candles that improve your concentration. You have candles that are, you know, and so and she's having fun, because when we came up with names, I don't want to say the names yet because she's just introducing a bunch of the products, but she recognizes the power of this. Oh, I got to give you this example.

Speaker 3: 46:38

Okay, this guy, Brad Schoinfeld, is a fitness coach. He's considered America's top fitness coach. So fitness coaches what are their websites? Say, Okay, JoeJohnsoncom or JoeJohnsonFitnessCoachcom. Mary HudsonFitnessCoachcom or MaryHudsoncom. What does his website say? Okay, he's a fitness coach. Lookgreatnakedcom. Okay.

Speaker 1: 47:05

You think that grabs people's attention?

Speaker 3: 47:07

Lookgreatnakedcom. He understands the power of like even your URL of your. You know what your website is. I have these. Sorry, I just I know we're running out of time, but I have this story these three guys who, after 10 years and had a construction business, had $2 million a sale. That's not bad, $2 million a sales, ha ha ha. In one year I took up the $10 million they took 10 years to get to. I got one year to 10 and then they reached 32 million two years later. And, by the way, they razz me. I took them from two to 10 million sales and they would say, hey, bond, it was supposed to be 12 million. And my comment went shut up. They bought each other the biggest BMW. They're beamer lovers, you know. They bought each other a brand new BMW. So I got three beamers in front of their business.

Speaker 3: 47:51

Now, but how did I do it? So I said let's make a shopping list of all the different types of businesses you've worked for, you've worked for over the past 10 years. So blah, blah, blah, I made a shopping list, took about an hour, and I said okay, let's play a game, let's pick one, let's pretend you're going to focus on just one and say no to everybody else. They said, well, we don't want to do that. I said I got it, we're playing a game, okay. So they thought for a while and they said, oh, fire restoration for insurance companies. You know, we've worked with two insurance companies. One gave us two projects and one gave us one project where somebody had a fire, and so we went and worked with them and we could actually do really well on that. And he was telling me one of the partners, because what we do is that when somebody has a fire, we go in and the first thing we do is we check the frame. If the frame is damaged, you got to tear down the whole building, but if it's not, then you put it up, make sure it's not going to catch fire again and all that stuff, and so we can actually that would be fun if we specialize on that. So I said using brain glue tools, okay. So if you're going to insurance companies, what's the first thing that comes to their mind when, when their project comes up? That could be good for you.

Speaker 3: 48:59

Fire, the word fire. So let's make the word fire part of what we're saying. And I said let's call you guys the fire extinguisher for insurance companies. Okay, we don't put out the fire, but you call us after and we'll extinguish all the problems. Okay, and we said let's get the website firexcom. So I went with them to the first two prospects and I said so, no, no, no, we're talking to them and having fun. I said, yeah, we're called the fire extinguishers. Think of us as your fire extinguisher. Anytime you guys have a client has a fire, call us will be your fire extinguisher and clients would laugh. Laughers are buyers. Okay, remember them.

Speaker 3: 49:33

That's right, the lawn mower, okay. And so they started laughing. And when we got back, they started getting calls over and over and over again. They went from 2 million after 10 years to 10 million in one year, just because people, every time they get a client with a fire, I got to call my fire extinguisher, hang on, firexcom, whatever, and they just did that and it was like such a simple thing to do or to say, and yet sales exploded. And that's why it's just so powerful. It's just so powerful. That's why even I get mommies doing it, I get business people doing it, and it's like, you know, we realize, as people are realizing.

Speaker 3: 50:11

You know people are saying I don't want my competitors to read your book. And I said, like why? I said I will screw them, you know, because I can. I don't want them stealing my ideas and making more money than me. But I also want to. You know, anytime I hear or see a really great idea, I want to be the one that has such a hot name that everybody buys my product. And it's just, you know, it's just, it's so much fun. I just I got lucky because I uncovered this thing. That's such an essential part of how we interact. That it just, you know, it's just blowing people's minds.

Speaker 2: 50:44

Hey, this is. This is so fascinating. I know people are going to want to follow up with you and check out your website and check out this book. I really recommend that our listeners check this out, because there's so many practical and helpful things in here that will help you, no matter what you do or where you are from moms to business owners right, Everybody can benefit from this. James, thank you for your generosity today and sharing so freely and so openly in what has truly been a masterclass on Brain Glue. Thank you so much, William, for having me. Thanks for joining me for this episode today.

Speaker 2: 51:17

As we wrap up, I'd love for you to do two things. First, subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss an episode, and if you find value here, I'd love it if you would rate it and review it. That really does make a difference in helping other people to discover this podcast. Second, if you don't have a copy of my newest book, Catalytic Leadership, I'd love to put a copy in your hands. If you go to catalyticaleadershipbookcom, you can get a copy for free. Just pay the shipping so I can get it to you and we'll get one right out.

Speaker 2: 51:51

My goal is to put this into the hands of as many leaders as possible. This book captures principles that I've learned in 20-plus years of coaching leaders in the entrepreneurial space, in business, government, nonprofits, education and the local church. You can also connect with me on LinkedIn to keep up with what I'm currently learning and thinking about. If you're ready to take a next step with a coach to help you intentionally grow and thrive as a leader, I'd be honored to help you. Just go to catalyticaleadershipnet to book a call with me. Stay tuned for our next episode next week. Until then, as always, leaders choose to be catalytic.

Speaker 1: 52:37

Thanks for listening to Catalytic Leadership with Dr William Attaway. Be sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts so you don't miss the next episode. Want more? Go to catalyticaleadershipnet.