Cosmos: 

Welcome back to the show, my fellow extraordinary Americans. For today’s guests, we have James Bond. James Bond is one of America’s leading behavioral management specialists and the author of the award-winning book Brain Glue. That’s been blowing people’s minds and changing how talented marketers and entrepreneurs sell their products and ideas. He’s the president of UH US Management LLC, the strategic growth consultant to more than 31 mid-sized companies and larger firms such as Amgen Biotech, Gannett Media, Lytton Industries, and British General Electric. 

For 13 years, he also 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. He’s a past workshop chairman for the resource partner of the U.S. Small Business Administration and has been a featured guest speaker at two Southern California universities. James has been featured in ABC, Fox News Radio, NPR, CBS, Forbes, and Los Angeles Times. 

He’s an extraordinary American, and I’m glad and honored to have him on this show. James, are you there?

James: 

I am. Hi, Cosmos. It’s. Thank you for having me on your show. I think you’re awesome.

Cosmos: 

I think you’re awesome, too. I appreciate that you took the time to come to this podcast and share your wisdom with me and the audience.

James: 

Oh, so sense of humor with my name. So that’s why I say I’m James I Bond.

James Bond says emotional selling is more powerful than logical selling

Cosmos: 

Okay, I know. When I first saw James Bond, I thought, “Whoa, it’s pretty cool.” 

So, James, I wanted to ask you a little bit more about yourself, your background, and how you got started in entrepreneurship.

James: 

My dad was successful in business. One of his businesses was a big commercial laundry, and he was making millions of dollars. He wouldn’t have me work with him in the business. 

And I was kind of frustrated, you know, I wanted to learn business, and it became fascinating for me. So, I got into advertising first, then marketing, and then behavioral management. I sort of learn and work my way up. I learned about advertising. Advertising is communicating, having a message, and all that stuff, but marketing oversees that. How do you get people to take action? Then behavioral management is even more than that. For example, how do you get people to do certain things? You know. And it became fascinating for me. 

And so, I work with, uh, as an advertising agency. I worked my way up in Montreal and lived in Southern California for about 40 years. Southern California is a lot warmer. Let me start there. In Montreal, I worked my way up and eventually became an advertising agency for major companies like Kraft Foods, Timex Watches, Seagram, and their world’s headquarters. I hated selling today. I love selling. I teach people to sell. 

I also discuss brain glue, which is profound. I hated selling back then. I remember going into Avon. I was just telling you this. We had an opportunity to win Avon Cosmetics in Canada. 

And, uh, so we’re sitting with the buyer from Avon. The buyer from Avon looked at my brother John and me, and he said, um, you know, it’s between you and this other company, and I’d rather work with you guys. But frankly, your price is higher than the other guys. 

And so, my brother looks over to him and says, why do you think the other guy’s so cheap? There’s a long pause, and then the buyer says, okay, fine, let me write up a purchase order. For a big one, I was like $80,000 or something. And I thought my head was going to explode. What the hell? He’s hiring me. He’s hiring us because we’re more expensive. What? And I. And you know, I hated selling. But I loved psychology. 

And to me, this was fascinating. Psychology is like, huh, uh, you know, people are. He’s spending money because we’re more expensive. It’s fast. And I started learning all kinds of things. As time went on, um, I had an opportunity to win the anti-drug. I broke up with my brother. I love my brother dearly, but family and business don’t always mix. Let me start there, okay? I had to learn how to sell.

But I had the opportunity to win the anti-drug campaign in America. And I came up with powerful, logical reasons why you should not do drugs. Logic. I’m a logical person, as most of us are. And I lost. And what I lost to was a commercial with a guy holding an egg saying, this is your brain. And he cracked the egg and dropped the egg into a sizzling frying pan. This is your brain on drugs. Any questions? 

And I realized two things. The first one was that this was infinitely more powerful than my ad. My ad was logical. This was emotional selling. But the second thing I realized was, yeah, uh, this is emotional selling. And I have no clue how to do emotional selling. And it scared the hell out of me. Emotional selling is more powerful than logical. Selling. And I can do logical selling in my sleep, but emotional selling, um, when I was young, I met Zig Ziglar, an emotional and motivational speaker. He was great. And he said something. 

And I was in one of his workshops with my mom, and he said something that changed my life. And he said selling is nothing more than a transference of passion. If you see a movie you love, nobody has to teach you how to sell it. You go, oh, I just saw this. You got to see this movie. It’s, uh, you know, transference of passion. 

And I realized that you know, that, uh, there is this transference of passion that I have to learn. If I’m in advertising and marketing and business, I’ve got to learn how to transfer passion because that’s more powerful. You have to have a logical product. It’s got to be a good product, but you have to transfer it. Well, about ten years later, we moved to Southern California. Well, actually, no. First, I had a. I put a box next to my computer. I call it the passion box. 

Every time I saw a commercial or heard somebody say something emotionally powerful rather, I tried to analyze it because I couldn’t understand how to. I decided I’d write how to create emotional selling on a three by 5 card, like your brain on drugs for the. This is your brain on drugs. Uh, for that commercial, or if somebody said something profound, I would write it on a three-by-five card or tear it out of a magazine and put it in this box that I call the Passion box. After about ten years, we moved to Southern California. 

And, uh, my passion box was high. It was full. I met John Gray, who told me he wrote this incredible relationship book called Men, Women, and Relationships.

I discovered that metaphors are one of 14 brain triggers at the heart of emotional selling.

Everybody who read it loved it and said, “This is profound. This has changed my life. This is the most profound and powerful relationship book I’ve ever read, and it’s changing our lives.” But almost nobody bought it. 

And so, we got this crazy idea, what, from Venus? And put references to it inside the book. Guess what happened almost overnight? He was telling me half a million copies got sold. He said I couldn’t believe they were selling so fast. He’s. He sold 50 million copies of his book. 50 million. All because he came up with this different title. He changed the title. I thought, like, wow, this is amazing. So, when I got home, I would first take his book, Men from Arts, and put it in my passion box. 

But then I stopped, and I went, that’s a metaphor. He’s saying men and women are so different that sometimes it seems like we’re from a different planet. That’s basically what men are from Mars, from Venus is about. 

And I went, it’s a metaphor, you know. Huh, huh? And then the guy with the egg dropping the egg into a sizzling frying pan, that’s a metaphor too, because he’s saying, this is your brain. No, that’s an egg. No, no, this is your brain. They’re probably sitting around a table, and they were thinking, so when you do drugs, what happens? 

And, somebody probably said, well, it fries your brain. Oh, it fries your brain. Drugs. Okay, what else gets fried eggs? Why don’t we put an egg in a sizzling frying pan and say, there’s your brain? Okay? And they came up with that. And I went like, wow. If I just figured out emotional selling, that’s metaphors. When I got home, I took the passion box next to my computer and dumped it on my bed because I needed a big space. I discovered that metaphors are one of 14 brain triggers at the heart of emotional selling. I thought my brain was going to explode. 

And so I started applying it. Uh, because I was a consultant, I would apply it to clients. I had these two or three guys who were partners at a construction company who, after 10 years, had $2 million in sales. Not bad, right? Ha. Huh. I applied this, and they went from 2 to 10 million in sales in one year. And then they reached 32 million two years later. In fact, at the end of the year, they said to me, uh, I said, oh, wow, you got 10 million. Hey, James. We were supposed to get 12 million because I said, like, what’s that goal? He said you’re supposed to get 12 million. I said, shut up. They bought each other brand-new BMWs and couldn’t believe how much cash they had. But I uncovered this thing, brain glue, and it’s blowing people’s minds. 

And I mean famous people as well as normal people. I have Jack Canfield. Jack Canfield wrote a book called Chicken Soup for the Soul. He sold a hundred million copies of Chicken Soup for his soul and 400 million copies of the other Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul, Chicken Soup for the Cancer Survivor Soul, and all that stuff. 

So this guy’s rich. Yeah. He doesn’t need me telling him what to do. Huh? He told Me. He was pissed off. He said, I was looking at your book, and I got pissed off, and I said, oh, I’m sorry. He said, no, I couldn’t put the damn thing down. I said, I bought copies. Everybody in my company is getting copies of it. 

And they’re required not just to read it but to apply it. You know, I’m like? Can I use that as a quote? It was just, you, uh, know, it’s just fantastic. I discovered this thing. Somebody said this to me. My name is James Bond. It’s James I Bond. 

So people can at least find me more easily. Otherwise, you get, you know, Sean Connery, who is better than me, but I won’t get into it. But I realized that brain glue relates to my name, and here’s how it relates to my name. So, I went for a walk with my mom and wife in Southern California. And we’re walking on a church’s ground. They have this nice stuff. And there’s a security guard who had, uh. I guess who was with his wife in this little building? On the property. 

And so, as we’re walking, he comes out, looks at us, and says, “Oh, hey, how’s it going? I said, not too bad. I said, oh, yeah, we just live around the corner. He said, oh, okay. He said. And so I said, oh, you know. He said, well, I’m Joe, and this is Mary, my wife. I said, oh, yeah, I’m James, and this is my wife Pam. Then I paused for a moment and said my name is James Bond. I think my parents had a sense of humor. The guy starts laughing, but we’ve gone back there, and every time we pass, he goes, hey, James Bond, how’s it going? He remembers my name.

Certain things stick to the brain, and if you can

It sticks to his brain, okay? And so I learned that certain things stick to the brain, and if you can get it to the brain, you have a better chance of making a ton of money. Let me give you a perfect example of this.

 So there’s a mom and son in Utah, and they watch Shark Tank. They love Shark Tank. And so she was telling her son, wouldn’t it be fun if we can invent a product and make some money and then get on Shark Tank? You know, you get on Shark Tank, you become a millionaire, right? Or a multimillionaire? And they went. And he’s like, yeah, that would be a good idea. 

So they’re thinking about it, and it Took about a month to develop a product. You know, she has trouble going to the bathroom. She’s constipated. I don’t want to get too much into it. Okay. And. But a doctor said to her that when you’re on the toilet if you can raise your feet 6 to 8 inches off the ground, it’s easier. The body changes the shape of your body, and it’s easier going to the bathroom. She tried it, and it worked. It was really good. 

And then, she was talking to her son, and she said. She said, oh, uh, maybe this is the thing. We should create a toilet stool that fits around the toilet. And when you’re on the toilet, if you want to, you can just slide it out and put your feet on it. Oh, that’s a great idea. And we could, you know, maybe we’ll get on shark tank. And so they found a manufacturer, and they made about a thousand of them for three bucks each or something like that. And so they had all the products, but they said, we need a good name for it. 

And so the first thing they’re thinking of is toilet stool. And we always think of this. You always start with logic. Okay, it’s a toilet stool. But she goes, I don’t think that’s a good name. Toilet stool. It’s like, uh. That doesn’t sound very interesting. 

So what’s another word for toilet? Potty. You’re kind of squatting when you’re doing this. Why don’t we call it the squatty potty? Sales exploded. They had over a hundred million dollars in sales in less than two years. And by the way, they made it a shark tank. And multiple sharks wanted to work with them. Okay? With squatty Potty, they. Within two years, these people with no business experience generated over a hundred million dollars in sales, okay? Because they were selling, and they ran out. They had to order some more. They saw it, they ran out. They couldn’t believe how fast it was selling. 

So I had a heart bypass surgery about two, uh, and a half months ago. Not fun. Okay? I was in the hospital, and a nurse talked to me and said, so what do you do? So I said, I just wrote this book, Brain Glue. And I was telling her about squatty Potty. And she starts laughing and says, oh, I got to tell you something. I’m a nurse. I know that you want to raise your feet.

 So I got a little bench in my house where I raise my feet when going to the bathroom. But when I was in a store, I saw Squatty Potty and bought it even though I had the. Even though I already have the bench, I thought it was such a cool name that I spent 20 bucks and bought Squatty Potty. I’m like, you already have it, yet you bought it because you like the name. But that says a lot about the. You know, it triggers the brain. If you have something that triggers the brain, it wakes up the brain, and people go like, whoa. You know. And I’ll tell you how this works, okay? 

When you’re talking to somebody, most of the time, they’re not listening. We think people are listening because they’re sitting in nine their heads and whatever else. But other things are going on in their brain. But you want to wake up the brain because if you can wake up the brain, you have a better chance of selling. I have a TV next to my computer, okay? So I’m doing. Normally, it isn’t on, but for whatever reason, it was on. And I’m doing work on my computer. And then they have this, uh, baseball, famous baseball player on. Um, and he’s talking about Blue Emu. You put this anti-arthritis cream on your joints and stuff if you have arm pain. And so I’m, um, you know, I’m not even listening. I couldn’t care less. 

But then I heard him say this: Blue Emu. It works fast, and you won’t stink. What did he just say? And you won’t stink? What is he talking about? From that moment forward, I listened to the whole commercial, okay? Because it woke up the brain.

Dirty is a trigger word. If you had a product, would you call it dirty

It’s a trigger word. So, like, uh, dirty. If you had a product, would you call your business or your podcast, and would you call it the dirty podcast? And yet dirty. There’s. There are famous movies like Dirty Dancing, Dirty Harry, and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. I mean, it’s a trigger word. I always love saying this.

Richard Branson dropped out of high school to start a record company

What do Richard Branson, billionaire Richard Branson, the singer Madonna, and olive oil have in common?

Cosmos: 

What do they have in common?

James: 

Virgin. Virgin olive oil. Madonna’s, uh, most famous song. Like a Virgin. Like a Virgin. Touchpoint. The very first time. Okay. And, uh, Richard Branson. Richard Branson dropped out of high school. He didn’t have much money, but he borrowed some money from his dad and started a magazine for musicians. Mhm. He started doing well. And he said, well, you know what? I’m connected to all these musicians. Why don’t we? Why don’t I start, um, uh, a record company, you know? 

And so he had a friend, and they were brainstorming and said, we need to come up with a name because we don’t have much money, but it would be cool if we came up with a cool name. Then they thought, well, how about Virgin Records? Virgin Records. Oh, he made so much money from Virgin Records. He got, like, the Rolling Stones. He got famous. People became his, uh, clients as, uh, with Virgin Records, that he went, you know, that name Virgin is so important. I got to start trademarking all these different names. He’s got Virgin Hotels in Texas there. He’s got Virgin Cruise, ships, cruise lines, of course. He’s got Virgin Airlines and Virgin Galactica and stuff like that. I mean, he’s got really. But he trademarked all these names because he realized Virgin grabs people’s attention. There’s a woman in, uh, New York; she created a play off-Broadway. Play. And it’s about women. What women have to go through. You know, like, a woman’s life is hard. 

And so she could have called it A Woman’s Life is Hard. And maybe somebody would. Some people would have watched it, but almost nobody would have. Instead, she came up with the name the Vagina Monologues. Wow. Evansler. That’s her name. Eve Ensler. And the Vagina Monologues exploded in sales, so much so that HBO did a show on her Vagina Monologues. Okay. It’s the name Vagina. It’s like, what? And so the vagina is like a trigger word. And so people who use trigger words. I have this guy I was talking to who’s fabulous. He and his partner, uh, work with, uh, people have small advertising agencies, and they teach them how to. They show them how to make more money and all that stuff. I can’t remember the name of his company, and most people can’t, okay? But his name is David Baer. B A E R. 

And so I’m, you know, talking to him and his partner, and I said, oh, I got the perfect name for your business. He said, what? I said, Bare Naked Advertising. He goes, oh, his partner is laughing. He goes, yes, we have to name in Bare Naked Advertising. People are going to love us. He goes, I don’t know if I want to put the name Naked next to my. My name. But he didn’t do it. This is wild because two guys in Southern California invented juice and that all-natural juice.

And they’re competing with Odwalla, which is, uh, owned by Coca-Cola. So they have lots of money, and they’re the largest seller. They were the largest seller of, uh, natural juice. But these guys, you know, would make it to these two guys in their lawn, in their front lawn or their back lawn. I have no idea why. So they created this juice, and they thought it would be cool. Why don’t we call our juice Naked Juice? 

So they. But, they were embarrassed by putting the name Naked on it. So they made it kind of small, but it still started selling well. It’s a good juice. So, they made enough money to hire this graphic artist to help them make new labels so that all the labels would look the same. You’d be able to tell it’s the same company. And the graphic artist said I have to put the word naked big. They went, oh, you think? 

So he said, no, no, we think that will be fantastic. Okay. So he made it, uh, the labels with naked juice. So, if you ever had one, it’s a fantastic juice. And their sales exploded. They shot past On Walla, owned by Coca-Cola, to become America’s largest natural juice seller. And it’s because of the name Naked, which is interesting.

Rhyme helps boost your pitch; the power of your pitch

Okay, but trigger words are a whole bunch of tools that are brain glue, where we start to understand that certain things stick to the brain. I’m old enough to remember Jack and Jill went up the. Have you ever heard this?

Cosmos: 

Yeah, Jack and Jill went up the hill.

James: 

Okay, how many years ago was the last time you heard that? For me, it was 10, 20, maybe 50, 60. I’m old, so 60 years ago was the last time I heard that. And yet, I remember it like it was yesterday. I could be on my deathbed, and somebody says, hey, James, Jack, and Joe. And upstairs and I go, hell to water. I remember it because. And yet, the last time I heard it was ages ago. It’s because rhyme sticks to the brain like glue. 

So when O.J. Simpson was in his murder trial, his, uh, attorney, Johnny Cochran, actually it was Johnny Cochran’s friend that told him this. But he said you should tell him if the glove, they had a famous. A glove of the murderer and Johnny Cochran, he put it on and pretended it didn’t fit him. And all that stuff his friend said, you have to tell the jury in your closing argument and tell the jury that if the glove doesn’t fit, you have to acquit. Okay. Rhyme. Rhyme works. Okay. 

So, after the trial, two of the jurors were asked, with all that evidence against OJ, how come you found him not guilty? One responded while the other was not in agreement. And she said, hey, we knew you had to acquit if the gloves didn’t fit. The glove didn’t fit. We had to acquit.

Cosmos: 

I know, right?

James: 

Exactly. But rhyme works. It sticks to the brain, like Lou. And so if you. Sir, I would have said, remember, he’s an actor. You have to love how he faked the glove. You know, I would have been another attorney. But I mean, think of the products with Squatty Potty rhymes, Famous Amos. He had almost no money, and yet it became. He became a multi-millionaire with the famous Amos. 7:11. You know, 7:11 stores rhymes. Reese’s Pieces, uh, pieces. A pooper scooper. Okay, how about, uh, Lean Cuisine or Shake and Bake? You know, is it a coincidence that they. Do these things rhyme? No, they pick rhyme because rhyme is one of the things that sticks to the brain like glue. And you have a better chance of selling if you can use rhyme. 

And how you describe your product or service. I have for mine, I say, um, so it helps boost your pitch, the power of your pitch. So, what rhymes with pitch? Rich. Switch. Switch your pitch if you want to get rich. Oh, there’s. Cool. Then I said, okay, well, what else? I want a more sophisticated one that helps buyers become more passionate about your product, service, or whatever you’re selling. Passion. Okay. Is. What’s another word for passion? Desire. Oh, okay. Oh, I got the phrase, bring glue, lights the fire of desire in your buyer. Oh, interesting. 

Okay, so I had the, uh. I work with Warren, uh, Buffett’s team. Warren Buffett brought me in when they started buying businesses. And I have a, uh. You know, I’m considered one of America’s leading behavioral management specialists, so I helped them, you know, change the behaviors of certain people. And Warren Buffet has great lines that use brain glue-type tools. And one of the lines he said was, only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked. Wow. Okay. That word. Notice how you’re listening to it, but when you hear the word naked, suddenly the whole thing comes in, like, what? 

Okay. But, uh, you know, he recognized the power of, uh, you know, certain words that you can use to describe something, and, uh, if you use certain words. So, so there’s, ah, this guy, uh, Paul Tran, he creates. He invented an electric razor for man’s private areas. I don’t want to get too much into it, but an electric razor for man’s private areas. 

So he wanted to come up with a name so that people would know what the product does, but he would not offend people. So he’s thinking about it, and he goes, well, it’s just like a lawnmower. Why don’t I call it the lawnmower? Okay. He also changed the name of his company to Manscaped. We’re going to landscape the man with a lawnmower. I was in one of the stores like Bed, Bath and Beyond or something. 

My wife wanted to buy something, and they had a big poster, a big white poster. It said the lawnmower had an arrow and showed the electric razor. And underneath it is a description. And two guys were reading the stuff. And I became the third one, walked up to it, and started reading it. Oh, it’s a fermented private area. It’s called a lawnmower.

Cosmos

Emotional selling is nothing compared to logical selling.

Now, I never bought one. If I bought one, I would not share it with my friends. Let’s start there. Okay. But, um, if I bought one, I could see calling my buddy Joe. Hey Joe, guess what I just bought. What? The lawnmower. Oh, you have to mow your lawn? No, for shaving men’s private areas. He started laughing and called his wife. Hey Mary, guess what James just bought. What? The lawnmower. Oh, does he have to mow his lawn? No, it’s for shaving his private areas. She’d start laughing, and she, hey. She’d tell her friend, and it became. It would become viral. That’s basically what happened; it went viral. You know, here’s the lawnmower. Oh, okay. What, what’s the. Why is it called the lawnmower? But so, yeah, there are certain ways that you could explain what you sell to. You can come up with a metaphor by answering by completing this phrase. My product, service, or idea is just like, okay. And be as crazy as possible. 

So I remember the naked thing when I heard the phrase, only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked. He’s saying that only when times get tough do you realize who’s capable and competent. That’s what he’s saying. But if he said it that way, you go true. And that’s it. And you go on. But he said, only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked. You know, people laugh, and they get it, and they go, okay, so I realized, uh, if I want to describe my book, what it does is it grabs attention. 

So it grabs attention like a naked man running through your backyard. Get a naked man running through your backyard. Would that grab your attention? My book does the same. Okay, so it’s just, huh? Wakes up the brain.

Cosmos: 

Like James, I find it fascinating how logical selling is nothing compared to emotional selling. It’s profound. A lot of people, when they first get into the business of selling and ads and everything, start with the, “Oh, if I give the logical points, it’ll work out.” 

But obviously, emotions are more powerful than logic. It even works in politics. And often, you notice that the most successful politicians, the most successful people that attain power, are the ones that reach out to the masses’ emotions, you know?

James: 

Absolutely. And they use two emotional tools. So here’s a tool. It’s called alliteration or repetition of sound. And I’ll show you how it’s used in politics. Okay, first, so it’s, um, um, it’s. I didn’t realize this. When I started researching this. I realized, whoa, all these things use this. Coca Cola. Do you think it’s a coincidence? PayPal, tick tock. You know, it’s a Chinese social media platform, but it’s called Tick Tock. Do you think it’s a coincidence that they use alliteration? Uh, no. You know, so in, uh, in, uh, American election, what do we have? We have Biden’s Build Back Better. Buh, buh, buh. Do you think it’s a coincidence they use alliteration? No. They must Build a Bear, the toy stores, and a Bed, Bath and Beyond, Best Buy. Do you think it’s a coincidence all these things use that alliteration? And, uh, Trump used to make America great again. He got it from Reagan. But, uh, Good, good, great again.

Brain glue works when you don’t have a lot of money.

So, okay, let’s say you invented glue, okay? It’s a cool glue. And you want to come up with a name for it because you don’t just want to call it glue, Cosmos Glue, or something like that. I mean, maybe you can, but it’s harder to. Brain glue works when you don’t have a lot of money. If you have $10 million to spend on advertising, you can be successful and not use brain glue. But most of us don’t have much money to spend on advertising. Okay, so you’re creating a glue. So let me think about a, uh, metaphor. So, how strong is it? It’s as strong as an elephant. 

So Elephant glue. Okay, that’s good, but. That’s good. But let me find out if there’s another thing; I’ll use alliteration. Representation of sound. Good. Gorilla Glue. Aha. Gorilla Glue. I didn’t even know I bought Gorilla Glue. I forgot that I even have it. When I talked to somebody about it, they said you should buy it. But wait a second, I already did. You go into, uh, you know, a major store that has all these, uh, you know, supplies and stuff, and Gorilla Glue has almost a whole shelf, all these different categories of it. I have, uh, friends in construction who say there’s another, uh, glue called, um, a JB Weld. And JB Weld is much better than Gorilla Glue. Well, JB Weld has maybe two samples, two, uh, products on a shelf. At the same time, Gorilla Glue has a whole category of products. And it’s, it doesn’t matter if it’s better or not better. It has a better name. 

And so Gorilla Glue just jumps off the shelf or your ad, which is what you want. You want it to jump off, so it’s, uh, it grabs your attention. And I, to me, I always go back to blue emu. Works fast, and you won’t stink. What, what do you just say? You know, woke up my brain. The beginning didn’t wake my brain, but that end part, like, whoa, really woke up my brain.

Kerry Smith had a fan company, and he sold fans.

I’ll tell you this because Brain Glue is the third title for my book, and I messed up. So I was, I was reading about this, um, guy, Kerry Smith. Kerry Smith had a fan company, and he was selling, uh, fans. There were huge fans that were used on farms, mostly in barns. And uh, they were used for, uh, if you have cows or horses, you’re not going to put air conditioning in a barn. You’re going to put a fan. And then he would sell it to warehouses and stuff like that. 

And so he was struggling trying to find, um, a good name for it. And, you know, he was selling them, and they were okay, but not great. And then a friend of his talked about it and said, “Tell me about your fans. He said, well, they’re big. So how big are you? They’re big ass fans. He goes big-ass fans. Oh, wow. That’s what you got to tell everybody. They’re Big ass fans. And he goes, huh, huh. That’s interesting. So first, he ran an ad, and he said, we’re selling big ass fans. And suddenly. And sales exploded. 

So he started. He said, maybe I should change the name of the company, the big ass Fans, and put the, uh, logo. He has a cool logo of a donkey with his butt facing you. And his face is off in the distance, turned looking at you. So a donkey’s butt. A donkey is an ass, and he’s got his butt facing you. Okay. Big ass fans. He was. He talks a lot about this. He said sales exploded, and he started offering other products. And then he realized these other products were distracting me from the fans, and he stopped selling everything. Just focus on the fans. He had the business for 15 years. He isn’t that old. And, uh, he sold the business after 15 years. Guess how much he sold it for? $500 million. Okay. Talk about being rich and going from almost no money to suddenly being rich.

Cosmos: 

Wow.

James: 

And it’s because he came up with this name. It’s a trigger word. Ass. So when I saw at the beginning of I wrote the book, and I’m about to sell it, I need a title, and I’m going, okay, I should use the word ass in it. 

So I called it dump your half-ass marketing strategy. And it started selling like crazy. But then Amazon came to me. M contacted me and said we don’t like having a swear word in books. So, uh, you need to, we’re not, we’re not going to allow you to advertise on Amazon. And I’m like, oh, no, come on. They said, no, no, no, we won’t advertise on Amazon. I had like 80 reviews. You know, when you get over 100 reviews on Amazon selling a book, Amazon helps you sell it because they see many people like it. Um, so I begged them; I said, well, if I’m going to change the name, will you let me keep all my reviews? And they said we don’t normally do this because we’re forcing you to change. 

Yes. 

So, like an idiot, I came up with a logical title. And it was Sell More with a right-brain marketing strategy. People love my book but can’t remember its name or title, and I’m James Bond, so they can’t find me because that’s Sean Connery. And so. But, uh, then the book was selling okay. So when I met Jack Canfield, I had a friend who gave a copy of my book to Jack Canfield. He started looking at the book, and he got pissed off because he said, I couldn’t put the damn thing down. I have so many books to review and look at. And I looked at your book, and I couldn’t put the damn thing down. And I bought copies for everybody else. And I. First, I apologize. I’m so sorry. 

And I asked if I could use that as a quote. Can I videotape you with that quote? He said, on one condition. You have to change the title of the book. So it’s a stupid title. You’re selling us on emotional selling, and you have a logical title: Sell More with the right brain marketing strategy. The whole book’s about brain glue. You have to change the title of brain glue, and I’ll give you all the quotes you want. I’m like, do I have to? He said, yes, come on. You know, you’re teaching us emotional selling, and you have logical selling in the title. That’s wild. So, I had to change the title and change it correctly. But it’s true that you know, we’re logical people.

You want to start with a logical description of your product or service.

And so you want to start. So, you want to start with a logical description of your product, service, or idea. It could be ideas, too. Uh, there’s a black civil rights activist named Malcolm X, and Malcolm X used a tool called chiasmus, which is a flip. You know, all for one and one for all, okay? When the going gets tough, the tough get going. It’s a flip, okay? 

And his was. He had two of them that were famous. One was, uh, we didn’t land on Plymouth Rock. The Rock landed on us, okay? And it’s. Well, that’s. If he said, I’m a black person in America, and you have no idea how hard it is to be black in America. People would go, yeah, okay, I’ll find everything else. But for him to say, you know, we didn’t land on Plymouth Rock, which was the first thing that, you know, people that came to America landed on. We didn’t land on Plymouth Rock. The Rock landed on us. It grabs your attention, you know, more than a. Ah, just a straight phrase. Here’s another phrase that a lot of people don’t know. He came up with it but said you’ll fall for anything when you stand for nothing. Ah. Uh. And see, when you learn these tools, you start to realize, well, I can apply this to the stuff I’m trying to do, whether I’m trying to sell something or Sell an idea and convince someone of something. Um, it’s just amazing. I have. I’m not against guns. I’m not anti—an anti-gun person. But there’s this great phrase that said, huh, Uses chiasmus. It flips. Okay. The right to bear arms is almost as crazy as the right to bear bears.

Cosmos: 

Wow.

James: 

Okay. Huh, huh? Okay. I’m an older guy so that I can relate to this one. I’d rather wake up and pee than pee and wake up. Okay. You know, it’s again, it’s that flip, so there’s these tools. When you start learning the tools, you recognize how many places you see in and out of burgers in California. 

Now, they’re in the western United States. They compete with McDonald’s and Burger King and all that stuff. They’re making millions of dollars. It’s just a family-owned business. But because they call it in and out burgers. In and out has two definitions. The first one is because it’s a drive-through, so they called it in and out. You have to go in and out. And they use chiasmus, which is a flip. Okay, in and out opposite. But in and out also means sex to a lot of people.

Cosmos: 

Yeah.

James: 

I remember driving down the street with my mom and my wife, and we were going to McDonald’s. We were passing, and it said, “In and out burgers, in and out burgers.” What we had was topping. Let’s check that out. Okay. That’s what you want; you want somebody. You want to wake up the brain. 

So people are going, huh, you know, looking at ads or whatever else, and then they stop and say, whoa, wait a second, what’s that? You know, and that gives you a better chance of selling your product or service or idea because you’re grabbing their attention first. There’s a woman who. She spent no money, okay? Many people spend a fortune on Facebook ads to get many people to come to their page and buy their product or whatever else. Here’s a stay-at-home mom who spent no money and has over 5 million fans. Okay, how does she get 5 million fans? Well, she came up with a cool name, thinking I’m a stay-at-home mom, so let’s see, I should call my page. Mommy needs a rest. Mommy needs time to herself. Come on. Mommy needs a lot of stuff. I mean, mommy’s exhausted. Oh, I know what mommy needs. Mommy needs vodka. Uh, okay, so what did she do? I remember I had a friend who must be one of her fans. 

And so he shared, uh, posts. I was looking at the post. Oh, it’s really good. It’s by Mommy and needs vodka. What the heck’s that? I clicked on that. I looked at her page. I liked her post, and I became one of the fans. How many people have really good Facebook pages, and yet you don’t have that many fans? And yet, here’s this woman with over 5 million fans. 

And so if you go back to, like, O.J. Simpson, if the glove doesn’t fit, you must ensure it can get you off on a trial. Uh, persuasion, things like Warren Buffett saying, only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked—or other things like that. And advertising or marketing, or you’re putting a name on your product, uh, or service, and suddenly you see sales explode.

You start to realize you call it brain glue rather than brain hack

Cosmos: 

You start to realize you call it brain glue. Uh, but what’s coming to my mind is brain hacking because you’re doing a neural hacking of the brain. If you think about it, it’s almost like a Jedi or sit-mind trick. You know, it can be used for good or evil. I just need to understand how the mind works and all that stuff. It’s. It’s so wild and fascinating, and I couldn’t ask you for hours about this stuff, you know? It’s deeply fascinating for me, especially.

James: 

Well, here’s one of the tools. It’s called anchoring. Okay? As kids, we knew our heads, shoulders, knees, toes, eyes, ears, mouth, and nose. Okay, I can’t even do it anymore. Um, anyway, but we do it with kids. 

So Procter and Gamble figured, why don’t we steal that name? We have a dandruff shampoo called Head and Shoulders Shampoo. It’s anchoring because you’re picking something that exists. 

So there’s this guy, um, Bobby Flay. And Bobby Flay is, uh, a chef. And he created. He wanted to. He needed to create. Um, he was creating a show for the Food Channel, okay? And he wanted a name that people would remember. 

And so he figured, I’m going to be grilling people. I’ll show them how to grill stuff in their backyard, whatever else, and grill cool foods. That’ll be my specialty. So I need a cool name. Grill. So, what does a grill sound like? It kind of sounds like a girl.

Cosmos: 

Yeah.

James: 

And what’s a phrase with a girl? Boy meets girl. Oh, I’ll call it boy meets grill. Boy meets grill. He anchored something already in our brains but twisted it a little bit, and you suddenly went, whoa, it gets your attention. 

And you check it out, okay? And so President, uh, Ronald Reagan. Whether you like Reagan or not, it doesn’t matter. It’s not political, okay? But Reagan was right after the Vietnam War that he was president. And so people were protesting against war, okay? They didn’t like war. But, the military side came to Reagan and said, well, we got to create these missiles, uh, a missile defense system.

 So if anybody fires missiles at us, we can knock them off, and we can shoot them down. He said, okay, fine. Well, the problem is, if he promoted the missile defense system, then there would be protests because people are against a war. And now he’s got missiles. He’s spending all our money on everything else. 

So he figured people would hate us, and promoting it would be hard. But back then, guess what movie was famous? Star Wars. They had just launched Star Wars. Everybody loved it. So he came up with the idea, or they came up with the idea. Anchoring. Let’s marry these two pieces and put them together. We’re going to call it the Star Wars Missile Defense System. He says, so Reagan came forward and said, we’re going to. We’re starting this thing, and it’s called the Star Wars Missile Defense System.

Cosmos: 

Wow.

James: 

Nobody complained. They went, wow, that’s awesome. Wow. These are two things together. Persuasion, okay? And that’s what we have to understand: This is how persuasion works: If you take something that people hate and you have to—you’re trying to sell it—if you can anchor it somehow with something that people love, there’s a good chance that they’re going to love it. Uh, what you’re presenting?

Cosmos: 

That is so wild. And yet, it makes complete sense to me.

James: 

Yeah, it does. I mean, it’s, it’s really, it’s. It’s. Stuff like that is amazing. I heard somebody say, um, you can’t hug a child with nuclear arms. It’s like, what? But that’s using that, you know, it’s anchoring two things together. You know, they said it’s emotional, so it’s arms. Nuclear arms. Arm arms. 

So what else can you do with arms? Well, you hug kids. Oh, you can’t hug your child with nuclear arms. You know, and they anchor those two things together. Now they get you to hate, or, you know, not everybody hates it, but this whole idea of, like, you can’t hug a child with nuclear arms, it’s kind of a stupid quote, but I get that what you’re trying to say is nuclear arms is not a good thing, you know, so Reagan used it for positive. And so other people use the brain glue tool, the anchoring for a negative, to get people to hate something, you know? Yeah. 

It’s just that we start to understand this, we start to hear this, and then we start to apply it, which is cool. But when we hear this stuff, we realize it’s interesting. You will start to recognize successful or famous people and how they use these tools.

Cosmos: 

James, there’s so much to talk about, and what you’re sharing is invaluable information. But the hour is coming to a close.

James: 

You can use brain glue to help sell your product or service

So, uh, before we end the podcast, I wanted to ask, like, where can our audience get to know, uh, get to buy your brain Bluebook, And also how can they connect with you and, uh, get to know more about you and everything that you do?

Well, the one place to go is yesbrainglue.com, which has a lot of information on the brain glue in the book and everything else. Hopefully, you’ll buy it. But even if you don’t buy it, you’ll get lots of information. That’s the first thing. So, yes, brain glue, and that’s an easy way. Uh, let me give your audience, uh, a couple of quick tools that they can apply right away. Hopefully, you will buy the book because I think you will love it, but I’ll give you some tools you can apply. Okay, here’s the first tool—a metaphor. My product or idea, whatever it is, is like, what? And be as crazy as possible. Start with this craziest idea. My book is like a naked man running through your backyard. Okay? You know, just have fun with it because remember the lawnmower? Okay, he had fun with it and came up and decided, why do I call it the lawnmower? 

But whatever your product or idea is, or service come up with, uh, complete the phrase, my product or idea is just like, uh, what? And be as crazy as possible. Okay. The second one is to list three at least three words. Three words that relate to your product or idea are fine. Okay. If I’m selling persuasion, so, you know, whatever it is, but. 

Then, you can chat with GPT or some AI and ask for all the rhyme words. What are 100 words that rhyme with these words? And you see all the words that rhyme, and when they do that, you can start anchoring them together and come up with a pretty cool name. The last one is alliteration, which is the repetition of sounds, like gorilla glue. Okay, so whatever your product is, first come up with the logical name for your product and then come up with as many words that start with the same sound as that product or service you have. 

Those three are good starting points that will help you come up with things you have never considered before, like I did with mine. It’s like, uh, brain glue lights, the fire of desire in your buyer. I love saying that because it relates, people can relate that it wakes up part of the brain. But, uh, if you take these three, which is my product or service is just like, and have fun with it, and then look for words that rhyme with it and alliterate with it, you know, same sound, you have a good shot at getting some ideas that will excite you. But yes, the. Yes, brain glue; go to yes brainglue.com, and you’ll get all kinds of information that I think you’ll find helpful.

Cosmos: 

James, I’m so glad you took the time to come on this podcast and share this invaluable wisdom because what you just talked about is nothing short of a superpower. The people who understand this will be successful and financially clean their business. I recommend that my audience and listeners buy this book and understand how to sell it. And you have to realize it’s not about logical selling but emotional selling. People respond to emotions and to triggers more than anything else. 

I hope you will return to this podcast later because I appreciate having you.

James: 

Oh, thank you. Thank you so much, by the way. The book is fun and funny because it has many jokes, and comedians always use brain glue. I didn’t even realize it, but it’s like, suddenly, as soon as you learn the tool, you go, oh, wait a second. That joke, that joke, that joke. So it’ll be a lot of fun. But yeah, thank you very much for having me.

Cosmos: 

Thank you so much. I want to end this episode by letting my fellow extraordinary Americans know, “Hey, listen. There’s an extraordinary within every one of us. We must awaken it and unleash it.” Until next time, bye for now.