How to Turn Words into Wealth: The Neuroscience of 27X Storytelling - Aurora Winter

Hi, everyone, and welcome back to Behind the Numbers. This is the show that goes beyond the data, as you know. We explore the real stories and the people and the insights, all that stuff that's behind the spreadsheets that really drive business success. I'm Dave Bookbinder. I am known as a business valuation expert and bestselling author, and I thank you for joining me. So think about the power of the written word or the spoken word. With nothing but ink on paper or a voice in a room, you can completely change how someone thinks, feels, and acts. In business, that's not just an art. It's kind of the ultimate leverage. Our guest today is a master at this exact leverage. She's a former Hollywood TV executive, a serial seven-figure entrepreneur, and the founder of Same Page Publishing. She's used the power of precise communications to generate $3 million in a single week using just seven words, and we're going to talk about that. And she specializes in helping leaders scale their revenue by up to 2,700% using NARIA. She's the author of Turn Words into Wealth, and she's here to break down the neuroscience of effective communication, how to make seven figures from your expertise, and why doubling down on being human in this world of AI is your biggest competitive advantage. I welcome to the show, Aurora Winter. Oh, it's great to be on the show with you, Dave. Thanks for that wonderful introduction. Yes, I look forward to diving into how people can use AI, how not to use AI, how it can destroy their brand, and how to have their communication such that it turns their words into wealth. Cool. Is there anything that I missed in that introduction that you want to make sure the audience knows? No, I think you covered a lot there. Yeah, I'm going to be honest with you. That's one of the longer ones that I've done and typically do, but I felt it was important to do that here. So thank you for indulging me in that long-winded intro as you sat there patiently. Thank you. I want to start with a concept that you often talk about, this idea that great communicators are really essentially wizards who can use words to create reality, action, and revenue out of, we'll call it thin air. So when an entrepreneur or an executive hears that, they might think, that sounds great, but I sell a complex product or service. So how does a business leader tap into that wizardry to cut through the noise and actually drive? Now, I really love this question. Most people really, especially smart people, especially analytical people, people such as yourself, like engineers or accountants or financial wizards, often dismiss the power of words. But actually, the way that you communicate by itself adds value because it changes the neuroscience in the brain. There was a very interesting experiment that I studied when I took my MBA in 2015. And basically, it was bottles of wine and plastic cups, but they were told a story about the wine. And when people were told the story that this vintage came from the region called Rhone and had been a family legacy vineyard that had been in the family for hundreds of years. And they waited until the grapes were just so before harvesting them. And then they sipped the wine. They estimated the value of the bottle of wine to be $50. And when they were not told that story and simply tasted wine in a different cup, they were told it was from a different vineyard, they estimated the value of the bottle of wine at $5. And here's the thing, the chemistry in their brain was different. Their brain fired up differently with the story or without the story, but it was actually the same wine. So the story itself changed the value in the brain, in the perception. Other stories, like you mentioned the 27x value. So we could go into that. But basically, it's really shocking, really surprising. But the actual data shows that the same item with a story or without a story, by adding the story, you can get 27 times more value. And they did an experiment with 100 different random objects, different people writing the stories. Because here's the thing, significance or meaning adds value. It's not just about the item itself. The significance remains. Let me just give a quick example so that this really lands. They had a hundred different objects for sale on eBay with a story or without a story. An example would be pot mitts. The story would have been my grandmother used these pot mitts. I have such fond memories of coming home from school, having milk and cookies with her. It just makes my heart so happy. Now, you don't get the grandmother. You don't get the cookies. But you do get the story. And that meaning added 27 times to the value of the object. So don't dismiss the value of a story. Yeah, that's fascinating. And I love the neuroscience theme here. And we'd love to keep that thread going throughout our conversation here. And since you brought it up, let's touch on that 27x value of the story. And you sort of alluded to it, but what does it look like when a company actually executes this right? When a company executes this right, they get a very clear, concise, compelling message, not a diatribe, not a whole page, but maybe seven words that electrify their ideal client or prospect or patient. Let me give you an example of this, because stories always drive the point home. This is another mistake that smart, well-educated people make, is they just think if I give an Excel spreadsheet or a verbal equivalent of an Excel spreadsheet to the other person, they will open it, understand it, and receive it. But actually, way before Excel spreadsheets even existed, we told stories by the campfire. And stories are how we understand value and share value. So, little story. My husband and I started a business with nothing. We were in our 20s. And I had what I thought was an absolutely genius idea. I knew it was a genius idea. But the market did not agree. Because when people came in to ask me about this idea, I gave them a very intellectual answer. I can give you the bad answer in a second, if you'd like. And then, you know, we were two kids. We were maxing out our credit cards. We're like, hey, we thought this was a good idea, but maybe we're going to have to collect unemployment insurance. Maybe we're going to have to go back to get jobs. And this was tragic. This was going to be the end of the road for our little upstart business. Seven words changed that. So I went from telling people the idea we were selling boats at the time and there were tax benefits. The bad way to explain it, which is how most people who are educated would explain it, is, hey, if you buy a boat and put it into our charter fleet, you'll get 33 and a third percent, straight line depreciation subject to the half year rule plus the 7 percent investment tax credit. And you can write off 90% of the expenses because 90% of the time the boat will be in the charter fleet. No, that was a terrible message. It was a good idea, but a terrible message. And people would glaze over. They thought that was way too complicated. I gave them like a phone book of data so they could take it to their accountant. It just seemed like too much work. And our business was about to fail until we changed the message. And the message that worked was five weeks of sun, fun, and tax shelter. Those seven words changed everything. And in one week, we sold $3 million worth of boats. Not only that, but the phone kept ringing. We got on the front cover of BC Business Magazine. Radio stations wanted to interview us. It was like a buzz. It was like, what is this five weeks of sun, fun, and tax shelter? That is a great message because it doesn't answer all the questions, but it makes the ideal person who would like a boat lean in and go, what? It's kind of like stand-up comedy. You don't expect tax shelter to be the end of five weeks of sun, fun, and. Tax shelter. So that's an example of a really great message. And that was the first time I realized how important it is not to spend all of my time working on the thing, but to spend quality time, high value time, not just leftover hours at 5 p.m. To 5.30 p.m., but the most precious smart hours of the day, the genius hours in the morning, thinking about the message, because the right message to the right people at the right time is worth millions. And that's why I call it a million-dollar message. And that's what I help people do at Same Page Publishing. I help people design and deliver million-dollar messages. Yeah, so much to unpack there. And it's really cool because as you explained it, that the failed message, so to speak, the more you go on, the more the brain here is blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Exactly. Unless maybe you're an engineer or a CPA or something like that who's really out there. But for a consumer, you didn't touch on the two fun elements, right? The sun and the fun piece and the unexpected shift. So let's maybe talk about that or you can feel free to speak in generalities here. But I want to further unpack the neuroscience and physically what's happening inside the listener's brain. When, like, how do the wrong words trigger defense or lack of action as opposed to the right words choosing a buying action? Well, you said it exactly. The brain hears blah, blah, blah with the first explanation. Even worse, the people can really only pay attention for about, you need to grab somebody's attention in five to eight seconds. If you grab their attention, they may listen to you for hours. But that first message I gave, it was longer than eight seconds. And people were like, well, what's in it for me? There was so much data. The problem with data is it actually triggers the analyst brain. And people do not buy with that brain. They only say they're not going to buy with that brain. What's in it for me? The other message, five weeks, well, that's a decent amount of time, of sun, ooh, I like that, of fun, ooh, so benefit, benefit, benefit, very short, five weeks of sun, fun, and tax shelter, ooh, maybe somebody else is going to pay for my sun and my fun. I like that, right? So it condenses a lot of what's in it for me, and so the person would lean forward and the neuroscience would go. So there's actually three steps to communicating effectively using the science behind it, which is the neuroscience, what we were just talking about. So the first step. Is you need to get past the ancient reptilian guardian of attention because attention is a very precious resource. We cannot pay attention to everything. And the croc brain or the ancient reptilian brain is always filtering for, is this interesting? Is this new or novel? Is this dangerous? Is this something that I need to pay attention to? Or is this something sexy, something to fun or to eat or to mate with. In about five to eight seconds, you need to get past that ancient gatekeeper. So five weeks of fun and tax shelter would be an example of that. A book title can be an example of that. Turn words into wealth. It's got benefit. So you want to get past very quickly. The second step is the social midbrain. The social midbrain is looking to filter ideas quickly and efficiently without doing all the heavy lifting of analyzing it with your cerebral cortex. So what is the shortcut that we use? Who else thinks this is a good idea? Who is the messenger? Or who has sent this messenger? Or do other people think this is a cool idea? So an example would be on the Turn Ridge Into Wealth. You know, it's got a little award seal here. It actually won the Reader's Choice Award, which is now inside the book, and it won several different awards. It's got hundreds of reviews on Amazon. Who else thinks this is a good idea? You need to hit that step. So, for example, sometimes I would say, you know, the name of a client, or you could say the name of, we've done this five weeks of Sun Fun and Tax Shelter, and this person had this result, or your friend sent, whatever. The social midbrain is the next step. And then the third step is now you can talk to the cerebral cortex. So I think it's very easy to remember this story if you imagine you're on a horse. You are a knight, and you're on your horse, and you're trotting up to a castle, and you want to speak to the king and queen, but you can't speak to them right away. You have to get across the moat. There is a crocodile in the moat. That's the croc brain reminder. And then once the moat, they put the drawbridge down, and you trot in with your horse, are the king and queen waiting by the gate? Of course not. So you're going to meet the knights and nobles there, and they're going to do the sniff test. You know, if you look like a bum, they're going to throw you out. If you've got a letter from another king or queen, they're going to go, okay, we'll escort you. Okay, so that helps to remember the social midbrain as the next step. And then you're escorted into the throne room. And just like in Game of Thrones, you mustn't stay there too long without addressing both the queen and the king. So don't only tell stories. Don't only give data. Mix it up. And then give them a chance to ask questions. Usually, yeah, you don't want to go on too long without giving them a chance to interrupt. So that third step, the cerebral cortex, is the last step, not the first. Wow, really good stuff there. And as you're speaking, I'm processing all of this eagerly. And the social proof element is obviously very critical. It's so much easier in my world for me to say, here's what other people have said about what it's like to work with me. I'm the greatest valuation analyst you're going to work with in your career. It just has a whole different resonance. Not that I would say those words anyway, but you get the point. Let's take your story here and get to the spot where we're now in that throne room. We're in front of the king and the queen, recognizing that the human brain has an attention span shorter than that of a goldfish. So how do we take advantage and deliver our message in record time, like in under a minute? What I want to add to or tease apart what you just said, like a lot of people are saying that the human attention span is under eight seconds. But actually what's happened is we've gotten much faster at filtering messages. So in under eight seconds, usually in five seconds, people decide if they want to listen more or not. But once you've earned that permission, people can listen for three hours, like Joe Rogan's podcast would be an example. So I just wanted to stop and pause there for a second, because back to the neuroscience, those three steps of neuroscience, the eight-second rule means you failed to connect with the croc brain. You haven't gotten the bridge to come down. You're still on the far side of the moat. But once you're in the throne room, yes, you do want every message to start quickly, have social proof, and then have a little story or statistic, and then ask them. So once you're in the throne room, then we want to shift to a different kind of communication. In the book, Turn Words into Wealth, I give people lots of different recipes for communication so they can just fill in the blanks. But one of the easiest ways to remember that I can share on this call very quickly and people can use it right away is what I call the hell to heaven transformation. So what is the problem that you solve? What are you really great at solving? This is what you want to talk about. When you're in the throne room, you want to talk about the problem that that king or queen has. Obviously, you want to make sure that they have that problem or you're going to be wasting your time. You could ask them what problem they have. That's always good. You want to talk about that problem, ask them questions about that problem, tease out all the consequences and pain of that problem, Not just the immediate right here, right now, but if you don't solve this problem. What's the impact on your family, on your health, on your finances today, 90 days from now, a year from now, five, 10 years from now? If you don't solve this, it's a financial problem. If you don't solve this problem, what will be the consequences? Will that mean you'll sacrifice holidays? You can't send your kid to private school. Your retirement is going to be working at Walmart. You want to really get clear on the pain and the hell of it. And then you also want to paint a very clear picture of the, I call it the heaven, the heaven that you take people to when you solve their problem. We don't have a specific example here, but you could give me one if you like. You want to paint that picture really, really clearly. So if we work together or with this other client, I'm going to make up an example that might relate to you, Dave. You know, you help them get clear on their wealth. You help them exit their company. You help them sell their company for three times more than they were expecting. The result is they've got a wonderful retirement. They're having vacations in Hawaii, et cetera, et cetera. What we're not talking about, at least until we have buying signals, is the bridge. The bridge between the hell and the heaven. That is what you're selling. You're selling the path across. But you don't talk about that because that is boring. Also, that is your secret sauce. And this is where most people make the mistake. They get into a conversation with somebody, and very quickly they're talking about the 49 steps across the bridge and how they solve these problems. But they haven't connected emotionally enough with the prospect, talking about the hell, talking about the heaven, in emotional, clear, vivid, consequential words. And not just numbers, because the brain doesn't really grasp numbers. The brain understands people and emotions and feelings and consequences. So you can't, it is helpful to say in this example of yours, okay, Dave helped them sell their company for three times more than they expected. That's okay, but better is, and the result is instead of, you know, being at Walmart working full time, they now bought a luxury vacation to Cabo. They've got, you know, going on vacation in Aspen. They've got plenty of money for their grandchildren. and like paint a vivid word picture. So does that make sense? Totally. The big distinction between the features and benefits and the why behind the why, so to speak. Exactly. Yeah, good stuff. Love that. I want to talk to you now about publishing aspect of thought leadership or brand recognition and how important it really is. I was on a call yesterday with somebody who's going to be a future guest on this program, actually, and creating that authority around a publication apparently still resonates today in this, the world of Stop the Scroll that we live in. I want to get your take on that. Yeah. Well, at Same Page Publishing, that's what I help people do. I help them create a clear, compelling message and then turn it into videos or books. I think the strongest play is to have a book that you're really proud of, a legacy piece of content, and then to back, to keep in touch with people, to keep top of mind with weekly content, either by having a podcast, being a guest on podcasts, or I love YouTube because YouTube is the number two search engine. Here's the thing that is happening right now. A lot of people are, well, just, you know, quickly write a book on AI and throw it up on Amazon and that will do the trick. And while I think a book is important, it's got to be the right book. It's got to solve the right, it's got to clearly establish you as an expert and solve a top of mind problem. And unless you've already written a bunch of award-winning books, you're probably not going to get AI to give you a result that you like. In fact, that's one of the things I do with people now is they come and they've got, hey, I wrote this with AI. Is this good enough? I'm like, well, it's a good start. But let's, you know, let's take it from OK to excellent. Here's what I want to back up and say, because I think this is kind of really important to know. AI is killing the middle of the market. You don't want to be lost in the middle. In fact, you don't want to compete with AI because it's fast and cheap. You don't want to compete with China. You don't want to compete with Walmart. So if you are an expert or you have a business that solves a problem, I would highly advise positioning yourself not in the low end, not in the middle, but at the high end. So what does that mean? It means to really claim your authority, claim your expertise, and become the only logical choice for your ideal client. Therefore, everything needs to reflect a high-quality standard if you want to get on those speaking stages, to get on radio, TV, and podcasts, and to attract ideal clients who will pay you premium prices. I couldn't agree more. The rolling back in the Wayback Machine for me, the very first article I ever wrote was called How Not to Select Your Service Provider, The High Cost of Low Price. And it was born out of this frustration that I had because in my world, people tend to perceive what I do as commoditized service, probably because I'm usually one of three names that their other trusted advisor may hand out on. And talking with other people in service provider space, whether it's accountants, lawyers, valuation folks, et cetera, they all have the same frustration because human beings, being who we are, if we get three estimates from an auto mechanic or a house being one that's radically low, intuitively we go, something ain't right there. And you look to the other two, but in professional services, because you've been referred by another advisor, there's a presumption that, hey, they all must be the same, so they default to price. How do you overcome that? Again, we're going to lean on neuroscience. So framing is decisive. What happens before the call really matters. So what you ideally want to do is already be framed as the expert and authority, already be framed as distinct. And one of the easiest ways to do that is to have an award-winning, best-selling book available on Amazon that's got a bunch of reviews. You know, your books look great on Amazon. You've got a bunch of reviews. It's got good star ratings. The cover looks great. The title is clear. When you are facing competition from a couple other providers and you're the only author, you are, by definition, an authority. The root of the word authority is author. So seek ways to become the only logical choice and to set yourself apart. And this is where a book can come in, a YouTube channel can come in. You know, I've got 160,000 subscribers on my YouTube channel, Strategic Basics. So people who look at me at a glance, they go, she's a film and TV writer-producer. She's launched multiple seven-figure businesses. She's got a thriving YouTube channel with over 100,000 subscribers, close to 200,000 subscribers. She's written 10 books. She's award-winning. It's not comparable to somebody that I would find on Upwork who's never written a book or launched a seven-figure business. These two things are not the same. So you want to make it as clear as possible even before the initial conversation. Dan Kennedy, who's one of the marketing gurus that you may be familiar with, he did an experiment. I haven't done this experiment, so I'm leaning on his data. And he would have his team send out what he called a wow package. So before meeting with the prospect, they would send them Dan Kennedy's books. I don't know, maybe there was extra things in there like an audio book or a CD at the time. And then they would follow up. He'd have his team follow up. And it was a thousand times higher conversion from a cold call to a warm outreach, with the only difference being they had sent the book in advance, basically. So how would you like to have a thousand-fold better results? And if you could do that by sending a book before or handing it to the person in the meeting, hand somebody an autographed book, wow, you're a celebrity. So that's one of the ways to set yourself apart and be in that high tier instead of in the middle or the low end, which are death. Yeah, precisely. And you can help authors get through the writing of a book in probably a shorter time than they might otherwise think, right? Yes, and we do it the fun way. So I have what I call the spoken author method. So basically, we say, what problem does this book solve? Who is your ideal client? What is your ideal outcome? Make sure that the person's got a back end, so they've got an irresistible high ticket offer. And then I interview them. So suppose if there was 10 chapters in the book, it would be like 10 podcast like interviews. So we get audio, we get video, we get the person talking about their stories in their own words. And then we tidy it up while still keeping their authentic voice. So most people who are experts at something have no problem talking about it, but the writing is what trips them up. And so what's really good about this is then we have the videos to slice and dice for social media or to put on their YouTube channel, et cetera, so that it's not just about finishing the book. Most people make. Most first-time authors make a huge mistake. They work on their book for so long. On average, first-time authors work on their book for three and a half years. And then they publish it. And then they go, oh, I guess I need somebody to be interested in buying it. Well, that's the wrong way to do it. So as we're building the book, we start building the community who's interested in with with the videos or the snippets from the book so that it's all orchestrated so that the clients that I work with at Same Page Publishing, pretty much guaranteed a bestselling award winning book out the gate because we are setting up the marketing as we're writing the book, not after, but before it's published. So before it's published, you know, we get community, we apply for awards, we get reviews, we get the buzz, we get them on podcasts. So at Same Page Publishing, what I like to tell people, people sometimes say, are you a ghostwriter? I'm like, no. What we do is we launch thought leaders because I think most people don't understand how many pieces there are. That have to work together to get launched as a thought leader. So I thought that's the problem that I will solve for people at Same Page Publishing. So the complete launch as a thought leader package is what I love to do. Yeah, as an indie author, I can certainly attest to that. You've got to go into it fully armed and prepared and wish I knew then what I know now. Yeah, there's a lot to it, right? You're not kidding. We do a whole show on that. We talked a little bit about AI throughout this conversation. I want to kind of put the spotlight on a little bit right now. And I know you talk about doubling down on being human. And why is it so important now that the human personal brand is really the ultimate moat, to use your other analogy a little bit further, against AI? Yeah. I think AI is such a big tsunami of change. So how are we best going to deal with AI? The way not to deal with it is to become more generic and to become more automated. So what's unique and special about human beings? There's four things that are unique and special about human beings that I recommend that you double down onto. One is your stories. Nobody else has got your stories. You know, your mad midnight moments, those 3 a.m. how am I going to make payroll moments, those yay, we did it moments. So collect your stories and the stories of the people whose lives you have transformed. The other thing that's usually human is your smile or your presence, whether you're present live in person at an event or you're present virtually like we're talking right now, but it's a real connection, right? We're connecting with each other. So your smile or your presence. The third one is your style. So instead of trying to appeal to everybody. Decide who you really are and lean into your unique things. Lean into your quirkiness. If you are trying to be all things to all people, this is not going to appeal to anybody. But be bold and lean into who you really are. I'm calling that your style. And that's the opposite of being generic. It's like being unique. And then the fourth one, so that they're all S's, we've got your, you want to lean into Socrates. What do I mean by that? Socrates was famous thousands of years after he died. And why? Because he asked powerful questions. So your curiosity and your ability to nurture other human beings' potential, by seeing greatness in them and asking questions, not giving answers. AI gives us answers, making us passive. But when you ask questions, especially challenging questions, and then wait for the human being to answer, you're actually creating new neural pathways in their brain. Back to the neuroscience. When you ask a question and wait for the person to answer, they have that possibility of having an aha moment, and that aha literally creates new myelin in your brain. And you can shift your speed of thinking or physical speed. Those can be upgraded from two miles an hour to 200 miles an hour. So four things to lean into, your stories, your style, your smile, and your Socratic questioning. And then add to that your massively transformative purpose or your vision for how you would like to leave the world a better place. And if you add all those five things together, AI cannot compete with that. AI cannot replace that. But you can use AI to scale that. But first, you need to get clear on those five things. This has been a fascinating conversation. I wish I could go on for another hour here with you, but I'm going to be respectful of your time and our listeners as well. But before we wrap, if listeners out there want to make a one immediate shift in how they communicate their value, what do you recommend that be? Hmm. So many different things I could say here. I will give a little tip because this one's easy to understand and it is going to work in five seconds or less, which is make a list of the top three or four myths in your industry and then bust them. That is a really great way to communicate because it really grabs attention in a couple of seconds. And if you start with a common myth, then people will understand what you're talking about. And then you go exactly the opposite. So an example would be, you know, it's too late to sell your business. It's not too late to sell your business. You're too old. You're just the right age, etc. Right? But take a common myth and see if you can bust it. So, for example, excuse me. The myth is that AI can write a good book for you. The fact is AI can destroy your brand, right? So that's a fun way to communicate. Stuff. Aurora, I can't thank you enough for sharing your wisdom with us today. Before I let you go, I need you to tell the audience how they can find you, connect you, and work with you and where they can get the books. Fantastic. Well, my web page is Same Page Publishing, so they can find out about getting help launching as a thought leader at Same Page Publishing. This book, Turn Words Into Wealth, is available wherever books are sold, or you can get a free copy at turnwordsintowealth.com. And it details seven different ways to make seven figures as a thought leader, and it talks about how to use AI and how not to use AI, because your brand is your most valuable asset. So it's a great resource for building a valuable brand. Thank you for sending me my copy of that book. I did receive it yesterday, and as I told you before, we went on the air here, I am looking forward to devouring. So Aurora, thank you so much for joining me today. Thank you, Dave. And thank you out there for tuning into Behind the Numbers. I do want to give a personal shout out to a guy named Angelo Inventner who checked in and to all his other buddies over at The Breakers who are apparently listening to the podcast poolside. So thank you out there for listening to the show. I really appreciate that. As always, if you enjoyed the episode, please give us a review on Amazon, Spotify. That stuff really does move the needle and makes the show more discoverable for everybody else. Beware of these great guests that we've got. Until next time, I am Dave Bookbinder reminding you that the people tell the story. I can't even tell you what I'm reminding you. What I'm reminding you is that the numbers tell the story, but the people bring it to life. Take care, everybody. We'll see you next time on Behind the Numbers.