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June 16, 2022

525: Messaging Matters - Why Libertarians Have Continued to Lose the Battle for Hearts & Minds (feat. Brian Nichols)

Facts don't care about your feelings? I mean, sure, facts don't care about your feelings, but feelings sell. And that's where we're losing the battle. It's the battle on actually appealing to people's feelings, and appealing to people's emotions

We've been focusing on messaging here on the program for a number of years, so I thought it good to bring back up the importance of messaging and why effective messaging has been one of the areas we libertarians have been failing the most. 

 

"Once we start to build this case that libertarian solutions work, then more and more people just by the virtue of seeing it work, the market is going to show, hey, this alternative way of doing things works, and all of a sudden, more people will start to gravitate that way. 

 

We see it in the marketplace right now. And I believe it will be an inevitable reaction as well when people start to see it working within their own communities. And going back to the whole emotions versus logic and reason. 

 

Isn't it wild?

 

 

When you hear folks like Ben Shapiro, who will say very adamantly, that facts don't care about your feelings? I mean, sure, facts don't care about your feelings, but feelings sell. And that's where we're losing the battle. It's the battle on actually appealing to people's feelings, and appealing to people's emotions."

 

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Transcript

Brian Nichols  0:03  
focusing on winning arguments. We're teaching the basic fundamentals of sales and marketing and how we can use them to win in the world of politics teaching you how to meet people where they're at on the issues they care about. Welcome to The Brian Nichols Show. Well, happy Thursday there folks fine with you're on The Brian Nichols Show and thank you for joining us on of course, another fun filled episode I am is always your humble host and today it's one on one and we're going to talk about why yes, libertarians. Messaging does in fact matter. But first we're gonna go ahead and give a shout out to today's sponsor the expat money summit 2022 heads the Brian Nichols show.com forward slash expat where you can go ahead and grab your free tickets to this virtual summit taking place November 7 through November 11. Five days 30 expert speakers join our good friend McHale Thorpe, who is the founder of the expat money show and host of this year's expat money Summit, where he promises you watch for a week you will reap the benefits for generations join us. Yes, Brian Nichols show.com. Forward slash expat and get your free tickets. Today, folks,

I am so excited for today's conversation, because it's going to be you and me one on one. And we're going to be talking about an issue that I would say has been really leading the conversation as of late specifically, after the past few weeks of the aftermath of the Reno reset, right. And the idea of messaging. And this is something that we've been talking about quite a bit here on The Brian Nichols Show, specifically due to the fact that messaging Yes, it does, in fact, matter. But the messaging from LP national up until recently has been abysmal. And this is something we've been talking about here in the program for years at this point, especially during the past few years of the COVID lockdown. So let's talk about messaging, shall we, folks, if you want to sell liberty, you need to listen more and talk less. And this is going to be something a lot of libertarians need to realize at a truly fundamental level. And that is while we think we know what people care about, because the issues that we're talking about, they matter to us, they might not matter to people. So instead what we need to do is we need to actually ask people, what matters to you. And then believe it or not, nine times out of 10 They're gonna tell us exactly what the problem is. And then they give us the opportunity to play the role of problem solver. It's it's like you're trying to solve the bedbug problem, right? You know, they can't sleep at night, they can't focus on their kids education, their kids can't sleep, their wife is miserable. And you say, Hey, listen, I can help you solve your bedbug issue, and I'm going to help you solve this bedbug issue and get rid of these bedbugs. And I'm actually going to show you the step by step means to get rid of these bedbugs. And by the way, I'm also going to tell you some stories of folks who have helped just like you who are in the exact same situation you're in, but I got rid of their bedbugs. And then guess what, what happens if your solution ends up working for them, suddenly, maybe they're gonna start asking you to help them beyond their bedbug issue, and they're gonna start to ask you for help on other stuff. Because maybe now they're gonna start to trust you. And they're gonna start to realize that in building this relationship, beyond just what they thought maybe was a random person telling them what they should be doing. They now realize that you're actually trying to give them real, tangible advice that has value in it. And that's something right there that US libertarians, we need to realize that we're not going to be able to really sell liberty, if we're not focusing first and foremost, on the issues that people care about, and build value first. For a lot of libertarians out there, it's like this current point in time, our only real value is just simply being an alternative. But here's the sad, just dirty, rotten truth in sales. Two things fundamentally sell and it's fear and love. And right now we know that people make their decisions based on emotion first, and then rationalize his decision with facts and logic and reason afterwards. So we as libertarians need to start instead of approaching politics, through the lens of building and promoting over. Rather, we need to start approaching politics through the lens of building overtly non political solutions by winning state local elections to help we'll back those local governments. And I'd say right there libertarians that by and large, we should be focusing our time and energy focusing specifically on those local areas where we can tackle those top issues that's truly going to have a real libertarian solution. I mean, think if we can ask people here, let's take Flint, Michigan, for example. If we had to take Flint, Michigan, what do you think would be the hot button issue for Flint? Probably still to this day, almost a decade later, it's probably going to be the water issue. And let's just say for example, we had a libertarian Running for town or city council, they're in Flint. And they were able to run on overtly libertarian solutions to help solve the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. Do you not think that that would be a better starting off point? Or is a resume builder at the very least for other libertarians and other localities and they can say, hey, look, it's worked here. Let's try it here. And then here's the truth. Once we start to build this case that libertarian solutions work, then more and more people just by the virtue of seeing it work, the market is going to show, hey, this alternative way of doing things works, and all of a sudden, more people will start to gravitate that way. We see it in the marketplace right now. And I believe it will be an inevitable reaction as well when people start to see it working within their own communities. And going back to the whole emotions versus logic and reason. Isn't it wild?

When you hear folks like Ben Shapiro, who will say very adamantly, that facts don't care about your feelings? I mean, sure, facts don't care about your feelings, but feelings sell. And that's where we're losing the battle. It's the battle on actually appealing to people's feelings, and appealing to people's emotions. I firmly firmly believe that if we can actually reach people and appeal to those emotions by telling stories, I mean, look what Matt Taibbi is doing over at free the people. That has been such an amazing opportunity for me just to take a treasure trove of content that he's curated, give it to my friends on both the left and the right, whatever their specific issue is whether I want to go ahead and show them a documentary with Thomas Massie where he's living off the grid, or I can show them documentaries on criminal justice, reform, taxes, I mean, literally anything you could think of, there are so many different opportunities that I can bring them to, and start using stories to sell. And let's take a second and just look at where we are as a country right now. Right? I mean, who are some of the most influential people in our society, who are some of the most, if not influential, the ones who are actually guiding the culture. Whether we like it or not, it's celebrities. And why for better or for worse, people when they see Matthew McConaughey on the screen pushing gun control, they also see the guy Matthew McConaughey on TV playing the role. And they're like, Man, I trust him because he's convincing as the role he's playing. And it builds this level of familiarity, this level of trust. And when we see these role models, these people who are being idolized, and now they're supporting candidates, or in this case, constituents, or elected officials, like Joe Biden, or Kamala Harris, all sudden, our internal brain that, you know, we don't know it's there, but it's they're always working in the background is like, Wait, hold on, I like this person in the role, and now they're supporting this person. I don't really like that person, though. I have natural reservations towards them. But I'm gonna ignore that because I trust the person that's making the recommendation. I'm gonna go with who I trust, right? And here's what stinks is that on average, people simply want to be told what to do. There's so much going on in the world. It's sensory overload, information overload. We don't know what decision is the right decision. And while that sucks, that's just the reality. But here's where we can actually help. And that is, instead of saying, we're just going to tell you what to do, we're going to help people think we're going to help show people how to think. And we do that by asking questions by asking phenomenal questions. And that's one of the things about sales is if we can have any libertarian out there, and get them a little nugget of advice, it'd be this, simply start asking more questions. And that will instantly help you become a better salesperson for Liberty overnight. And if you're in a conversation with someone, and you find yourself talking way more than they are, something's gone wrong, right? Because you want to be asking them open ended questions, to get them to open up, paint a picture, and they will paint it for you, and help you figure out how they got to where they currently are and their pain, their pain point, from point A to point B. In the libertarian world, we see folks gravitate from both the left and the right to very different stories. But it's also very different pathways to a same, very similar and conclusion. And both of these stories are absolutely imperative in trying to relate to people both on the left and the right. So know who your market is and know how to communicate to that market. And don't expect an instant return. In sales. You see an average sale, especially in the b2b marketplace, it can sometimes take six months a year if not longer. And that's just how it is in politics to you're planting a seed in many cases, you're not going to see that seed grow into a tree overnight. Let it take time And then you know what's gonna happen. Two months from now, you're gonna have a person you were talking to you sitting there talking to their crazy uncle who's trying to tell them and convince them that inflation is actually actually due to greedy corporations, and then they're gonna be like, huh, but I remember that libertarian saying that thing now it's time to maybe raise my eyebrows on inflation. And now it's coming back into the conversation I'm having with crazy uncle Joe. And you know what? It's starting to make sense. And once they have the light bulb moment, we got him. It's a win for us. It's Kamala Harris. We've got a Joe we did it. Remember, you can't logic and reason people to death either.

You can't good idea, people to death. Like, I know this is gonna be shocking, and maybe a little controversial, but you actually have to talk to people, as people I know. And you know what, here's a funny little thing is that people don't like to acknowledge it. But here's what made Trump so special is that he was able to communicate to people in such a simplistic language. I mean, think about Trump speaks in some of the most simple phrases. And here's the reality, your average person speaks in those simple words and phrases to so we as libertarians, we find ourselves talking about the non Aggression Principle. And then we speak about that your average person and they're like the non aggression, what? See, the beauty of Trump was that he could take a middle or low income guy in rural Kansas, and make him think that he was just like Trump that they were on equal footing. Like, guys, there's a beauty in that. There's something magical that he could paint this vision of a better tomorrow and get low income rural Kansas guy on board. And in Trump's beautiful way of doing it was helping focus on the better tomorrow. It was making America great again, the greatness from yesterday. So the older folks, right, it was this vision of something from yesteryear, that emotional tie back to the good old days. That thing that you really can't measure but it's there you can feel inside. And then he was able to paint that to a positive future that sold on people getting right back to where we were supposed to be making America great, again, very reminiscent to be ideas that were spoken by one of his President present predecessors that is in the ideas of hope and change. So yes, libertarians. Messaging matters. It's super important. As a matter of fact, messaging is one of the most important things that any political party can focus on. And how do we do that by number one, confining our message to more simplistic means, but also building it in a way that it's done so by focusing on the actual issues that people care about, so if you enjoy today's episode will do me a solid please number one, go ahead and

give it a share. Number two, please go ahead and support today's sponsor that is the expat money Summit. Yes, our good friend McHale Thora please head the Brian Nichols show.com forward slash expat and get your tickets today, by the way also have another great sponsor here, eagles. I've been a big fan of eagles for a long time, even more of a fan right now. So I've been using them literally every single day. I have a herniated disc in my back I heard a number of years ago, stupid accident and long story short, I was helping a friend here this past week. I told the story last episode, but helping her friend and his family here with cutting some wood and it just turned the wrong way. Oh, it's all takes slips, pinches a nerve My back's been shot. So I said I need some help. And I started digging through and I found I have my evals freeze gel here, which has been amazing. It's a topical freeze gel. I've been using it twice a day morning and night and it helps immensely and actually get through the day without having crazy nerve pain in my back. So if you want to get your pain free tomorrow started today well okay, it might take a little bit longer than that because you do have to wait for shipping. But here's the positive there is no shipping costs. Oh, and number two, you can get 15% off if you had to Brian Nichols show.com forward slash evil and use code TBS at checkout, get your evils free shell plus they have a bunch of other great stuff from topical ointments to if you want the the pill version they have gummies all that in between CBD No. Hi all health, please head to eagles and get your free shell today. And yeah, use code TBS at checkout 15% off, start your pain free tomorrow today. Folks, that's all I have for you today. Thank you for joining us. I hope you got some value from today's episode. If you did well, please do me a favor go ahead and give it a share, as I mentioned, but also if you have not had the chance yet, please head to the Brian Nichols show.com forward slash reviews give us a review and I mean, yes, I would love to see a five star rating and review but also if you want to go ahead and get in touch with yours truly well if you haven't had the chance yet to follow me on social media, Facebook, Twitter at B Nichols liberty or if you want to get in touch with me, email me, Brian at Brian Nichols show.com. By the way, did you know that you can go ahead and help support the program financially? Yeah, we are growing and every little bit helps here. 510 20 $100 Whatever you can go ahead and put into The Brian Nichols Show, it goes right back into the program, helping us meet more people where they're at on the issues they care about. And of course, leaving them educated, enlightened, and informed, folks, thank you for joining us. Oh, and by the way, I'm gonna go ahead and make sure I send you to Brian Nichols show.com, where you can check out all 500 Plus episodes of the program. If you're over on the podcast version of the show, all you have to do is click the artwork in your podcast catcher. It'll bring you right to Brian Nichols. show.com, where you can find today's episode. Oh, and by the way, the entire transcript of the episode for anyone who wants to go ahead and follow along, why not? And then for our YouTube listener, Well, number one, hit that subscribe button. Ding that little bell there. So you're not missing a single time we go live. Like for example, yesterday. Did you catch our awesome episode, we had Eric brakey, the Republican who's running to reclaim his seat up in Maine. If you missed that episode, I will include that link for you right here for our YouTube watcher and again, for our audio listener. Just had the Brian Nichols show.com You can catch that episode plus all 520 plus other episodes of the program. That's all I have for you folks. Go enjoy the rest of your Thursday. I'll see you tomorrow. That being said, it's Brian Nichols signing off. You're on The Brian Nichols Show. We'll see you Friday, listening to

Unknown Speaker  16:21  
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