Utilizing Micro Messages In Pursuit Of The Truth

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We’re going to talk about purchasing truth through micro-messaging. I know that the title may sound a little boring. Where’s that going? This is relevant every day in our current state of news and politics. Bill, helped take us down this road.



It’s a great delight to be here with you again and to be able to share the importance of micro-messaging, whether it’s true or false, it still has an impact. If you say a micro message over and over again, even though it’s not true, it still can be damaging. Many attorneys who are doing their job to advocate or fight for their clients use micro messages to pollute the jury’s consciousness for them to create the thing called reasonable doubt. That’s what I got to do. I got to get one person in this room. Some of us have seen the play or the movie 12 Angry Men where one person, everybody was going guilty at the beginning. By the end, all of them are going innocent. They’re going like, “I do have reasonable doubt. My own bias was in here. My prejudice was in the room. I have to take ownership of that. I can’t speak anymore because the gig is up.” No, they’re guilty because they’re black, Asian or Mexican. Pick a race and watch what happens.

The challenge in micro-messaging is it sticks. It creates an atmosphere inside the bodies or the listener’s physiology to hijack their dopamine so that I could create some certainty, even though I don’t fully believe it’s true. I don’t believe it’s false. All of a sudden, all I got to do is say, “Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, Ukraine,” and then the message is, “I don’t know what happened over there.” Instead of, “They were investigated and there was no evidence. The story has been made up,” or as the believer would like to believe, “I voted for this leader. I trusted him with my vote. He hired this attorney. As the president, he gets to do whatever he wants.” That’s where the brain clicks over. You get to say whatever you want and do whatever he wants. Now, I got to listen to his tweets and go on the roller coaster of it. All the tweet is a micro message.

It’s a micro essence as long as you’re listening. I don’t know how many million followers he has but maybe half the country hears the message because whether you’re following him on Twitter or not, you probably watch the news that every day is filled with what his latest tweet was. You don’t have to be a Twitter follower to hear it.

Notice the pursuit of truth is getting little traction. Especially, the pursuit of truth in reference to a written document called the law. “Here’s what the law says. Here’s what the person said or did. Therefore, under this law, this person has guilt associated with it.” If I go on and you and I were to have a pretend narrative about robbing a bank. Notice what I just did was I put robbing a bank and I put pretend narrative on both sides. If somebody takes this audio, they could clip it out. At least, I got to make them work to clip it out and create a false story about me as a communicator because it’s a pretend narrative. If I’m pretending to do something that is against the law, that’s called conspiring. I’m talking to you about doing something and it’s over this social media platform that gets to be promoted in any way that the person wants to choose to promote it.

It’s not until evidence comes and until the body of evidence looks at. Until my attorney would say, “This is a communication specialist that was using an example. It’s not somebody that was conspiring with his co-host, Tom, to illusionary robbing an illusionary bank.” Watch how many times I put the word illusion in there to make sure the listener is not hearing and that there’s some clear understanding that there’s no communication that’s going in that direction. We’ve got to watch how it’s going to apply to four specific areas. What is the press corps reporting on? What are the cable news outlets reporting on? What is trickling to the local news markets? Also, the fatigue of people withdrawing. That’s what we got to watch out for because micro-messaging could cause fatigue.

I bet it can cause fatigue. I see all kinds of tension and fatigue. It’s one quality that I’ve seen in about every press conference that occurs in the White House or with the President. Whether it’s chopper talk or a more formal one. It seems like the truth is seriously under assault and that word, I don’t use lightly but it seems like we’re through the looking glass here.

Assault is a word of something that is done in a repetitive way. An assault weapon is a flurry of bullets.

It’s like, “The call was perfect.” That might be one or the viewer mentioning Joe Biden that he keeps repeating the same thing over and over about investigating the investigators or going after Joe Biden, even though it’s been debunked and the world knows this.

Ten people could get on saying the word debunked. If I’m looking through those filters of trusting Mike Pompeo, Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump, Stephen Miller or the various spokespeople that he has on, they’re reinforcing the narrative that my guy is being victimized. We have the word assault and victimized. Which one is I’m going to pick on? The victim? No, because I’m a victim. I’m the listener now. I voted for Donald Trump because I was a victim of the system. Nobody is facing the real giant which is the corporate giant, insurance giant and pharmacy giant. Donald Trump said that he would face those and he looks stronger than Hillary Clinton facing those.

She didn’t come up over the strong message because she knew that she had to go back to those people and ask favors in order to get things done or increase the range of Obamacare. They’re going like, “That’s not going to help me because I’m still paying $100, $200 or $500 a month. It’s still not helping me and I’m still not getting value. It still doesn’t seem like it’s making a difference. It doesn’t look like the system has changed. We’re just throwing more money at it. It’s coming through this program that I may not even have access to because there are many Republican governors that did not allow their constituents to get access to that money.” Is that sad? I feel sad when I hear that.

The pursuit of truth gets very little traction.

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Here’s a person in the state of Texas and they can’t have access to Obamacare because the governor who is Republican said, “No, we’re not going to take your money.” “Why?” “Because it’s not our belief to take your money and we’re going to starve our system. Therefore, people get to die in-state voters. People who voted for me get to die because I’m not taking the money so you can get some form of healthcare. At least, get a shot at it.” Notice that the need for integrity, care, collaboration and cooperation is not being met. Now, you can see how mad people can get. Tom, when you think about some of the things that you’ve heard in the current events, let’s take something out. Any example you would like so we could take a look at how a micro message would make a difference here and you can pick anything you like because it all works.



One that we see often and it seems to be replaying the same thing over and over again. I might be helpful to shine a light on it. Maybe we can help make a difference if anybody listens. It is with these press conferences. Let’s take the media reporters who are asking questions of the President. The President has a press conference with the President of Finland. The President asked a question, he didn’t answer it. He goes off on his messaging. The reporter keeps trying to ask the same question and say, “You didn’t answer my question,” and re-asking it. They’re not effective at achieving much, except the President going off on a tangent about what he wants to say and not what they were asking him about. Help us with that. What do you think, Bill?

As somebody that is mediated by a lot of conflicts, the first thing that I see is valuable. If I’m the person asking the question like this reporter was and the listener is not giving the answer to my question. What I would like to do is assist the listener, which is the president, in this case, to hear my question again. In which it would sound like, “Mr. President, you would like me to hear XYZ,” saying what the President has said in pulling his micro message through. My rule is, “Don’t say it. That’s not what I asked. You did not answer the question.”

Which seems to be the thing that they all instinctively come back with, isn’t it?

Yeah. You didn’t answer the question and you’re trying to get away with it. Here’s the way that I would train the press corps to speak as well as every journalistic school in the United States. Make sure that the message sent is the message received. If it is not received, then whatever they just said, has to be taken out of the way. You have to get it to pull it through and set it aside. “Mr. President, you’d like me to focus on XYZ. Did I hear that correctly?” “Yes, exactly.” “Would you be willing to help me with this second sentence?” I enlisted him as an ally. “What was the outcome that you would have liked from the Ukrainian president?” “I would have liked him to start an investigation.” The human being does not know that they’re walking themselves down because he had already given a defensive position. The president could only come back with another defensive position, which was, “I just gave you a whole bunch of beautiful words. Ask the question to the Finland guy.”

It’s like, “I answered your question. Ask him a question.”

Ask a question for this guy because you got me at the end of the rope. “No, Mr. President. I want to make sure that you were answering the question I asked.” He was kind and nice. What does the President end up doing? “You’re not respectful to this other person.” He shifted it to the other person. Meanwhile, the President is taking this meeting with the person to Finland so that he could get a cover, his people can give him something to do and this person is safe. “Why don’t you ask about Finland?” “I’m not interested in him.” You’re in the boiling pot of an impeachment body. I could have asked the Finland guy or I could turn to the Finland guy if I wanted to piss the President off. I might say, “In your country, do you recommend asking other countries for help with your elections?”

Anybody who asked that question would become instantly nationally known or notorious journalist. I would think that the president would throw him out.

No, because what happens next is the Finnish President is going like, “Our laws are written differently.” All of a sudden, the person could come back and go to our President saying, “Are you interested in changing the rules that we would like that it’s okay to look for us? Should we change the Constitution to allow for other countries to support a certain candidate against another candidate? Would you like to change that rule?” “Why?” “Because that’s what he did.” “I’m okay to see the direction our country is going.” “More authoritarian countries do it this way. Are you interested in that view of America versus in the view of America and the rules that were currently following, Mr. President? Would that work for you?”

It would take a senior-level skilled journalist to be willing to ask those questions. I almost feel like sometimes, the people that are in the press corps at these events especially, now in our current state of administration, they need the training.

Two weeks of training about how to think and speak in a way that’s empathetic and to make sure the message sent is the message received allows the press corps to up their game. Why are they going to up their game? Because of the current strategies and languaging tools. They’ve been taught to ask this question to answer. Problem-solving and mindset are not effective for somebody that’s in this much pain as President Donald Trump is. This man is in a lot of pain about getting respect, identity, self-worth, acceptance, acknowledgment and recognition. The thing is he’s dispersing his pain and spreading his pain out and agitating the pain that other people. The level of healing that we need next is nationwide. The next president is going to be burdened with healing the nation. With that healing that needs to take place, there’s a lot of reckoning on many issues. Mental health is one of them.

Whoever the next president is will be burdened with healing the nation.

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Do you think so?

Yes.

I wonder if he felt more emboldened by how bulletproof he seemed to be after The Mueller Report that then he’s like, “I’m going to go do it.” Do you think he’s a moth to a flame? He would have done it anyway.

I get a choice. It’s like that six-year-old that keeps doing a tantrum, while they’re trying to get ice cream. That’s it. I know he’s in much pain because of the things that didn’t get. The quality of value exchange that he needed to be enriched in values rather than enriched in entitlement, that’s what he turned into being an entitlement guy. Meaning, he’s entitled to do whatever he wants, say whatever he wants and he gets to buy himself out of everything. All you got to do is watch him at disposition and he’s passive. “I don’t know. I can’t read. Shall I get my glasses?” He’s like that guy. He doesn’t have to engage.

He’s trying to be intentionally aloof.

He knows that he can run and dampen truth just by sing time and money as an ally. Run out of the clock. All of a sudden, “Sorry, you to get the ball back because I was holding it and didn’t want to play the game anymore,” which is a strong tactic that also Mitch McConnell has in his consciousness.

We’re not going to vote on America.

He boasted about it, “Here’s the graveyard of legislation that we didn’t vote on.” What legislator talks like that openly and is not voted out of office? You stalled legislation. You’re not even doing your job. You’re just figuring out good ways to use the law to stall legislation and saying like, “I’m going to stall legislation.”

That’s disappointing when it doesn’t even come up for discussion or debate.

Let’s talk about the word’s explanation and problem-solving. How those two tactics do not work in micro-messaging. Explanation, problem-solving, solutions or advice do not work in micro-messaging. I can watch The Rachel Maddow Show and I can say, “Poor Rachel.” Notice that she said she would look at me and go like, “I got a great fan base. They love me.” They do because you do a couple of different things as you repeat micro-messages. The reason why people don’t like you is that you spend so much time explaining but it doesn’t sound authentic. It sounds like you’re just talking over until you convince and I’m sitting there numb after fifteen minutes. Meanwhile, you’ve got time to fill, you’re trying to draw the lines. You are explaining it and you do. You are putting parts together but by the time you put the parts together, I don’t want to play with the toy anymore.

It feels like you’re being strapped down to a chair in front of a teacher and required to hear the lesson or you’re getting a root canal and the stuff that you can’t do, but you sit there and take it.

The Democrats and the Republicans are all are trying to achieve an agenda. They're not necessarily pursuing the truth in a skilled way.

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It takes more than just being pointed in the right direction. “This is why I trained with you for the better part of a whole year to learn how to communicate better for my purposes.”



It’s a good moment of taking place in the thing to take a breath of and going like, “The dual response is that, is this person ready to hear the answer?” Most people are not. “Does this person need a moment of empathy or compassion first before they can hear the answer?”

From experience and not as a master at this but as a student of this, they need empathy and compassion. If you give it to them, first of all, they’re not expecting it but once they get it, their shoulders are relaxed. Their brain chemistry is changing right in those seconds that it’s happening and they are in a much more receptive state of mind to whatever the next thing you’re going to say is.

You’re using the metaphor of you getting further out on the plank and you didn’t come out and say that it’s like on the pirate ship working at the plank.

When you go down these 90 seconds to 3 minutes of providing that empathy and compassion, asking them questions and getting them to say yes and respond, Donald Trump will adjust the next question. Once he says yes and he’s like, “Would you be willing to consider or would you get,” whatever your next question is he’s ready, but he doesn’t realize if you’re skilled at this. The more questions you ask him and the more they say yes, the more they are putting themselves in a corner or walking further out that plank.

They think that you’re helping them feel better at that moment.

You are compassionate. There’s no doubt here. You are helping them.

You’re making them feel better, but you also let the truth come out on its own.

You do and you also get a chance to swing the 10%, 15% to 20% of voters in your direction. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders can close the gap between Joe Biden within the next two months with a little bit of communication training with their staff. They can easily do that and their staff training, too by replacing a push narrative with a pull narrative. Push the narrative is, “Here’s what we’re going to do for you.” A pull narrative is, “Let me hear what your beliefs are and your consciousness is. Let’s provide compassion and empathy for where you are. Let’s go in that direction so that you can this and walk away from this triggering of what the other side is doing with safety elements or certainty elements that cause fear to take place.” They say, “I better vote Donald Trump again because I’m scared of what these other people are going to do.” We could talk next time about that. That might be a good place to get people out of withdrawing and get them back into engagement.

I like that. That sounds great, Bill.

It’s a good piece. What was an a-ha that made a big difference for yourself? The readers might have one of these too.

The a-ha is that there is a path that’s a clear one as long as you get some training and skill and practice it. There is a path to combat the assault on truth.

There is a path you could be able to withstand and the word assault is good because it’s an assault weapon which is putting a whole bunch of bullets out. For those of you that are science fiction fans that know the movie, The Matrix, first, you dodge the bullets. You have enough skills to put it up and say, “No. I choose to hear from you differently.” That’s the thing that I’d like all the press corps, the TV interviewers and the cable news people to get ahold of even local markets can get a hold of this. They should start using it as a tool because it’s going to enrich themselves and make it easier to tell the news as well as engage the humanity of, “That didn’t go well. That person lost a life over there.” Here’s what you can choose to do about it.