Think Like A Prodigy, Talk Like A Third Grader Pt 2

Hey there. On our last video, we started teaching on "Think Like a Genius, Talk Like a Third Grader," and we got through the "Think Like a Genius" part. Part of the "Think Like a Genius" part. So, when I was creating the outline, clearly I was not thinking like a genius. Um, anyway, so we're gonna finish that today because the more clearly you can think and the more clearly you speak, the better you'll be at impacting the lives of the people you've been sent to serve. So hopefully that video gave you some clarity.

And we ended up talking at the end of that video about mastery stacking and the importance of mastery stacking. It's so interesting how, first of all, did you know that your brain uses more energy than any other organ in your body? Like, when you're thinking, maybe that's why thinking is the hardest work most people never do because it requires so much energy to think, right? And, and so, so I was talking about the importance of mastery stacking and how, how if you want to become one of the best of the best in a category, you have to master one component at a time. And then once you master that one component, you master another component. You stack a mastery on top of a mastery, and then you master another component, stack that. Because what happens is people who are great at things, they're great at those things because they can do a lot of things that all of us can tell are very complex, and they can do them all simultaneously and seemingly effortlessly. How many all know what I'm talking about, right?

And so the reason they can do that is because they took one of those difficult components at a time and they mastered it. And see, most people make the mistake of thinking that learning about something is the same as learning it. It's not. Learning about something is exactly that, learning about something. So you read a book about something and you learned about it, and you think you've learned it. And then when you go attempt to iterate it, like, you're using a lot of mental bandwidth trying to say, "Okay, which part was I supposed to do first?" And, and so your, your brain's doing all these mental jumping jacks, and you're not coming to the conclusion because you haven't mastered it. And so you're using too many conscious resources to attempt to find answers that if you had mastered it, they would already be, they would be in you. They would be, they would be in the mind that is you, not just in your brain mind, but in the mind of your fingers and in the mind of your movements. You, you would just own it. It would become my part of you. You would become, as Dr. Ron would say, you become one with them.

And so mastery is the ability to execute effortlessly without the use of conscious resources. All of us have mastered things in our lives, but the challenge is we've only mastered things that don't really matter that much. Like, we've all mastered tying our shoes, right? We don't have to think about it. You can have a conversation with somebody, look away, listen to music, and tie your shoes at the same time. Why? Because you've mastered it. Now, what most, most people are not as intentional about mastering things that would make their lives better as they were about mastering tying their shoes. When they learn to tie their shoes, when they wanted to learn how to tie their shoes, they were, "Mommy, teach me how to tie my shoe." And then they would practice, and they would practice, and they would practice, and they would practice until eventually you can tie your shoe effortlessly. That, that seems like, that seems like an oversimplification, but it's not.

Because the same thing happened when you learned how to ride a bike. Learning how to ride a bike felt impossible when you first started learning. Like, I don't know how they do it today, but when I was a kid, they had training wheels on bikes. Do they still have training wheels? Okay. So training wheels, and then what my parents would do, they would take off one training wheel and let you ride your bike for a while with only one training wheel. And then they would take off the other training wheel. And then eventually you could ride your bike. And then because you had mastered riding the bike and it became a part of you, eventually you could ride your bike with no hands. How many I remember riding your bike with no hands, right? You ride your bike with no hands, you could turn with no hands. So, but, but what happened? You mastered the components, and the bike started to become one with you.

What happens when all of the skill sets that are necessary for you to run your business or build your business empire or build your ministry or build your mission, whatever the thing is you're here for, what happens when you master all of the components of that one at a time? Like you mastered tying your shoes and riding a bike. I remember when I first learned how to drive a stick shift. When I first learned how to drive a stick shift, the stick shift, I learned how to drive was not a four on the floor. It was a three on the column, right? And so, you know, you put, push the clutch, and you put it in first gear, and then you put, and then you drive as fast as you know, get it up to 20 miles an hour, and then, or whatever, 15, and then you push the clutch in, you put it up to second gear, and then you go, you know, up to 35, 40 miles an hour, you push the clutch, you pull it down, third gear. And it required so much conscious effort to do that.

But you know what? I had to learn how to do before I learned how to drive a stick shift. I had to learn how to drive a car. I had to learn how to drive an automatic shift. I didn't have to, but that's how I did it. Learned how to drive an automatic transmission before I learned how to drive a stick. Why? Because, like, you have to learn, you have to learn how to pay attention to traffic patterns. You have to pay attention to how fast you're going and make sure, you know, how much gas is in the car, and see who's on this side and who's on that side, who's behind you, and how far is it clear? All we don't think about any of that stuff now. We just get in the car and go, right?

So when you learn as an entrepreneur how to sell at the level where it doesn't require your conscious resources, it's just become one with you. And you learn how to write a marketing campaign and a sales letter and an ad, and you, like, you've internalized it so that it becomes a part of you. Now business doesn't feel hard. It doesn't make you sweat. Business feels like play for me. I, I know it's going to sound crazy, and I'm not saying I've mastered business, but I've mastered some of the components of business. And to me, work feels like play. Work feels like play when you master things. Work feels like play, and you don't have to do as much of it to get a big outcome. Like it takes less input when you're a master to get multiplied output. When you're an amateur, it takes multiplied input to get a minimized output. But when you become a master, you can literally get a multiplied output from a minimized input. And that's where we like, why not work towards the day when you're so good at what you do, it requires less effort and energy from you than it does other people who think they're your competition? Are y'all picking up what I'm putting down?

And so we talked about in "Think Like a Genius," you have to expose yourself to new concepts. This is a review. So how do you do that? You do that by discerning. You read, you listen, and you observe. Then you decipher. You contemplate, you question, and you answer. And by the way, it's very important for you, who everybody type your chest, cell phone, just say "me." It's very important for you to question every conclusion you come to and examine it compared to truth. Don't make the mistake that so many people believe do make in thinking they, what most people do, they, they believe the things they think are true because they think them, instead of thinking them because they discovered that they are true. Let the truth be the foundation, and not your thoughts, not your feelings, not how you're going to be perceived, but just let the truth be what it is, and let that guide you.

One of my favorite books is "A Million Dollar Habits" by Robert J. Ringer. I don't know if any of you've ever read that book, but the first habit in "Million Dollar Habits" is the reality habit. And the reality habit is this: you, you just decide that you are going to do what the truth tells you to do and go where the truth leads you. And you're not gonna, you're not gonna, you're not gonna be delusional. Anybody who believes something is true that goes against truth is delusional. It's, it's really a remarkable book, and he's a remarkable writer, and, and it's a fun book to read. Okay, so, so you decipher. How do you do that? You contemplate, question, and then answer. And I gave a quote by one that I got from one of my friends, Joe Marfoli. He said, "I would rather have questions I can't answer than answers I can't question." See, the truth is not afraid of a challenge from error, but error has to be afraid of a challenge from truth. Because you can't bring in enough lies to make the truth afraid of it, but one truth can make a lie violently afraid. Are y'all tracking? Okay.

And so, so you decipher, and then you do. You act. You act. You experiment, then you measure the feedback, and then you go. Here's, here's a, here's a good mantra for you to grow through as you grow your business, as you grow yourself, as you grow anything that you're working on: measure, measure, measure. How? Measure how far you are from where you'd like to be. Measure how much effort, energy it's going to take for you to get there. Measure where you are right now. Okay, cool. So measure, and then you monitor. As you iterate, you monitor. Am I closer now than I was before I did this iteration, or am I farther away? Okay, so you measure, you monitor, and then you make adjustments. You adjust. So the adjust part, I make adjustments because I monitored the feedback from my iteration. So I measure as I'm iterating, I measure, I monitor, and then I make an adjustment. And that's how I ultimately control the outcome in the end.

So, I, I think one of the biggest mistakes people make is they, they set goals. And so my daughter and I had this conversation last week, but like, I don't really set goals. I have objectives. And I know that sounds like semantics, but here's what I mean when I say that. Like, I have an outcome that I'd like to reach. But see, a goal, to my understanding, I could be wrong, but my under, the way I understand the goal is, you desire an outcome by a specific deadline. That's a goal, right? You, by this day, I want to have this outcome, right? That's, isn't that what a goal is? Isn't that what most people think of as well? Like, I don't do that. Like, I don't have, like, Myron, what's your income goal for 2023? I don't really have an income goal for 2023. Like, I have an objective. I have a place where I believe we're going. But it's like, like if I don't make X amount of dollars in 2023, I feel like I failed. I don't feel like I failed.

So, so instead of having outcome goals, I have input objectives. So instead of, because I can't control the outcome. In fact, I don't even know what all the variables, variables are going to be while I'm on the journey. And so how can I know that? Like, I didn't know when I bought this building that it was going to require, in order for me to use the way I wanted to, that was going to require hundreds of thousands of dollars of renovations. I didn't know that, right? I just knew, okay, this is what I want to do. I came in, we did our first iteration, our first renovation by taking out the two offices that were in the middle here. Then we did our next iteration by taking out, uh, the another two offices that were on the end. And then we took out the drop ceiling. And then we took out the light. And then, well, first we changed all the light. It was just a lot of stuff we had to do, a lot of things. If I had had a goal, "Why, I want to have my studio XYZ by ABC date," well, we're still not there. And I bought this building a year and a half ago, right?

So, but I know where we're headed. And see, if I know where we're headed and I have input objectives, then I know when all of the inputs are synergistically working together, the output will take care of itself. Does that make sense? Okay. So measure, monitor, adjust, and control, then. So, so you expose yourself to concepts, then you examine your conclusions, which is similar to deciphering, but it's different because what you're doing is now the conclusions that you came to as a result of your iterations, you examine the validity of those conclusions.

So I got started as an entrepreneur in October of 1985. I had passed my insurance exam. I passed my insurance exam in January of 1986. I had to learn the presentation. Well, guess what I did? I learned the presentation between October and January while I was studying for my insurance exam. Then I had to go out and do presentations, and I did presentation after presentation after presentation after presentation after presentation. And by April of 1987, I finally made my first sale and my first commission check. Good thing I was part-time. Um, and, uh, and my first commission check was $125.66. Now, I could have concluded in April of 1986, a year before I made my first sale, "This isn't working." Right? The people who are looking at me from the outside in, they concluded that this thing I was working on wasn't working. I did not conclude that. So guess what I did? I kept working on it. And I didn't make a sale in February of '86, or March, or April, or May, or June, or July, or August. And by the way, I was doing presentations all those months, or September, or October, or November, or December, or January of the next year, or February, or March, April. Ta-da! It worked.

Now, no, if I would have concluded that this doesn't work, or at least not for me, this is a sign I shouldn't be in sales. If I had concluded that, we would not be here having this conversation right now. I wouldn't have this YouTube channel. I wouldn't have written best-selling books because I would have assumed that the thing I was working on wasn't working, be, just because it wasn't working for me. But it was working. It wasn't working for me, keyword, yet. Because here's what we learned in scripture: "Why did you quit?" "Well, I didn't have it. I didn't have a plan B." I just had my, like, my plan was Plan A, B, C, D, E, F, G, all the way through Z. Because there's only Plan I had. It's like, this is the only arena in which I've ever seen somebody become wealthy. I've only, these the wealthy people I know, all of them are in this business, and in this business opportunity, and at this place. They're the richest people I know. Why would I go listen to a bunch of my broke friends and broke relatives who think I'm making a mistake when these people did it? And clearly, if they could do it, it can be done. And if it can be done, it can be done by me. And so why would I quit? What am I going to do? Quit and just go, "Well, this didn't work for me." So I'm just gonna go quit and do nothing. I, I'm gonna go quit and dig ditches. Well, but see, here's the difference. I know how to dig a ditch, but a ditch cannot get me to, back then in 1985, $10,000 a month. I can fix cars, but I can't fix cars to the, to $10,000 a month. And $10,000 a month in 1985, 1987, was a lot of money. The only people I knew who made $10,000 a month or $15,000 a month or $50,000 a month back in the '80s were these people in this thing called business, in this industry called insurance and financial services and investments. And I said, "This is my lane." And I worked on it until I found something that I thought was more my lane. But guess what I did? Stayed in it long enough to develop some skills.

[Music] Gil, what's that? That's that's like when you're, when you know how to carry out these great ideas that you have, and they work, and you have some precision. And so Solomon said, "All work works. He said, 'In all labor there is profit.'" Here's the thing: most people make the mistake of thinking that because it's not working for them, that it's not working. But I submit to you, even when it's not working for you, it's working. It's working on you. And see, we have to become the kind of people who let our work work on us until we become the person for whom it can work. How many y'all tracking? Wave at me if you're tracking. Okay.

So, so we want to make sure we become the type of person for whom it can work. Cool. Okay. So, so I'm gonna, I'm gonna just, I'm gonna evaluate or I'm gonna examine my conclusion. I'm gonna examine the validity of my conclusions. Now, sometimes the conclusions I'm going to come to are very different than the conclusion somebody else can come to in my same situation. See, when I've made my first sale after a year and a half, and it was $125.66, I concluded, "I am going to be rich." That's the conclusion I came to. Now, that sounds like a funny conclusion, right? But it makes perfect sense to me because if I can do it, and I did that, that means I can do it what? Again. And if I can do it again, I can do it again. And if I can do it again and again, I can do it again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again. And you stack enough $125.66 together, and it becomes a lot of money. Stack $125.66 together a thousand times, that's $1.2 million. Ten thousand times, that's $12 million. A million times, that's a hundred million dollars. I did some math wrong there, but y'all know what I meant. I, I realized after I said that, that did not make sense. But you, you knew what I meant. Okay, so stop judging me, just pray for me. Okay, cool.

But you understand, you just do it enough times. And see, I know like when I believe in something, boredom does not exist for me in that arena. I can iterate a thousand times, ten thousand times, a hundred thousand times, and not get bored because I'm not looking at the iterations. What am I doing? I'm looking under Jesus, the author and finisher of my faith. How did he, how did he endure the difficulties of his assignment? For who? For the joy that was set before him, endured the cross. We endure the difficulties of our assignment by focusing on the joy that is set before us. And so what I do is I just look at the day. Like, I literally, I'm sure I practiced guitar yesterday for two hours. I'm sure I did. And all I practiced was scales, six-string major scale in the key of C, front-facing, six-string major scale in the key of C, back-facing, for two hours. Don't like 15 seconds. Why? Because the joy of being able to play my guitar at that level is so clear to me that it doesn't matter how many iterations. Like, I don't, I don't feel the pain. I mean, I feel the pain in my pinky, but I don't care. It doesn't matter. Why? Because, because most people only know how to conclude, come to conclusions that are disempowering. It requires intention to conclude, come to a conclusion that's empowering. And see, guess what? You get to decide that. You get to decide. See, you can't deter, you don't get to decide what happens to you. You can, I don't get to decide what happens to me. What I do get to decide is after it happens, what am I going to focus on? What am I going to let this mean to me? And what am I going to do next? I get to decide that every single time. I get to decide that when I make an offer and nobody accepts it, I get to decide, "Okay, what does that mean?" Okay, okay, what am I going to focus on? Okay, what am I going to do next? I get to decide that.

Every single time. I get to decide that when a big sale falls through. I get to decide that. If there's a car accident, I get to decide that. If somebody sues me, I get to decide that. If the doctor gives me bad news, I get to decide. If you lose a loved one, I can decide. I can always decide what this means, what I'm going to focus on, and what I'm going to do next. I don't get to decide what happens to me. And see, most people, that, what they'll do instead of becoming hyper-intentional about the conclusions they come to, what they'll do instead is they'll just say, they'll make an excuse to say, "Well, that's just the kind of person I am." Well, it's not just the kind of person you are. It's just the kind of person you've decided to allow yourself to be. Difference.

And so I did a video recently on "No More Excuses." I learned the most valuable lesson in my life about excuses from Jesus. He asked the man who was lame for 38 years, "Would you like to be healed?" The man gave him three excuses. "It's everybody else's fault. I'm doing the best I can. And other people are better than me." Who's that sound like? Anyway, judgment-free zone. Judgment-free zone. But watch this. Jesus didn't even listen. He didn't even care about. He ignored it. He's like, "Take up your bed and walk." But here's what I learned about excuses from Jesus: If I don't make them, I don't have to take them. Like, somebody can give me an excuse. Well, why don't you just say no? "I'm not going to do that." "Why not?" "Because I'm not going to." Oh, by the way, my daughter taught me this. "No" is a complete sentence. Anyway, so you examine the validity of your conclusions. But also examine the virtue of your conclusions. Like, is the conclusion I'm coming to? Is it good? Is it a good conclusion, or is it just one that makes me feel better in the moment? Like, sometimes we come to conclusions to retaliate. For instance, not a good conclusion. Sometimes, sometimes it's the best conclusion. But how do I know? I gotta examine the virtue. I've got to examine the virtue. Like, why am I doing this? For a good reason? Am I doing this just because I want to get this person? Right? And so, um, you have to examine the virtue of your conclusions.

Now, there are some virtuous, difficult conclusions. And then, this is going to sound terrible, but, you know, it is what it is. Sometimes the truth is painful. Um, but there's, there's some con, there are some very difficult conclusions that some of us need to come to in advance, right? So I don't have to make up my mind in the moment, right? Um, what is Proverbs chapter 4? It says, um, it says, "Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. Put away from your mouth a perverse lips, but far from me. Let thine eyes look right on, and let that eyelids look straight before thee. Ponder the paths of thy feet." Watch what it says next. "Let all thy ways be established." So you need to have some things in your life you won't do, no matter what. You need to have some things in your life that you will do, no matter what. Like, I don't ever want to hurt anybody, ever. I don't, like, you don't understand. I don't even step on bugs. Like, I don't want to kill this bug. He's just living his best bug life. I mean, it could be like, I could be a bug, but I'm a human. Yeah, I'm bigger than you, and you're there, you are. But I don't want to kill you just because you're little and I'm big, right? I know, I know some of you are thinking, "This dude's really..." I don't, I don't want to hurt anybody. I don't, I don't want to hurt anything. I don't want to kill anything. Like, there's a bug in my line while I'm playing golf. I'll just shoot it out of the way. I'm not gonna kill it just because I can, right? I don't. Anyway, but as much as I am a peace-loving individual, if someone is threatening danger to someone I love, I am the most dangerous man on Earth. Someone's threatening an innocent person, I am dangerous because I understand this is a conclusion. Like, this is a virtuous conclusion that seems like, "Wait, wait, what are you talking about?" I understand that you can only have peace if you are at least willing to have war. Like, folk got to know you can't do that up in here, right? And you don't have to say it, but you need to stay ready so you don't have to get ready. As my brother Rob would say, "When seconds count, help is only minutes away." Can I get a witness? Like, you are your first, you are your best and first first responder. Anyway, I don't want to hurt anybody ever. That don't mean I won't threaten somebody I love, try to take advantage of somebody I care about. I will come at you, bro. Okay, y'all get it.

Examine the virtue. But like, see, here's what we think. We think all confrontation is bad, and we think all capitulation is good. Well, that can't be the case. I mean, you know, everybody thinks Jesus was just this effeminate dude running around the left without a peacemaker. It's just love, just love. Jesus made a whip in the temple, turning stuff over, turning stuff out. Y'all get up out of here. Do you understand? If you're not willing to have war, you can have no peace. But if you don't have the potential to be dangerous, then you also don't have the potential to be good. Like, if, if there's no potential. Somebody asked me recently on, on one of my YouTube videos, they said, "But Myron, why did God put the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden?" Well, first of all, because he's God. He doesn't need to check with us. Let's start with that. I mean, by the way, that's, that's really a good conclusion for all of us to come to about God. But that's first of all. But secondly, because if man does not have an opportunity to do evil, then his good is not good. It's just default. Are y'all tracking? Okay.

So we want to, we want to examine the virtue of our conclusions. The conclusion that we come to when we're doing our iterations. We want to examine those conclusions. We want to examine the validity of them. Examine the virtue of them. And then examine the value of our conclusions. Now, here's what's really interesting. Most people make the mistake of examining the value of their conclusions by determining whether or not they themselves value that conclusion. That's not the test, my people. If you want to test the value of your conclusion, test it in the marketplace. "Well, I think this book is a great idea. I just want to write a book about my story." Here's the problem with you and your book about your story: nobody don't care about your story but you and your mama. And she don't want to read about it. She was there when it happened. Is that you? Tough. Right? Nobody, nobody wants to read your story. Your, your story is only valuable to people as it, as the value of your story to other people is the equivalent of the value, the ability of that story to transform their lives for the better. Otherwise, your story doesn't matter. Mine doesn't either. See, we wanna, I wanna, I just got such an amazing story. People need to hear it. That's what you think they may need to hear. But they don't care. They don't care about your story unless your story positively impacts their life. Period.

See, I, I believe that I believe that marketing, I mean, sorry, not marketing, sales. I believe that sales is uncovering the value of what I have to offer so well that people are happy to exchange the money they have in their pocket for the value I've revealed. So it's uncovering the value. But I can't uncover value to someone until I uncover what's valuable to that someone, right? And, and see, here's what happens. Most people are not good at sales because they think people they're selling to are them. What does that mean? Here's what it means. How many of you, at least at one point in your life, even if it's now, but it could be in some time in the past, didn't like salespeople? Now think about and didn't like sales, right? Okay. Think about it. How many of you like, didn't like sales and sales people? So much when somebody tried to sell you something, they come, "Can I help you?" "No, I'm just looking." And you get like a little attitude, right? Okay. One of the reasons you don't like sales or didn't like sales is because you didn't want other people to look at you like you look at sales people. We will never work to become something we despise, right? And so, so you think they're going to have a bad attitude towards you if you try to sell them because you had a bad attitude towards people. John Southern, how many of you, when you get, when somebody tries to sell you something, you want to buy it for the cheapest price possible, or at least have in the past? I want them, like, like I want to squeeze all the juice out of this deal, right? Right. In the past. Okay. In the past, I used to be the same way. That's the kind of buyers I used to want to negotiate. First of all, I like negotiation. I like it because it's fun. I like the game of negotiation. I just like having the conversations and I like bartering. One of my favorite things about going to Israel is just bartering with the people on the, in the street, the street vendors. I just love it. It's, it's fun. It's just, it's like a game. It's like a dance. Anyway. And the reality is, I could pay whatever price they tell me, but I don't want to pay whatever price they tell me if we can have a dance, right? Anyway. So another reason I don't like sales is like, I don't want to sell stuff to people, then all they're going to do is try to talk me down all the time. And then, you know, I won't make any money. Anyway.

See, people, we think we're selling to ourselves. That's why it's so important for all of us, if you want to become successful in business, become a better buyer. Like, how many of you in your business would love to have a multitude of people outside the door, cash or credit card in hand, clamoring to buy whatever you are ready to sell? Like it's Black Friday. We're my people. Exactly. So how do you attract those kinds of buyers? By becoming that kind of buyer. Because everything in life reproduces after its own kind. We don't get what we want, we get what we are. Turn me on. Track.

So, so now I'm examining the value. This is why it's so important for you to go and ask questions of the people you serve. Do you understand? If you'll do ask campaigns for every product you launch, that your audience will tell you everything you need to put in it, in the product. And you, an ask campaign. I think Alex Mandossian came up with this, but you ask this question: "What's the, let's say you're a marriage counsel, counsel, you do marriage coaching, right? What's the single biggest challenge, man? What's the single biggest challenge you have in your marriage?" Then women, what's this on a different day? "Women, what's the single biggest challenge you have in your marriage?" You let them tell you. And then you take all of those answers. "What's, what's the single biggest challenge you have in your finances?" If you're a business finance, financial literacy, "What's the single biggest challenge you have in scaling your business like 10x?" And you let them tell you. And then you'll get, let's say you get 100 answers, and you get 10 of each answer, or you get, no, let's say you get 20 of one, 10 of another one, like 15 of another one, five of another. You just take those answers and you make those the chapter titles in your book, or the module titles of your course, and you solve those problems. Because now you know you're solving. And then you go back to and say, "I created a program, and it fixes this, this, this." "How did you know?" "You told me, right?" Okay. So that's examine the value. Until you cannot uncover value to someone until you discover what's valuable to that someone. So we need to become, we need to, like, we need to increase the level of empathy we have in business, and we will sell more.

Okay, now that's the "Think Like a Genius" part. But if you think like a genius and you talk like a genius, you're going to alienate the world. You have to think like a genius, and then you have to talk like a third grader. I have come to the realization, there's, there's an app, there's a website that you can take all of your sales conversations. Like, if you get ready, you create a PowerPoint presentation, you can put your PowerPoint presentation into this website, you can copy and paste it in there, all the words, and then it will tell you what grade level that PowerPoint is on. You write a book, you take the concepts of that book, put it in the, put it in that, um, this app, copy and paste it, it'll tell you what grade level you're talking about. In a book, you can get away with fifth grade, maybe even seventh grade, like level communication, depending on who you're writing to. Obviously, if you're writing to PhDs, then do your thing. They love that stuff, right? And I say they because I really love that stuff too. I like reading that stuff if it's about what I'm re-studying. But for the most part, you're writing a book from the marketplace. You're writing a book on marriage coaching, you're writing a book on sales, you're writing a book on business development, you're writing a book on leadership. Put it in third grade language. It'll change the game.

Now, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna make, I'm gonna give you a premise that I believe that'll not just help you in, um, in writing and creating courses, but just in your communication in general. Don't, the premise is, we're all big kids on the inside, and then we pretend to be adults to the world. That's the premise, okay? We're just a little kid. We're like all these little kids. We're, we're all like these little third graders running around. Instead of saying, "Do you want to play with my ball? I'll let you play with my ball if you let me play with your truck." What we're doing is, "Hey, I can solve this problem for you." It's the same game, okay?

So here's what we have to, here's what we have to guard against. We have to guard against attempting to making the adult in me attempt to impress the adult in you. Like, that's, that's, that's the kiss of death in sales. That's the kiss of death in impact. That's the kiss of death in coaching. I want to impress you with how smart and sophisticated and whatever else other adjectives, like, if you could think of, I am. I'm telling you, the kiss of death. Instead of attempting to make the adult in me impress the adult in you, the thing that will change the game for you is when you allow the little child in you to connect with the little child in the people you're talking to. It changes the game forever. Forever. Like, total game changer.

So when it comes to talking like a third grader, you have to express yourself with simplicity. Now, when you go through college, if you get an MBA, if you go, you want to get an MBA and you write a paper, you turn it into your professor, and you use a one-syllable word, and you could have used a three-syllable word, they take off points for that. But in the marketplace, when you're selling stuff, if you use a three-syllable word and you could have used a one-syllable word, the marketplace takes off points for that. And points on the marketplace are in the form of dollars. Because if somebody doesn't understand what you mean, most people, now I would say, "I don't understand what you mean." Like, but most people won't do that. Most people won't say, "I don't understand what you mean." They'll act like they understand what you mean and just disagree with you. Why? Because if they tell you, "I don't understand what you mean," to them, it makes them feel stupid. And it takes them back. You understand how you don't understand the programming of the miseducational, misdirectional system, aka the government indoctrination camps, that make people feel stupid for getting bad grades? So all you got to do is go back to your childhood. I don't know what you all did like in elementary school. I found out later this didn't work, but in elementary school, when I got an F, I changed it to an A with an eraser before I showed my report card to my mom and dad. Okay, so now I probably, judge me, do your thing. I'm just telling you, I did it. I may have even learned it from my older brother. Maybe not. When he watches this, I'm sure he'll let me know whether or not he learned it from me or I learned it from him. But anyway, so change to a two and a half, I mean, change the F to an A. Right? So I changed my report card before I brought it home, thinking that my parents wouldn't be able to tell. But I erased the grade my teacher put on there. Kids are so goofy. Okay. Yeah. Okay.

So, so but remember how bad it felt when you, you got your report card and had C's and or it had D's and F's on it? Maybe yours didn't have those. I did great in school all the way through the third grade. I had nothing but A's and B's. I maybe have a C in penmanship through the third grade. After that, oh, I went to the other half of the grading system. And, uh, and I stayed there. And, and, and so, but you'd get, not only would you feel stupid, but then you take it home to your parents, and you get in trouble. And then they make you spend more time doing so-called homework, which isn't homework, it's schoolwork. They didn't finish teaching at school. There's no such thing as homework, anyway. Homework, do your job. I'm paying you, right? Anyway, you want to make me feel like I'm a bad parent because I don't go relearn algebra, which I know I never use, and I know my children remember you, but now I gotta go relearn it so I can teach you them? So I'm now we're not only wasting their time, we're using, we're using them to help me waste my time to help make sure they waste their time to validate your degree. I'm not doing it. And I'll talk about a little bit of attitude about that. It was dumb. Anyway.

So instead of people saying, "I don't understand what you mean," they'll say, "No, I don't. I don't think so. I don't think I want any of that." They don't have any idea what you just said. You just promulgated your esoteric consultations and articulated all of your superficial sentimentalities with all of the amicable and philosophical and psychological observations. If you wear platitudes, ponderosities, and you let your extemporaneous verbal evaporations demonstrated clarified conciseness with no compact, um, or previous, I forgot the rest of those big words. Nobody cares. No previous gorilla tea or jejun bafflement. You did all that, but nobody knows what you mean. But they're not gonna say, "I don't know what that means." They're saying, "You know what? Now that you mention that, I'm not going to do it." Right? Instead of it just admitting, because, because in order for me, you to say something to me, and me to admit that I don't know what you mean, not only am I telling you I'm stupid, I'm telling you that I know you're smarter than me. That doesn't happen when you talk like a third grader. You know why? Everybody knows what you mean. They don't have to pretend.

So the, the website that I was talking about earlier, it's called hemingwayapp.com. Hemingwayapp.com. Now, my, my son found out. My son told me about this. He's like, "That." So my son, he created a course called "Persuade Like Presidents." And so what he did was he went back and evaluated all of the winning presidential campaigns from Reagan all the way through Trump, all of them. And then he evaluated the grade level that those presidents spoke on. He said, "When they spoke at too high a grade level, they always lost." So interestingly enough, just the three that I remember: when Barack Obama won, he spoke at a fifth to seventh grade level. Donald Trump won, third to fifth grade level. Hillary Clinton lost, ninth grade level. Like, impressing people doesn't work. I mean, it does if that's all you want. If that's the paycheck, if you want an ego paycheck, you can't cash them, but they make you feel good for a little while. If that's what you want, keep talking like that.

So you want to express yourself with simplicity. Now, here's how you express yourself with simplicity. I'm going to give you some, I'm going to give you some tools you can use. Number one, start at the beginning. What does that mean? Start at the beginning. You have to assume when you're talking to people that they don't know what you mean. So when you introduce a new word or concept, define it early. Because as soon as they hear a word they don't understand, they are going to probably yawn. Like, if you're reading a book, you read a word you don't understand the definition of, you're probably on. But the next thing that happens is you totally disengage. Because anything that happens after that word, that word, you not understanding the definition of a word, is like a bridge being out when you're driving your car down the road. It doesn't matter what words come after that. It doesn't matter how much road comes after the bridge. If the bridge is out, the bridge is out, and you're gonna, like, the whole conversation falls to its death. So you always start at the beginning. When you use a word, introduce a word or a concept, always define it at the beginning. One of the biggest problems smart people have is they are the only ones who know what they mean. And it's hard. Like, it requires more work to talk like a third grader when you think like a genius, but I promise you, it's worth it. Okay, so you, you start at the beginning. Are y'all tracking? Okay. That's the first part.

Second part: show where you're going. So it's interesting. One of the things I teach people to do is, I teach people how to speak and sell from stage. Right? And so when I'm teaching that, I'll off, I'll always say, "The worst way to start a public presentation is with a stupid joke." Let me give you my definition of a stupid joke: any joke you start your presentation with, because one third of the audience is going to get it and laugh, one third of the audience is not going to get it and they're going to be confused, and the other third is going to be offended. Do not start your talk with a stupid joke. Definition of a stupid joke: any joke you start your presentation with. Instead, start with two engaging questions. Because questions are the answer. In fact, any sales conversation would be better off if you started it with two engaging questions, or not engaging questions, enrolling questions.

So let's say I'm doing marriage counseling, and I want to sell. There are a lot of marriage counsel coaches out there, okay? How many of you would love to love more and argue less in your marriage? Let me hear you say yes. Yes. Okay, some of y'all don't care. Y'all want to argue more and love less. Okay. Hey, do you, do you, my dude, do your thing. Okay. And then, okay, I say, "Y'all must not have understood the question." How many of you in your marriage want to love more and argue less? Let me hear you say yes. Okay, excellent. How many of you are willing to do the things that are necessary, even if they're hard, so you can love more and argue less? If that's you, let me hear you say, "That's me." Excellent. Give yourselves a hand for being here today. So now I told them by asking them what they're going to learn. What are they going to learn? They're going to learn how to love more and argue less in their, in their marriage.

If I'm going to teach people how to write best-selling books, "How many of you would like to become the author of a best-selling book that you are the publisher of?" Let me hear you say, "I would." Excellent. "When I teach you how to do it, how many of you are willing to follow all the steps?" Let me hear you say, "I am." Excellent. Give yourselves a hand. See, all I did was showed where I'm going by asking to enroll in questions. Because now they said they want the outcome that I know I can get them. Are y'all tracking? Okay.

And then the last part of "Talk Like a Third Grader" is story your way through every conversation. Story, story your way through the conversation. What does that mean? Story your way through. You want to have a, you want to tell a story of a transformation of someone the person you're talking to can relate to. Tell a story of somebody who was where they are, but they are now where that person you're talking to would like to be. And you story your way through the presentation. And in the words of my good friend Andy Enriquez, who's a storytelling coach, he says, "Never make a point without telling a story, and never tell a story without making a point." And if you will do those things that we talked about in the first video and then this video, you will think like a genius, talk like a third grader. You may be less impressive, but you'll be way more impactful. Thanks for watching. Peace out. Good scouts. Have a great day.