Pendulum Book Review on The Sales Podcast

Pendulum: How Past Generations Shape Our Present and Predict Our Future

By Roy H. Williams and Michael R. Drew

Hello, my friend, and welcome to the 507th episode of The Sales Podcast. I'm Wes Schaeffer, The Sales Whisperer, your host. 

Roy says, "Jeff, you and Michael and Tim might see this voluntary loss of privacy as a very self-evident thing. And I think you guys are probably correct, but that's not something I had really considered. What I think we can expect to see happen is that the general public will try to purge the system of corrupt politicians. We've seen too much self-serving among our politicians and a "we" generation just won't stand for it. The recent Blagojevich conviction was the tip of the iceberg. And then came Anthony Weiner with his sexting scandal and then Newt Gingrich got a big surprise when he took the goodwill of the public and his campaign staff for granted. I believe in the second half of this upswing into "we" we're going to elect political candidates who lift brooms during their speeches and promise "I'm going to clean up Washington."

Jeff says "I'm seeing the opposite. Andrew Sullivan has been writing, 'So when did we become Rome? When did we go into decline?' Sullivan would say that what you're currently seeing is apathy, and this prediction is that this apathy will continue. I think I might agree with him."

So that is an excerpt from the 2012 book "Pendulum" by Roy H. Williams and Michael R. Drew. I know these characters. So the subtitle "Pendulum: How Past Generations Shape Our Present and Predict Our Future." I've known Roy since probably 2002, maybe a little bit earlier somewhere around there, and Michael as well, and this book I've been referencing since it came out, I bought brand new in hardback. And you look at this and you think -- so they were -- it was published in 2012, they're researching it and writing it, who knows, 2010, into 2011. So looking back, this is easily a decade old when they were putting this together, and Roy has quoted some of his writings going back to 2003. So he's been looking at this topic, this subject for decades. And so it's interesting now to pull things out and see how accurate they were, especially when the goal was to try to predict the future with this book.

So Roy is the wizard of ads, been around a long time. I've got all of his books and I've got some rare ones you can't get anymore. I head out there to Buda, South Boston. I used to go a couple of times a year and just with business and life and everything else, haven't been as recently as often, but I still get back there. So this book, you think back, he's putting these ideas together, 2010, 2011, talking about we're going to clean up Washington. Sounds kind of like we're going to drain the swamp, doesn't it, in 2016.

So Jeff Eisenberg -- I also know him and his brother Brian; both are also New York Times and Wall Street Journal, bestselling authors, smart marketers, consultants -- so that's who is disagreeing, Jeffrey Eisenberg. You know, he's seeing the apathy. And it's interesting because both of these are kind of right. Roy was right. And I'll get into the "we" versus "me." This pendulum is that's what he's talking about. And so the concept is -- and he's done a good job, I think, validating it -- is that every 80 years we're back to the same point that we were. So basically, every 40 years we're at an extreme opposite, a polar opposite, and an easy demarcation is to look back -- he goes back to 1943. He calls it -- "The Greatest Generation," we call it. He calls it the peak, the zenith of the "we" generation. So 1963, so we're 20 years removed, so we're at the midway point, going from the peak of a "we" to the peak of a "me." Then we advance to the zenith of 1983, the peak of the "me" generation. Swing it back down, 2003, we're back -- basically, 2003 was 1963 all over again, but swinging in the opposite direction, the momentum was carrying us to 2023, another peak of the "we" generation, basically 1943 all over again. 

So we're going to take some time and break this down, but it's interesting -- and I covered this in my private consulting; I talk about it when it's brought up, when it's appropriate just in marketing concepts, some key principles to understand. The news -- I want to say "bad news," but the reality is, if you know what's coming, it's not really bad news. You can prepare even though it's -- you get a hurricane coming; well, is it bad news? Yeah, but I mean if you know it's coming you can prepare; board up the house, get some water, get your generator, got to rebuild, blah, blah, blah -- but you don't die. And who knows, maybe you make some investments and you capitalize on it. But I digress.

But the point is we're in tumultuous times. You know, we're a couple of years away from that peak. And so even when the surge of a hurricane stops surging, you're still flooded. It's got to retreat. It's got to go back to where it was; go back to the ocean. So the surge is coming, and so it's not like things are over and get better once it peaks; it still has to recede. So it's a multi-year period. Each of these episodes, these zeniths, are multi-year events because you're reaching up, approaching the point, the peak, you achieve it; then you're slowly receding. So the things I want to talk about, the ideas are going to give you -- the goal to give you some ideas on how to handle the current time in the very short term, the next six, 12, 24 months, and then into 2025, 2026 and things start easing up -- but you got to survive the onslaught. So I'm going to pull out certain excerpts. I'm going to leave some meat on the bone, maybe go get the book. If you don't have time to get the book, you just want the Cliff's Notes, call me, do a little consulting. I'll help you shorten the learning curve and apply the lessons here so you can grow your sales; all right? So that's what we're going to get into. So hold on to your britches.

So the part I just read is from towards the end of the book, and the section is called, "A Catholic, a Mormon, a Jew and an Evangelical Sat Down At a Table Together And..." So this was from July 1st, 2011. So when Roy got a few folks together, they had dinner, turned the recorder on and they started talking about the book. They'd start talking about -- making some predictions about what they saw heading our way. And I'll come back to that in a little bit. But I opened with some pretty good predictions, I think, that they made to hopefully pique your interest to at least open your mind and consider this, because Roy and Michael based this book on the research from another book some guys wrote about 40 years earlier called "Generations," and they did a very detailed study.

And Roy went back, I mean, literally a thousand or more years. And he also considered -- he looked at the Western world versus the Eastern world. And basically we are at exact opposites -- pretty much exact opposites on the spectrum. So as we are approaching the peak of a "we" generation, China, India, countries over there are approaching the zenith of a "me" generation. So if you are -- if you're involved at all in consulting and marketing in that area, the Eastern world, look at some old books and see what people were doing in the early '80s, mid-'80s and center your marketing around those messages and you're probably going to be seen as a superhero, make a whole lot of money, and you can build a new wing -- when you build a library onto your home, you can name it after The Sales Whisperer because I gave you that inspiration. Okay? Deal?

So Roy is -- I think I would call him the evangelical in that group. He is certainly Christian. He is well-versed in the Good Book. He is a believer. So I love the fact he -- towards the beginning of the book he opens with includes a passage from Ecclesiastes 1:9-11. "What has been will be again; what has been done will be done again. There's nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one can say, look, this is something new? It was here already long ago; it was here before our time. No one remembers the former generations and even those yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow them."

You know, look at clothing and hair. Some guys at my jujitsu gym are wearing mullets. One of the guys I do jujitsu with, a black guy, dating a black girl, she is sporting the biggest Afro. It's awesome. She came to the house, I don't know, two weeks ago, had them all over for dinner and we're talking, she's in dance and got the bell bottoms -- I mean '70s and '80s -- well, maybe '60s and '70s, right? I mean, just look at clothing. Everything comes full circle. There's nothing new under the sun. So if you understand humans, you understand how irrational we are. We take a good thing too far. So it makes sense, and when you look at the timeframe, people don't just change on a dime, just like trees don't change. But you look at pictures when you first moved in and 20 years later, you go back to the house you grew up in 20 and 30 years later, that little tree is a big tree.

The changes happen as well. I mean, the fact that my 73-year-old dad is -- you know, we're FaceTiming one another. I mean, he's got an iPad, right? I remember my father-in-law pooh-poohing the idea of PayPal, and now him and my mother in law, my wife, they're passing money back and forth on Venmo and PayPal. So eventually the ideas take root and then attitudes and behaviors change. But we are unlimited beings in a way; we're made in God's image, we have a touch of divinity, we have an eternal soul; but there's only so many ways we can conduct ourselves, you know? And Roy specifically intentionally leaves out political names. It's not left and right. It's not conservative and liberal because -- the ideals I'll touch on here --they can cross party lines, but as humans we move from either we're more focused on society or we're more focused on ourselves. So to see how this can go back and forth in a predictable manner and when you understand just, again, human nature -- I mean, I'm 51 now. I see how my own attitudes and beliefs have changed. My body has changed. I can't party like I used to. Good ol' Toby Keith, right? "I ain't as good as I once was, but I'm as good once as I ever was." It's harder to recover. It's harder to build back. It's easier to get soft.

So it's the ebb and flow of life. The young have to come up to bring in new ideas because the old -- we get tired, our joints hurt, we want to take a nap, can't drink quite as much; the music is a little too loud. We want to maintain the status quo. The status quo won't help with the evolution, with the development of society. So to see things go from one extreme to the other, it makes sense as you start to break this down.

So the book, in case you're wondering, is called "Generations: The History of America's Future, 1584 to 2069" by William Strauss and Neil Howe. So that gave Roy the idea for this book. So as he looked at it, building his case here in the beginning, he talks about, "Society hungers for individuality and freedom during the upswings of a 'me'. Nothing wrong with that, but we always take a good thing too far. What begins as a beautiful dream of self discovery -- 1963 -- ends as hollow, phony posing -- 1983 -- and then from the heady heights of those glittering disco lights, our desires drift quietly back to Earth, feather-like toward what we left behind, working together for the common good."

So, yeah. 1963, make love, not war, man. We get in 1983, I was 13 years old -- Michael Jackson, parachute pants, Beamers, yuppies, "Wall Street," the movie came out right around then; hostile takeovers. I mean, it was the ultimate me-me-me, get all you can. So 2003, we're going back to that story was basically 1963. Now we're heading up towards the peak of a "we." So what does that look like? So the "we" is the group, the team, the tribe, the collective. He outlines the "we" versus "me."  But the "we" -- and I want to focus here because that's what we are in and we're going to be in for a while because again, we're going to peak in a couple of years. We're going to recede for a couple of years. So it's going to feel basically the same for several more years. So, "Demands conformity for the common good, applauds personal responsibility, believes a million men are wiser than one man, two heads are better than one, wants to create a better world is about small actions; desires to be a productive member of the team. I came, I saw, I concurred. Admires individual humility and is attracted to thoughtful persons, believes leadership is 'this is the problem as I see it; please consider the things I am telling you and perhaps we can solve this problem together;' and strengthens a society's sense of purpose as it considers all problems.

So I think there's a lot of truth in this. Obviously, nothing is going to be perfect. But when we look at demanding conformity for the common good, that's how we reacted to COVID. "Stay home, save lives." I mean, some facts are coming out literally as I record this, that we were probably lied to in a lot of those things. But I digress.

Applauds personal responsibility. This is interesting. Because on the one hand, get the vaccine, wear a mask, stay home, putting it. It's like they're making they want me to be responsible for you, right? But nowhere in there does it talk about -- at least society today as we handle or address COVID, they don't talk about getting in better shape, get some more sun, exercise, eat better, stop smoking, stop drinking; stop eating junk food. I mean, hell, the opposite is happening. They're literally bribing people with junk food and alcohol to get the jab. And I've written about this before. I feel like there's no personal responsibility anymore. You know, take a pill to overcome a hangover or take a pill to abort your baby. Take a pill to feel better in the morning. Take a pill to go to sleep at night, take a pill during the day to quiet your mind, take more pills so you can focus. I mean, I feel like there's no personal responsibility, but I digress.

But the whole coming together, I mean, Wikipedia, things like that, social media, crowdsourcing, GoFundMe. You know, people are pitching in, want to create a better world. Yeah, we're deep into that. Recycle; reduce your carbon footprint, all those good things. It's about small actions -- yes and no. From what I'm seeing, I see people flying to Kenya to dig a well; meanwhile, they pass 4,000 homeless people on the way to the airport. I guess it's not popular to save those people because you look them in the eye. It looks better to show your passport as you board a plane. So big actions, then come home and go relax at the beach, listen to your sound bowls or something, I don't know. Desires to be a productive member of the team, yeah. I see a lot of that. You see in companies now, "We're a family." "There's no I in team." So I think that's accurate. Admires individual humility as attractive, thoughtful persons -- yeah, I can see that. Although I mean, people are thought leaders and influencers, not too much humility there. They're attracted to thoughtful persons. Like, what's a thoughtful person? Is that person who sets up three cameras to hand out free socks to homeless people, is that a thoughtful person? Maybe.

Believes in the consensus; builds a consensus, sense of purpose as it considers all its problems. So I see a lot of that happening. I see that happening right now but compare that to a "me" generation, just so you can see. But then, would understand that the reason we change from the zenith of either of these is we take things too far. And like it says, although society gets legalistic and judgmental during a "we", we do accomplish a lot of good things, such as raising the flag over Iwo Jima. We let our hair down in a "me" and become quite a mess because of it. But this gives us a particular joy. For example, Jimmy Buffett's "Margaritaville." "We" and "me," it's hard to choose between them, right? So the "we" demands conformity with the common good. "Me" demands freedom of expression. The "we" applauds personal responsibility, "me" applauds personal liberty. "We" believe a million men are wiser than one man; "me" believes one man is wiser than a million men. Wants to create a better world, "I came, I saw, I conquered," as I said before; the "me" wants to achieve a better life. I came, I saw, I conquered. "We" is about small actions; "me" is about big dreams. "We" wants to be part of a productive team; "Me" desires to be number one. "We" admires humility and thoughtful persons; "Me" admires individual confidence and decisive persons. "We" believes leadership is this is the problem as I see it. Let's solve it together. "Me" believe leadership is look at me, admire me, emulate me if you can. And finally, "We" strengthen society's sense of purpose focuses on solving problems; "Me" strengthens society's sense of identity; elevates attractive heroes.

You know, we saw that with Reagan. People still to this day love him. He believed in the American dream -- our best days are still to come. Russia -- Soviet Union was the "axis of evil;" "evil empire;" "tear down this wall." So as you break this down, a lot got to give you -- a lot to help you think. I think you'll get some clarity on what the heck's going on and announce. It's one of the reasons I've managed to stay calm in this chaos the last several years is because I think -- I feel like things are happening as they should, as they've been explained, as I've researched on my own. And so, got a hard rain coming, okay, deal with it, right? Get the supplies ready. And like we say, we always take good things too far. The beautiful "we" dream of working together for the common good gains momentum until it becomes duty, obligation and sacrifice. What began in joy ends in bondage.

Sir, sir, put your mask on. Sir, sir, your mask must be over your nose. Sir, I need you to put your mask on properly. Sir, your children -- yes, I know your child is only two months old, but sir, put the mask on or you will be kicked off the plane. All right? It's become bandage. Hell, my own pool, my HOA, Memorial Day, they finally opened the pool -- maximum of 40 people up to the discretion of a pool monitor, which we now have. The hours have been limited; reduced them by four hours a day. Only five people from your family can attend. If you have a big family like I do, you must email the property management company a day before and get permission. The pool shuts down twice a day for 30 minutes so the monitor can have his lunch break -- I mean, bondage.

You see it -- and I tell people, we got into it on my little community private group age and with the board; we finally replace a board member with a pro pool opener. But like I mentioned, small actions. I don't want to fly to Kenya and dig a well. As important and fulfilling as that probably would be, I want to fix my own house, my own cul de sac, my own street, my own neighborhood first. We let these things spiral out of control. You know, people ask, how did the Holocaust happen? I wouldn't have been one of them. I wouldn't have gone along. Yes, statistically, you probably would have.

So if you're not putting your foot down -- if you're not at least questioning the conversation, the so-called facts, if you're not switching and following alternate news channels, if you don't follow the political party that you are against, if you don't follow those candidates to at least understand what they say -- there's a part here in the book -- I don't know if I can find it here as I do the recording -- but it's the old argument of to win an argument, you must be able to articulate your opposition's viewpoint and talking points better than they can. Not only will you feel understood, you'll probably win the point that you're trying to make. That may be a sale; maybe a marketing campaign; it may be a political race; maybe you talk your way out of a speeding ticket. So stop throwing everyone under the bus. You know, seek to understand. It doesn't mean you like them.

You know, I played football for many years into college. I mean, we watched game film of the opponent. We want to see what were their tells, so we could take advantage of those, leverage those weak spots so we could win. We didn't ignore them. Study your opponent. Keep your friends close, your enemies closer. You get a lot of clarity. You'll sleep better at night when you take the time to study them -- and study them in this light of a societal change. And as you do that, things will start to make more sense. When they make more sense, you'll know how to take advantage of the situation in business and life. Things just get a whole lot better for you.

Now, as usual, when I go through book reviews like this, requires some bouncing around. You know, I don't think legally I could read the whole book. I don't have time. Anyway, I want you to buy the book, do your own thinking if it is of interest to you. But at a minimum, I want to get you thinking. But in the book he outlines what happens when we take a thing too far. So it kind of touched on it a little bit of where we're headed as we approach the zenith of the "we" -- right, duty, obligation, sacrifice. But it's also regimentation, self-righteousness, oppressiveness, which already kind of touched on. It's interesting that this COVID happens during -- as we reach the pinnacle, the zenith of a "we" -- and you know what? Maybe if COVID had happened in 1981, probably wouldn't have reacted like this at all. So it's some interesting dynamics, but as we approach the zenith of a "me" -- so '81, '82, '83 again, it spills over, '84, '85, hollowness, posing, phoniness, self-centered-ness, guru worship; depravity. We certainly saw that in the '80s.

So, again, I bring these up just to help you have some vantage points to to analyze all of this and to decide, hey, is this guy on to something or not? And like I said, I think they are. I think Roy and Michael are really on to something. But again, we take things too far. As we kill off our heroes, is that a good thing or a bad thing? You know, well, "I'm just rejecting artificiality and hype." All right, maybe. "Hey, I'm just keeping it real, man." All right? Is that a good thing or a bad? Everything in moderation. There's nothing new under the sun. So if somebody's banging a certain drum, even if you like the beat, you need to understand it won't last forever. Is it their own thought or are they just caught up with the the tidal surge or as the water retreats, recedes, they just go with the flow? And I think a lot of people do just go with the flow.

So speaking of flow, Roy pulls out the old yin and the yang. When you look at that symbol, it's the circle. It's like two commaa; like two curved teardrops, one black, one white. But in the middle of the white is black and in the middle of the black is white. So in the calm you have the chaos. In the chaos, you can find the calm -- liberalism and conservatism, positive and negative, risk and reward. We see it in everything. So regardless what the flow is, can you can you rise above it? How can you stand out and stand apart? In the middle of that flow, Isaac Newton, he quotes, spoke of duality as for every action, there's an equal but opposite reaction.

I love this quote from Roy. I've used this and remembered this for almost 20 years now. He says, "Small minds will often cling to one and disparage the other." So speaking of the concept of duality. So you get one idea -- you know, Trump is a pig. Biden is awesome. Fauci is supersmart; anyone against him isn't. Cuomo's doing it right; DeSantis is an idiot. Really? Okay. Statements like that show that you have a small mind. And it's nice, again, getting older; not my monkey, not my circus, I don't have to engage in every battle. I don't have to take the bait every time. I just made the bed, I'll let you sleep in it -- and I will let you sleep in it and I'll live stream it. But I digress.

He tells a story. When Albert Einstein was serving as the proctor for a university test on advanced theoretical physics, a student raises hand and said, Sir, I think there's been a mistake. This is the same test we were given last year. And Albert replied, yes, the test is the same as last year, but this year the answers are different. Now, I don't know when that was, but obviously after E equals MC squared, I bet a lot of answers to tests changed. You could give the same test and it's like, uh-oh, things have changed. He quotes Niels Bohr. He was a physicist, winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1922 for his contributions that were essential to our modern understanding of atomic structure and quantum mechanics, the building blocks of reality. But the quote is, "The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth." Crazy, right? That's when you got to get into quantum mechanics and is like a wave or is it a particle? And since it's both, it really can't be but they are, so what the heck's going on? But I digress.

But the main thing is to understand again, things are predictable, but inside of the predictability, you'll find counterintuitive contra indicators. How are you going to use it? But first, you need to understand where the heck you are and where you're going, at least where society's going, because like Gretzky -- skate to where the puck is going. If you know where society is going and what is propelling and compelling them, you can get ahead of the curve. You can you can jump ahead to where the puck is going. Meet them there. I don't know if I have time to get into the push versus pull marketing, but we are very much in the pull marketing phase of business and of life. You got to get ahead of them and invite them with open arms. "I've been waiting for you. I'll leave a light on for you. Come on in. Take your shoes off. Sit a spell."

That's where I think the power of this book can come in for you. So in the book he gets into these alpha voices and the six-year transitory window; I won't get into that right now, got an event to go to a church, so I will leave that up to you to dig into. He gets into the limits of predictability and there are limits. None of this is perfect. Again, there's going to be variations, but it's still pretty damn accurate. He goes back, 1923 to 1933, laying the the groundwork, helping you understand and see. And he gives good examples of these alpha voices. These alpha voices, they're singers, they're entertainers, they're actors, they're novelists, authors. So they start to that canary in the coal mine; that one sparrow does not a spring make.

But as you become attuned to looking for them, you'll get little glimpses. You'll see somebody standing out making waves. You're like, hmm, what does that mean? So, again, as we reach this peak of the "we", we're going to start seeing some alpha voices indicating that it's peaked and it's now going to start diminishing as it accelerates towards the "me, but just good examples from 1924, '25, '26, '27. I mean, just literally all year by year, going back almost a century. And he does -- he goes back even farther and gives some good examples of the Crusades and the Salem witch hunts. And it's weird. It's weird. But again, it's not weird because nothing new -- there's nothing new under the sun. But it's kind of weird seeing this unfold, going back hundreds and hundreds of years. Heck, he even shows pendulum in the Bible. I kind of mentioned it already with Ecclesiastes. But this it's well documented. It goes way back.

But something towards the end of the book that I found interesting was McDonald's -- McDonald's slogans from 1960 to 2008. So it'd be interesting to break that down to see what they're doing now, but you can see how accurate this is, right? 1960 all-American menu, a hamburger, fries and a shake. 1961, look for the Golden Arches, 1960 to go for the goodness at McDonald's, 1963, the year 1963 is the tipping point into "Me." So it's the bottom, right? So 1943 was the peak of the "we", the Greatest Generation. We're all in this together. It goes down. It's now at the at the 6:00 point, if you will, 1:00. So the early adopters are embracing the perspective, but the six-year transitory window is only just beginning. So by 1965, McDonald's, where quality starts fresh every day. 1966, McDonald's, "the closest thing to home," notice what happens as we approach the end of the six year transitory window into "me" and ride the pendulum to its zenith of 1983. So 1967, McDonald's is "your kind of place." It's "such a happy place." "You deserve a break today," 1971. That lasted for four years -- '75, "We do it all for you." '76, "You -- you're the one." '81, "You deserve a break today." So it's reintroduced from '71. '83, "McDonald's and you." That continues until 1991. So he says now that we're eight years beyond the zenith of "me" and our self-obsession has begun to diminish a bit. Let's see what happens next. So in 1991, "food, folks and fun." '95, "Have you had your break today?" It's different than "you deserve a break today." "Did somebody say McDonald's?" 1997. 2000, "We love to see you smile." 2002, "There's a little McDonald's in every one." 2003, "I'm loving it." This is the end of the "me." 2008 now, "What we're made of." Interesting, huh?

So in the "we", it's cut the crap and give it to me straight. It's pull; it's positive attraction, selling a seduction, authenticity, reality and truth stake. The "me", you're selling hope and I'm buying it like it's crack cocaine -- push, overcoming objections, selling his combat self-confidence and belief, advertising specials; sizzle. So since we're in the "we" era, right, pull them towards you, the positive attraction. 

I've said for many years I hate selling. I hate overcoming objections and the old school alternative of choice closes and the tie down. Oh, give me a break. I think I was authentic before I knew that was a selling angle, a gambit, because you see it too often. People, they try to be authentic; they try so much, they become a caricature of themselves. Authentic and transparent, I mean, it's just too much, but that's where we are now, going to be there for a while. So don't push, don't shove, don't force it, the overcoming objections. It's very much like jujitsu, man. I mean, the more I fight these young bucks, I don't fight them. They're strong. I let them push me around and I roll with it. You know, they push my head as I fall back, I hook my feet in the back of their legs. Hook one back of one leg, I'll put one foot in one of their hips. Maybe as they try to attack, boom, I can get them off of center their momentum against them. So keeping it -- keeping it real, dog.

But look at what the most popular genre of television for decades now, for two decades easily has been reality television --Survivor and Big Brother and The Bachelor and all these shows, although now it's like very few of them are truly authentic and you see them get burned. The more we find out how scripted they are, some of them are losing their popularity. So it's an interesting world and it's a tangled web we weave, is it not? So I'll leave you with this. You know, he talks about here towards the end of the book because it's leading up into their predictions for as the zenith peaks of the "we." But it's a long time. It can easily be 20 years coming from the bottom up to let's call it the 3:00 position of the zenith of the week and back down we call them. You know, it's the time of witch hunts and transparency, authenticity. I'm okay; you're not okay. It's the 20-year season of holy wars, us versus them. We the good and the righteous defenders of truth and beauty against them, the evil and sinister malefactors intent on destroying our way of life.

That is true for the Republicans, the Democrats. It's true everywhere you look -- it's us versus them and it's not on accident. Because Roy talked about this -- here's the payoff. The easiest people in the world to manipulate are those who are focused on a single issue. Be forcefully against whatever they're against, and you can lead them around like a tame calf on a rope, you can't have insiders without outsiders. So it's no longer what you include and what you stand for; now it's a function of exclusion. What do you who do you exclude, what do you stand against? Yes, marketing becomes very easy as we approach the zenith of the "we." Just choose what and who you will demonize and then start tossing fear-soaked words as though they were long neck beer bottles full of gasoline with fiery rags stuffed down their throats. It's Machiavellian, we know, but it's true. Nonetheless, we wish we could bring you happier news with the simple truth is this unless we begin working together to soften this coming trend of I'm okay, you're not okay, we're about to enter the ugliest 20 years of the pendulum's 80-year round trip. So Roy was writing this, like I said, 2010, 2011, published 2012. And he is right. To counteract the coming trend, listen with your whole heart and try not to interrupt me capable of articulating calmly how the other side sees it.

And I'll let you read the nuances of that on page 186. It's great getting books that have predictions getting them 10 years later. You can see how right they were or not, right, because I'm telling you, these guys are pretty damn right. It would behoove you to get it. Like I said, if you need the Cliff's Notes version, want me to help you shorten that learning curve and and not only learn it, but apply it -- I've been doing that for a long time. Hit me up -- TheSalesWhisperer.com, go to Contact Us and I will help you.

I'm helping a Vancouver contractor right now and I just got feedback on Monday actually during the holiday from Ellen. Just finished my six week Gorillas of Growth course. She's been selling software for two years. Last week that she sold three -- the most she ever sold in a week in her two years of in the business. So if you want to pick up your sales, I'm the guy. Hit me up, TheSalesWhisperer.com. Or join us in the Sell More of Everything program. I'm going to raise the price this summer. I'm probably going to take it to an annual instead of a monthly. So if you want to jump in, save a little money and have a month to month option, avail yourself of that now -- SellMoreOfEverything.com. Thanks for listening. Now go sell something.