How To Retain More Information

Welcome to call 97 open agenda.It's beautiful day.We'll talk to you guys aboutthis idea about communication.I'm going to stopsharing this deckso that we don't just look atthis thing or Zoom controls.Soon OK.All right.At some point in thisdiscussion today.This morning, talkwith you guys,I'll be on Photoshopdrawing and writing things.We'll talk about communication.I heard something the other day.I don't know if one of you guystold me somebody shared a link.Video I consume.So much information now.I'm having a hard timedeciding my references,so I'll just try to share asoften as I can, as thoroughlyas I can.But I can't rememberwhere I saw or heard this.They said thatcommunication is notthe message that you transmit.Communication is notthe words that you say.Communication is thereaction of the intendedtarget of the message.So when they reactone way or the other,that's communication, becauseit doesn't really matterwhat you say, how you say it.But their reaction, so if youdon't like the communication,change, the message.Because if you don'tlike their reaction,change the message until youget the reaction that you want.So when I say somethingand somebody is offended,then I've said somethingoffended offending.And I want to change that untilthe reaction I get is like,wow, that was enlightening,that was inspiring.You truly motivated me.And so when you're talking toa client, a colleague, a boss,a subordinate.Think about that.Think about howyou're communicating,what kind of reactionare you getting?OK so think aboutthat one last time.Communicationisn't what you say,it's not the messagethat you're transmitting.It's the reaction that you'regetting from the personthat you're sendingthat message to.So if you don't like thereaction, change the message,change the delivery, change thetone, change the vocabulary,change whatever you needto change because that'swhat I'm most interested in isgetting the desired reaction.OK, the next idea Iwant to talk to youabout is something calledslow digestion, hanging aroundwith Henry, and we're talking.And he's like from NewJersey, he's East coast,he talks really fast.Everything's super fast.We have lunch together.I look over.His plate is gone.It's gone.He inhales his food.And during our twoday coaching session,he's got thisagenda list, and hewants me to go through itfast, fast, fast, fast.And I said to him, Ican do all this stuff.I'm concerned aboutyour ability to retain.And he had to stepback and say, Oh mygosh, I'm so slavishlyfollowing my own agendathat I'm not even thinking aboutwhat it is that I'm learning.So I said to you, to him,when you came here today, youwant to get throughthis and you havea very clear idea in yourhead as to how much youhave to get done.But you've notthought about whatis it that you're going to beable to get like, you're justconcerned about thedestination and the journeyis lost in all of this?And I'm concerned onyour behalf that whenyou walk away from thesetwo sessions together, that.You're not going toremember a single thing,you're not going to knowhow to apply a single thing.So we need to change this, weneed change the way you think,the way you communicate,the way that youthink done looks likehow you define done,how you eat everything.And he was telling methat he's read books.He's listened to audiobooks overand over again, and I ask him,what do you remember?He goes, I don't know, butI keep listening to him.So you see, it's like whenyou're taking somebodythrough a process like coreor logo design process.Are you so concernedabout gettingto the finaldestination that youforget that there's anotherhuman being involvedand they have feelingsand they have concernsand they have legitimate?Things that they're tryingto solve in their business,and it's not just aboutyou trying to get done.Some of the resentmentthat we feel.When we're doing aprocess and the processis taking longerthan we think, it'smostly coming froma we're not feelinglike we're makingenough progressand B we're notgetting paid enoughbecause at a certain point, youcan pay me so much money that Isay take as long as you want.No problem.We'll go as low oras fast as you want.We're not in a rush.So let's just thinkabout slow digestion.And when somebody indiscovery says somethingthat is off your agenda.But it's a really interestingidea or a problem.Or a personal issue?Don't be so quick to jamthem through the processand finish the thing.Take a minute leaningon that and go deep.And who cares about the agenda?It'll be OK if you spendanother 30 minutes,if you spend another 10 minutes.It'll be OK.Recently put out a tweet.And the tweet saidsomething like,do you prefer to read 10books and retain one idea,would you prefer to read onebook and retain 10 ideas?And the last littlestory I'll tellyou is this you guys know thisbecause you hear the way that Ispeak and the ideas that Ishare with you, that I'vebeen heavilyinfluenced by the bookwin without pitchingmanifesto by Blair ends.And as soon as I finishedreading that book,my mind was like different.There was a definite shift, aseismic shift within my brain.So I go to the peoplewho sell us, my accountdirector and myexecutive producer,and I said, please readthis book is amazing.And let's talk afterwards.So I can help clarifyanything that you guys mighthave questions with.So week and a half goesby and you guys know,if you read the bookbefore it takes probably30 minutes to read.It's a really quick read.We go into theconference room, we chat.They both read the book,you read the book, yes,read the book, liked it.That's fantastic.Tell me one idea.That impacted you.I look at my executive producerwho had a little bit more timeto think about it and read.He looked at me dumbfounded.And I'm like, anything goes.I don't know.Give me.I didn't know, you're goingto ask us that question.I'm not quite.That's fine.I'm not like puttingyou on a spot.This isn't a test.There's no grades here.I turned to my accountdirector and said,what's one thing that you got?And she's like, I mean, I'm not.I'm good at consuminginformation,but I can't just I just can'tquote the book like that.I don't work like that.I said, that's fine.You don't need toquote the book.What's the essence of likeone idea that you read?And she's like, I don'tknow, I can't say so, I said,you guys want time to thinkabout it a little bit.They both looked at eachother and looked at me,and it's like thatwas pointless.And I couldn't helpbut to think like,why did they read this book?What do they get if you can'ttell me one idea from the book?And I think becausethey read the bookwith the intention ofcompleting the book so that theycan cross something off a list.But had they readthe book like, Iwant to learnsomething new today,I'm going to applya concept from this.I might want to teachsomething from this youread with different intention.That got me to think, andI've floated this ideain front of youguys before, whichis this is that when youwatch a video, when you watcha film, when you listen toa Ted Talk or a podcast,when you read a book,what's your goal?What's your goal inreading that book, is itto say, I haveread this book, isit to say that I finishedreading a book a week,which is what I wanted to do?Is your goal to applysomething you'velearned to help yourlife, your business,your mindset for the better?Is that what you're doing?Are you reading thebook because youwant to teach somebodysomething from the book?Oh, so that's where thedifference might be.So Henry was listeningto audible books, wherehe's reading books to try tomemorize parts of the bookbecause he wanted to havea script ready to go.That's what he wasreading it for, perhaps.And when I read andconsume information,it's really about becauseI need to teach it.So the minute, thesecond after I read it.Unable to apply it andteach it to somebody.That's how I read, so ittakes me a long time to read.Of course, naturally, becauseI need to really understandthe concept.Because you don't know somethingunless you can explain itsimply to someone else, right?OK, so we read with intentto learn and to teach.How might we act on this?Well, for some of you,it'll be really easybecause you can convert itinto a graphic, a drawingand illustration.You can type it up as a tweet.You can make an Instagram post.For some, like MichaelDesmond, who can make a video,you might start tothink like, hey,so here's something I read inthis book and it said this.And this is really important.Let me quote it for you.And here's my takeon it, and here'show I'm applying it in my life.Some of you might go in frontof a classroom like Dianeand teach somethingfrom the book.Somebody might stand onstage and give a Keynotepresentation.That makes sense.So the problem with Henry is hedoesn't have a regular outlet.To teach other people.So he doesn't need to teach.So my tip to him was,you have a podcast.You have livestreaming capabilities.Why not just hold miniclassrooms, mini workshopsso you don't have to chargeany money for just how peoplejump on a video conference andhave them ask you questions?Now, when you read,you'll be prepared.Because, you know, youneed to help somebody elseand you need to sharethat information.So next time you guys goread something, think abouthow can I apply this?How can I share this becauseideas are worth sharing, right?If they're good ideas?Share it with somebody.Now I'm going tosegue into somethingand then I want to openup for some questions.And then we will go downthe list of hot questionsto answer.I can't rememberwho posted this,but they postedright on the thread.They said, Chris, whatare you doing with seo?Like, how are your postthe two most recent onesgetting so much attention?How is that possible?What are you doing meta tagging?What are you doing right?Who ask that question?Are you online?Yeah, that was me aqueous humor.Yeah perfect.OK what do you want to know andtell me a little bit about whyyou want to know it?And then I'll tell youeverything you want to know.Yeah so I'm trying to startwhite white blocks alsoto get some inboundmarketing into the funnel.Yes so I'm lookingat your post nowand I'm trying to dissecteverything that's in there,and I just want toknow the nitty gritty,like how is your processfor creating that post?Like, how are youdoing your research?How do you determinewhat keyword?What is the structure like?I'm trying to figureout how I should buildmy beautiful,beautiful, so I'm goingto pull up these two things.Give me one second.Let's see howorganized I am here.Very good question, so it'sa natural segway, right?So the first thingI'm going to tell youis that I consumelots of informationfrom very wide sources, andI don't know if you know thisand you guys probablydo a similar thingwhen you're on a website,you might bookmark it rightor you might add itto your reading list.Right, we do that right,everybody does that.I do it and mybookmarks get filled up,my reading list gets filledup, I'm like, Oh my god,where did I put this thing?I can't seem to find it.And when you're in desperationmode, which I often am,I'm preparing for a talklike, where's that graphic?Where's that quote?Can't find it.So now I do somethinga little bit different.When you go on to a website,you can hit, at least on the Macand using safari, youcan hit Command p,which is the print it.And then instead ofprinting because Idon't like to wastepaper, there'san option to save this PDF.I was tellingHenry this, he saidyou could do that, I'm like,yeah, you could do that man,save us pdaf, then itsaves it wherever you want.And then I title itsomething, something reallyclear with lots of words.And I use hyphens.So that it's very searchable.And then I dump it into afolder, very specific holethat it's calledresearch and reference.It's been sitting there, soas many of you guys have,it's a giant repositoryof ideas and thingsthat I like that you like.So the other day, I'mjust driving myself nutsbecause I'm so disorganized,my god, my folders as a messstart organizing these things.And so there it is this thingbecause I was researchingfor one of my talks, but thedifference between amateursand professionals.And there is that post.I open it up andit's really uglybecause it's a really ugly blogpost, as most blog posts are.And there's lotsof things on there.I don't even agreewith all of them.But I know it's aninteresting talking point.It's going to polarizepeople because peoplewho feel that they're amateursand want to be professionals,they're feeling like you'releaving me out and I feel bad.And then the professionals whoexhibit traits of an amateur.Who feel like I'ma professional, howdare you call me an amateur?This is not even my idea.I know it's going tobe like a lightningrod for a conversation.So I do what I do,as I always do,I just throw it intoIllustrator and start laying itout and using Helvetica.And I just put it outthere, and I put itout pretty late at nightbecause it's usuallywhen I have some free timeto do social post like this.And then I pin it andI just go to sleep.And then I wake up, it'slike planting a seedand in the morningyou're like, what?What kind of fruit didthis seed bear this plant?And you look atit, it's like it'sgoing bananas andpeople are angry at meand people are loving it.And I'm like, Wow.It did exactly whatit's supposed to do,which is to get people to talk.I'm not even takinga huge position onwhether it's rightor wrong, I guessthe assumption is if I share it,I must believe it to be true.And that's a false assumption.Because I like to just agitate.I want people to think Iwant people to reflect backon their life and theirown belief system,and literally that's all I did.You go.I put it up onTwitter, and I noticedthat because Twitterand Facebook sometimesare my testing ground forideas, if it's going to work,should I put more effortinto something like this?So I'm constantly doingtests all the time.I put something up.I guess people wantmore of this thing.I can give youmore of this thing.And what's happeningnow is, I guessI'm starting to hita certain level wherewhen I postsomething on Twitter,somebody is bound toscreen capture it.And posted on Instagramand posts on Facebook,so now I have to beatthem to the punch.It used to be I would use eitherFacebook, Twitter or Instagramto test an idea.But now, because Ithink I'm startingto reach that threshold whereif I share it somewhere,enough people grab itand share it elsewhere.And I at least wantto be the first personto share it on thedifferent platforms.So now I have to post onLinkedIn, on Facebook,on Instagram, I don't doit Instagram, I'm sorry,Facebook, Twitter andLinkedIn really fastbecause I want it to be theorigin source from a postthat I did.I used a fewhashtags, mostly justto help myself find it later.But I'm not hacking anything.There's no secrets there.OK, and so forsome of you guys, Idon't know whatI'm talking about,I'm going to pull this up.And I'll tell you thedifferences between these twothings.And what I've learned thus far.OK you see this right here.The amateurs versusthe professionalsI'm always scared to whenI retype something in.That I'm going to do a typo,so I did spell checking,I'm like double check, I'msure I messed up something.And it's laid out reallysimply, and there's somethingthat I think people look at,if something is well-designedor at least cleanly laid outand set in Helvetica feelssuperficial.Because the blog post lookslike, but it really does.So I give attributionby Farnum straight,and it linked back to it,so hopefully the authorsof this thing, we'll seethat I'm driving traffic backto them.And I put it out there,this thing has 1,300.Looks like a bunchof rideshares,and it's just through the roof.The engagement.Because it got people upset.Some people saw it as a wayto hold down creative people,a small, small minority.The majority saw like,wow, I'm on the right path.I'm mostly an amateur today, butI see where the path is going.Some people disagreed.Some people have questionsabout some of these things,and I'm tellingyou, I don't evenagree with all of these things.And I'm not even sayingthat to be a professionalis always a goodthing because amateursare the ones who make all theinnovative ideas in the world.People who are youngin the professionor from a totallydifferent fieldare generally the ones who comeup with disruptive ideas thatchange everything.Give you an example, SteveJobs was not a telephone guy,but he changed thetelephone industry.OK, now some of my professionalcolleagues on LinkedInsaid, Chris, I know you meanwell, but we don't like this.I'm like, OK, tell mehow I should write it.And I'll write it.I'll lay it out.I'm not attached tothis thing at all.So somebody sharedthis other one.Come on.My computer freeze,what's going on?There we go.Somebody shared this other onefrom artist duo Peter fishel,fish Lee and David Weisshow to work better.This one is a lotless offensive.This is coming fromtwo fine artists.This is the title of theirbook for an exhibitionfor the Guggenheim Museum.This one is gettinglove as well,but it's not nearly asengaged as the first one.What does that tell you?If you try to be nice and goodand kind and gentle and lovingto all people and peoplelike, that's cool.But if you makepeople make a decisionabout which side of theargument they want to live on,do they hate this?Do they love this?Do they agree?Do they disagree?They get engaged and theyshare and they comment.And they criticizeand they add to itthe part of the conversation.This post, as of thismorning, had eight comments.This one has 73.Chris, I have a question andI wrote it down in my notes,I didn't want tointerrupt, but I'mitching to ask it OK,which I feel like there'sa dichotomy going on basedon what you're sayingin regards to content creation.And it's one you pulledthe Trump move, whichis to post to agitate.I'm serious.Like, that's what it soundslike, which is really it like.That's what fake news.That's a false equivalency.Fake news also.But also the questionis, is it strengthto post from a placeof apathy in regardsto the end result youwant from your content?Like you just said, Idon't care what it does,I'm posting toshare information.I didn't say, I don'tcare what it does.I did not say you don'tcare like that engages,or maybe I'm not.I do care that engages.That's what I do care.That's all I want.I want people to think.I want people to ask questions.I want people to wakeup from autopilot.And I've learned something here.See, so I wrote there,hey, what's up chumps?You're all amateurs unlessyou think like a pro like me.Then I clearly.Stated my opinion on this thing.now I try to I'm not perfectbecause I'm not a writer.I tried to write it carefully.I don't always succeedthere, obviously,because I get a lot of hate onsome of these social platforms.I said, hey, this is aninteresting two minute read.This is the original blogpost from this person.I've just reformattedit in helvetica,so I'm literally tellingpeople what I did,and I said, howdo you measure upor how do you score orsomething like that?And that's it.And they said, hey,amateurs, if you're stuck,this is what you need todo, or this is what pros do,so suck it.I guess in relation to theoriginal question of seo,like you're not goingout of your way,you know, this perfectpost that gets traction,but you're doing it to gain.Somebody feedback, I guess.Well, I'm doing it tostart a conversationto see what the painpoints are in the world.Now, here's the cool thingabout this for Hugo, whoasks this originalquestion, I don't sit hereand think this is goingto be the top of my funneland then have a content piece.And then there'sa call to actionand there's a five emailsoap opera sequencethat I'm going to give to you.I don't look like that at all.Because I'm not in that actuallythe business of selling thingsright, Ben, is he's helpingus to market and make surewe have money.But I'm just a content guy andI'm going to stir things up.I do piss off a lot of people.I'm not going to lieand I'm OK with that.Because as you can see, theengagement between these twopieces of information isone is doesn't I mean,how can you be offendedby the other one?It tells you to smileand everything's OK and.Be a good leader,listen to people, ok?A lot of things thatwe all believe inare and are true and no problem.But it's when youstir up the emotionsand you say, wow, youhave to make a decision.And most of it'spositive, and youhave to realize youhave to be able to.To be willing toalienate some people,if you have a point of view.Watch this.This is a very classic example.I love chocolate ice cream.You would think that'snot going to hurt anybody.Everybody loveschocolate, Chris.Yeah, we all love chocolate.And then there's goingto be some people whereit's like, I hate chocolate,dude, vanilla or mint chip.Rocky road.And they want to argue with you.Right, but if I sayice cream is good,most people will say fine.And then there will be somepeople who are like, well,that's cruel to cows.What are we doing,dairy industry man?So you see, it's like anytime you take a point of view,somebody is bound to disagreewith you and I'm OK with that.I've learned toaccept that that'spart of how we communicate,especially on Twitter.It can get reallynasty, really fast.So, Hugo, I think youguys think and I'mflattered if you think thisthat there's some geniusplan behind all thesethings that I postand I've hacked into the system.No, I just post things that Ithink will get people to talk.And I adapting, so Ithink through the lensof a former recoveringgraphic designer, if I justmade things a little more cleanand Swiss on my design, friendsand themes will comeout and comment on it.One way or the other.If I took the original imageand I did nothing to it,I just reposted that, well,I haven't transformed itin the slightest and that's OKtoo, because I do that as well.But if I really want thatengagement, all I have to dois clean up the layoutjust a little bit.I just have to put atiny little effort.I'll give you guysone more exampleon content marketing, ok?I love maksimovic,Nelly, but I wantto be honest in terms of histhinking and his point of view.I'm fairly new to it, so I'msearching one day about a yearand a half ago forMassimo McNeely quotes.And we go on Pinterest andyou see all these designs,and then some looklike Massimo McNeelyand some look like somedesign students whodon't understand how to design,who try to design like Massimo.And as a designer, I'ma little offended by it.Like, how dare you?Here's a guy wholoves Helvetica bold.Really tight letting.And you said it in baldonior ghahraman or casselton.What are you doing?How dare you?At least try to do it inthe spirit of massimo,if you're a fan.So as I'm lookingfor like nice postersto just download and reshare,I couldn't find them so.I searched a little bit, foundthe Mossimo Giannulli canon.Laid out the poster withusing red, white and Black.And I just designedthem, some of themtook a little bitlonger than others,but I did it all probably10 or 12 layouts in a day.No problem.It's easy.I put it out theregets a lot of love.So if you are able to tapinto two or more worlds, hugo?Chances are you're goingto get some people excited.So if you tap intothe world of design,OK, we know all the tropesthat designers fall into.Like layers, right?You know that everytime you show anythingabout layer managementand Photoshop,the designers get,oh, it's us, you know,too many layers or numberedlabeled layers or the jokethat keeps living forever.Final, final, final, Final Four.Real final, final file naming.Those are things that designersget all like hot about.Or typos?They get crazy about that,so in some instances,rarely I'll introduce a typobecause they'll go insane.They'll go insanebecause they're we theyus are obsessive compulsive.And everybody wants to showyou how smart they are,how good of it is,I know whether theycan spot something.Right away, theywant to say some,so you bring something frompsychology, philosophy,literature, film, history andyou smash those two together.People are going to engage.OK hey, Chris, just afollow up question on it,so I understand pittingtwo ideas two point of viewto attract engagement,but you're nottaking a stand on it, correct?You're letting it.I'm trying a new idea.Yes, usually I takea stand, but so.So what does that do interms of for you to post?What is the post do for you?Because you're nottaking a stand,you're not establishingexpertise or any?So what does that actually do?Oh, but Au contraire, Mon frere.I bring something to theconsciousness of peopleall of a sudden people whodon't know me or was like,who's this guy?What do you find?This is an interesting thing.I would see.So here's theweird thing you go.People assume I authored it,even though I to say I did not.Clearly OK.And then they assume I'mtaking a position oneway or the other, eventhough I tried not to.And so they imply or theyassume all these kindsof things about you.Right?so what's going to happen now?Some marketing executive.And this is happeningbecause they're asking,can you make this adownloadable PDF or this isa screensaver from my iphone?I'll make it for you.So now I can make a downloadablepiece of content for free.And Ben can capture the emails.See how that works.I know what they're engaged in.I also now know whatthe argument is,and I can write a blogpost about it for real now.And I can writethis little story.So I found this thing.I wrote this thing.It got me to think more deeplyabout what is an amateur?What's a professional?What is immaturity, maturityand do these things matter,and I can write a wholeblog post about itnow because they're helpingto do all my research.I'm getting real timeuser testing feedback.On social media.And I know there's not a lotof people crying or going crazyabout it one way or the other.I'm not going to spend timewriting a blog post on thisbecause nobody cares.Nobody cares.So every piece ofcontent that I put outis the conversationthat needs to continue.If it's a good conversation.So a lot of peoplethink inbound marketing,content marketing is justtalking all the time.So that's one thing thatI think I do pretty good.Which is I listen, sothey talk, I talk back.They talk, I talk backand this is how I do it.So the person who said,Chris, we expect more of you.We know you're a good person,but we don't agree with this.Then I ask them, whatwould you like to see?How would you liketo change things?I'll do it, I'll change it.No problem.Whoa OK, so there'sno absolute with you.I'm like, no.Sometimes I feelthis way tomorrow.I can feel totally differently.No problem.I can change it.I don't think I havesome kind of divine rightto say what is goodand what is bad.I just have my opinion.And that's totally OK.You followed me, Hugo.So people who ask to downloadthis thing now, I might notthat I want this part of it, butlet's say I'm looking for work.A CMO might havethis and she mighthave problems with her team.You guys behave like amateurs.Print us out, boom tape,take this on the wall.Now, prior to thatmoment in time,she doesn't know me from squat.But now I'm startingto bubble up.Two, three, four morepieces of content.She might stop andthink, who is this guy?Let me look at this dude,Chris, though, and thenfind the future and like, whoa!And then she mightsay, let's get him into speak to our teamabout this thing.Let's purchase some courses,let's look in for an event,let's have him consult. Thirdparty content game to meis very long.It's not about I gota product to sell,I'm going to make this thingand then boom, there it is.Now I know there are a lotof people who do it that way,and they're very good at that.I'm just not that goodat that kind of thing.