 What is going on Charles Boneson? So we finally have another book review for me. I read a lot of books. I read maybe three or four a week and how I do it is right before I go to bed, I put on the audio book at three times the speed, so if something like Contagious, I can get that done in the night because it's probably an hour and a half, two hours at three times the speed. And then I actually buy the actual book. So it really resonates with me and I have to pay attention. So today we're going to be talking about Contagious. There we go. Just want to make sure there's no reflection. We're going to go over really quick and the biggest points that I got out of it, I'm going to be looking over at my notes because I have a lot of notes. So really there's six areas that make something Contagious. So Contagious is something that you keep going back to and it's essentially how, if you saw the recent 60 minutes, they actually it's probably not recent anymore, but go into it. It's called Mind Hacking. Probably all the apps that are coming out, any cell phone, any games, anything that's coming out, they're going to want you to, even food, they want you to keep on coming back. And then there's products that is talked about in this book. So in other words, for an app, they gamify it, they make it fun, they make it engaging. Gamify in other words, you know where you stand in a game. In other words, who's number one? Number two, you can make it where there's gameplay between players, so that makes you coming back for more. But then there's also products that he talks about in the book that you just go back to because it's either really catchy, it's really good, you know the tagline. And it's just why things catch on, essentially is the title. So number one is social currency. So social currency, this is actually really interesting. We share things that make us look good. We share things that make us look good. So in other words, why do you share things on Instagram? A beautiful photo, out with your friends, I'm now traveling to whatever country or maybe a big job promotion or whatever the case is or a selfie. You share things that make you look good, okay? That's amazing because you want to put your currency of the photo of your standing up socially above the pecking order. So in other words, anything we do is just to just get a little bit bigger. You know, why do people leave legacies? People leave legacies or gifts or grants or they make a ton of money and they give it all away is because they want to be known for something, okay? There's something called the denial of death, a book called the denial of death is that you leave something behind because you actually want people to remember you for something, okay? So social currency is essentially saying you're sharing something that's cool, you know, like GoPro or Nike or Apple or Amazon. Like these are cool brands, okay? It's a brand but you're sharing it, okay? It's like people that are a little embarrassed at working at a company. But now people are like, oh, I work at Google, I work at Facebook. And it's like, oh, really? That's super cool. But if you work at MySpace, you're like, oh, really? MySpace? Or you work at, say, a bank. You know, those aren't as fun and enticing brands. So the social currency of that is not going to really make you good, make you cool by sharing that, say, tagging your location. So number one is social currency. And the question to ask is, does talking about your product or idea make people look good, okay? So when you talk about your product, app, idea, shirt, brand, whatever the case is, does it make people feel good? Do they want to actually share it? And when they share it, do they feel good? So if I share my run with Nike, in other words, Nike now has a Nike running club and you can share your run and there's a little overlay on your image that shows how many miles you went and it has the little check mark, that's cool. But if it was some other app, you're probably not gonna, you're not gonna share it because it's not as cool. The brand isn't as cool. It doesn't make you feel good. Okay, moving on to number two is triggers. This is, each of them is different. So, and you can be contagious on social currency. Number two is triggers. Top of mind, tip of tongue. So in other words, when someone says, Kleenex or Q-tips, that's top of mind. It's like, those are brands. It's not like nose tissue. It's like Kleenex or cotton swab for your ears. No, it's Q-tip. It's tip of mind. In other words, anytime you think of something, what triggers in your mind? Okay, you think of car insurance. Who do you think of? When you think of computers, what do you think of? When you think of, say, video sites. You know, what triggers in your mind? What's that immediate thing that you say, this is it? Okay, so it's really bringing brand awareness around something that the trigger could be a word. It could be something that you do. In other words, I, a word, like I just said before, Kleenex or I would say paper towels. Who do you think of? Do you think of Bounty? Because the paper picker, thinker, Bounty, you know, that's a trigger when you think of paper towels. Okay, but then a trigger could be an action, which is, oh, you're going running? What kind of shoes are you gonna wear? Okay, that could be Nike. Here are some of the questions. Consider the context. What cues make people think of your product or idea? What cue happens where someone says, okay, I'm gonna buy an Apple product. It's like, I need a computer. What's the cue that makes you think of the brand? Your brand, your idea, your app, your anything, whatever you're creating. Number three is emotion. Emotion is probably honestly one of the biggest things that you have to actually just master. You have to master your emotions, but you also have to master the emotions of your brand, how people feel about it. But most importantly is there's a lot of things around this, okay? And emotion really is when they say your brand, your idea, your app, whatever the case is, what's the emotion that goes through people's minds? I say united. People are united airlines. People are like, well, they dragged that guy off. There's a lawsuit. They also don't treat their employees well. So the emotion circulating around that brand, not that good. But then there's other brands like Zappos. Zappos, I think just donated a million dollars to some really good cause. So it's like, when you think of Zappos, you think, what emotion do I get, okay? So when you think of Delta or United Airlines, I might take Delta because the emotion that United gives me is not that pleasant. So here are some of the questions. Focus on the feelings. This is one of the most important things. Honestly, and the reason I say this is that this is why people buy. This is why when Simon Sinek said it, Simon Sinek in his talk said, you just don't know why, you just, why did you marry that person? I don't know, it just felt right. It just felt right. Why did you buy that house? I don't know, it just felt right. These are big decisions. Buying a house and marrying someone and you're saying it just feels right. People go with their feelings. It's just sales 101. They buy with their feelings and they justify logically. I married this person. I don't know, it just felt right. Well, they have a good family. They have a good job. They're fun. They're engaging. They're great to be around. They would be a fantastic father to my children. Why didn't you buy this house? I don't know, it just felt right. Wow, the location is great. It's right across from the school that my children are gonna go to. The driveway's really big and I love to play hockey with my kids or throw the ball around, whatever, they justify it logically. So always focus on the emotion and people will justify it logically. Number four, public. Built to show, built to grow. We'll just jump right into the question. Does your product or idea advertise itself? Can people see when other people are using it? In other words, whatever you have, is there a way to actually get it out publicly? So in other words, one of the best things is say a restaurant. This is a great idea. A restaurant that not only tags their place but they deliver really good food in a way that people can take a photo and put it on Instagram. That's how you get your brand out there. But if you deliver the food and it's not Instagrammable or talkable, in other words, where you can tell other people, social currency, then there's really no way to share your brand, your idea. You need a way to actually share it, okay? Sharing the easiest way is obviously Facebook because they have a share button. That's why videos go viral. There's a couple of YouTube videos that go viral but most of them are on Facebook because all you have to do is share it on your wall, share it to friends' walls, messenger, whatever the case is, there's easier outlets to actually share. Continuing on with the fourth one, which is can you create a behavior that behavior residue that sticks around even after people use it? Brilliant, absolutely brilliant. Like is there a habit, is there anything that goes through someone's mind after it's like getting off a roller coaster yet you're filled with emotions? You want to go public with it. Instagram story says, wow, that was crazy. I just got off Kingdekot at Six Flags. That was insane. You tag Six Flags, you talk about Kingdekot, that's going public. You need to make your product or your app go public. Number five is practical value. News you can use, okay? Just talking about your product, help other people, help others, okay? So this is kind of hard to explain. How can you highlight incredible value, packaging your knowledge and expertise into useful information so others, so others will be able to disseminate, okay? So for me, I'm in real estate. How do I actually practically spread by brand awareness? There's a lot of ways. Number one is there's beautiful apartments that we actually share. Number two is information. So in other words, we put out information that people can share and say, this is what the current interest rates are. Here's an easy way to get a loan. Here's an easy way to buy a house. Do you actually need a real estate agent? Do you actually need an agent to sell your house? And you just go down the buying process or the selling process or whatever it is for you and you say, okay, how do I actually make this easier for people to understand my brand? If you make a bag, say you make a leather bag. I know someone that actually did this. They actually show from the beginning to the end, the cow hide, then actually flattening it out, dying it, evening it out, cutting it, then stitching it, then putting on the buttons and the zippers and the handle and everything else. So you're seeing it from the beginning to the end and you're saying, wow, that's so cool. That's actually how people make a bag or a leather bag and then you see the end product but you see the entire formation of that bag. Practical, useful value of your bag. And then number six is stories. It's never gonna go anywhere. Stories is here to last and I don't care what anyone says. That's the reason we're on social media is to tell a story, to see a story, to listen to a story. That's why we watch the news for stories. Why we talk to friends. Story telling has been around since there has been language. Telling the story of how to actually cook, how to eat, how to hunt, how to mate, how to go to war. That was around when we came up with language and voice and the ability to actually translate ideas and it's gonna be in the future. That's whether it's technology, whether it's voice, whether it's handwritten, whether it's pictures or anything else. Here are the questions. What is your Trojan horse? So in other words, the Trojan horse story, everyone knows the story. Everyone knows the story. It's been, it's gone through thousands of years of generation, of generational just storytelling. What is the storytelling of your product? I just talked about it in number six is what's the story of that bag that led their bag from the beginning of the cow hide to the finished product on a shelf? What is the story of that bag? What is the story of your company? Why did you start the company? Why did you start the brand? Why did you start the app? Why, who's your story? Where did you grow up? What were you doing before? You have to tell stories. You have to tell stories about your product, your idea but your company as well. Why did you start your company? Why do you continue starting your company? Where are you going? What are you innovating? How do you see the future? What's the marketplace surrounding your product or your idea? If you're in retail, you have to tell a vastly different idea than say you're a dating app or you're a personal brand. You have to tell your story continuing on with the questions. Is your product or idea embedded in a broader narrative that people want to share? In other words, the people want to share your story. The Trojan Horse story is crazy. Funny stories are always good. Things that feel that there's tension. They brought up tension in here. You have to bring up some kind of tension in the story. So I highly recommend the book. The book is, I think it has like four and a half out of five stars on Amazon. Very good book. Obviously, link is below. It's obviously affiliated so I can keep on doing these book reviews. The next one we're actually gonna do is pitch anything. And this book was crazy. I don't know if you're in sales but you need to get into sales if you, or if you are in sales, you gotta read this book. So have an awesome day. Pick up Contagious. And I'm Charles Bohansson. Subscribe to the video. Leave your comments below. Have an awesome day. Talk to you soon.