What Would Arnold Schwarzenegger Do?

In this blockbuster episode of the Talking About Marketing Podcast, Steve and David Olney delve into the intriguing world of mind-changing strategies and powerful principles for business success, drawing inspiration from an unusual source: Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Titled What Would Arnold Schwarzenegger Do?, this episode embarks on a journey through David McRaney's enlightening book, How Minds Change. The discussion explores a novel technique to pause and reconsider during heated debates, a moment termed "um well", inspired by McRaney's podcast, You Are Not So Smart.

The conversation then sails through Schwarzenegger's latest book, Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life, a treasure trove of life lessons and entertaining anecdotes. Schwarzenegger’s take on the classic self-help formula of see, believe, achieve is examined, revealing a crucial missing link for attaining goals.

The episode doesn't just stop there. It also tackles practical business principles, answers pressing tech questions like the timing of iOS updates, and shares insights from the Sandler Selling System, particularly focusing on the post-sell stage.

Join Steve and David in this thought-provoking episode as they weave together psychology, celebrity insights, and pragmatic business advice, offering listeners a unique blend of entertainment and enlightenment.

PS If you're curious about AI or feeling like you're addicted, take our short introductory course to tame the beast. Use the code NOV23WOOF to get it for $29 instead of $49 during November 2023. AI Obedience School.

Get ready to take notes!

Talking About Marketing podcast episode notes with timecodes

01:11 Person This segment focusses on you, the person, because we believe business is personal.
How Minds Change

David McRaney has written a great book, How Minds Change. And in this segment, we're looking at a little hack for getting an "opponent" to stop and think when arguing with you.

When we are confronted with something we disagree with, our mind throws up reactants; these are arguments against the new information to justify what we hold true.

Often, that is lazy thinking and/or debate-style, reactive thinking in which you are on guard against your position being challenged.

But in his book, McRaney canvasses ways to counter this process and shares a simple technique, which he discusses on his own podcast, You Are Not So Smart (recommended to us by Lisa Kennewell), episode 269.

The "um well" is a great moment when we step out of old thinking to take stock, eg, what did you think of Top Gun Maverick? Oh, 8/10. Why not 10? Hmmm, we come up with negatives. Or, why not 6? We come up with positives.

This is anchoring a conversation with someone and is worth experimenting with.

11:40 Principles This segment focusses principles you can apply in your business today.
See. Believe. (Explain). Achieve.

David just finished listening to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s new book, Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life.

As well as being thoroughly entertaining, because it is full of great stories from his life that Schwarzenegger reads himself, the book is genuinely useful.

In particular, I liked Schwarzenegger’s discussion of the self-help adage: see, believe, achieve.

In order to achieve any goal, you have to be able to visualise what you want to do, believe that you can get it done, and then do the work to achieve your goal.

The missing link

Even though this initially sounds like a cohesive three-part strategy, Schwarzenegger points out that it is missing an especially important fourth part.

Ideally, you also need to be able to explain the significance of your vision to yourself and others, explain why you believe you can achieve it to yourself and others, and explain how you are going to break your big goal down into lots of little goals that you can chip away at one at a time, so that you can work toward achieving your ultimate goal in a manageable and structured way.

We discuss this more in the podcast.

19:44 Problems This segment answers questions we've received from clients or listeners.
To Update Or Not Update?

iOS updates, and others.

Should you be the first kid on the block to apply updates to your phone or other software?

Sometimes it pays to be cautious unless you know of a specific feature that