212. That Time I Went Viral… with Dr. Daniel Crosby

The Brainy Business | Understanding the Psychology of Why People Buy | Behavioral Economics

Before I introduce you to this week's guest, I want to take a moment to celebrate a very special anniversary...two days before this episode airs, on July 6, 2022, we celebrated the four-year anniversary of The Brainy Business Podcast! Four years, 212 episodes (including this one, of course) and we are also dangerously close to 600,000 downloads of the podcast from over 170 countries, which is so awesome! (Pretty confident this episode will push us over that threshold…)

I am so excited to introduce you to Dr. Daniel Crosby. In this episode, we talk a little about his books and the work he does in behavioral science around investing, which is very cool and so relevant. Investing is a time when we tend to throw logic out the window and the subconscious runs a bit rampant. But the main reason he is here today is that he recently had a tweet go viral.

It had nothing to do with his work, and seemed like a fascinating opportunity to hear what it was like to create a tweet like that and live in the space of something everyone says they want -- to go viral -- and see what it has done for him personally, for his business, outlook...and any insights on what this says about human behavior that we can keep in mind for all the application in business. As I'm sure you can appreciate, this is so relevant to his work in investing and how people will randomly jump on one bandwagon over another and invest because the herd is doing so even when they haven't done their own research. Check out the episode to hear him tell you all about his viral tweet!

Show Notes:

• [00:48] Two days before this episode airs, on July 6, 2022, we celebrated the four-year anniversary of The Brainy Business Podcast!
• [02:35] In the episode today, we talk a little about Daniel’s books and the work he does in behavioral science around investing, which is very cool and so relevant.
• [05:40] Daniel shares about himself, his background, and the work he does.
• [07:31] He loves studying human behavior and thinking deeply about why people do the things that they do but he didn’t want to do it in a clinical context.
• [08:57] He has two popular books: The Behavioral Investor and the Laws of Wealth.
• [11:03] The Laws of Wealth is his “ten commandments of investor behavior” and it talks about the power of behavioral principles.
• [12:50] The Behavioral Investor is a deeper dive into externalities that are incredibly important but often overlooked.
• [14:40] Dr. Crosby’s top investment tips: automate, have a financial process, and get a third-party opinion on decisions.
• [16:02] One of the reasons folks have such a hard time investing is because it is so counterintuitive.
• [17:40] Our herding instinct does not serve us well in investing.
• [20:38] Daniel’s went viral with a tweet.
• [22:17] When he figured out what was causing his tooth pain he decided he needed to make better health decisions and gave up Diet Coke.
• [23:44] He snarkily tweeted that he had given up Diet Coke over a month ago and he didn’t have any of the joys people told him he would receive.
• [24:39] Elon Musk responded to his tweet and it went crazy with over 32 million views and over half a million likes and retweets.
• [26:34] Part of what made his tweet go so viral was that there were at least two camps chiming in the comments, especially Diet Coke addicts. It also went viral on TikTok and Instagram.
• [28:12] It struck something powerful in two very different groups of people.
• [28:39] The most fascinating piece to him was follower count because he initially lost thousands of followers and then he ended up about where he started.
• [29:55] His analytics showed that he gained 87 followers from a tweet that 32 million people saw in one day. It shows that going viral in an off-brand way doesn’t do much for you.
• [32:28] We spend so much time thinking about going viral and then it often doesn’t help much.
• [33:42] It was uncomfortable for him to have the heat turned up that high and know that many people were looking at him.
• [35:40] He decided not to use the viral tweet for self-promotion or business because the content was very different.
• [36:32] Melina shares an article that she recently wrote for Inc. about Brand Lessons from the Michelob Ultra Guy.
• [39:18] Daniel shares about the Ocean Spray guy and his interaction with an intern at Diet Coke. He got a 24-pack and 2 six-packs of free soda.
• [42:08] Usually we expect viral posts to be over the top. His tweet was surprising, it was funny and still vanilla.
• [44:53] There is nothing so low stakes on the internet that people can’t make a big deal about it. It gave him the sense of the power of a crowd so it actually made him go into his shell a bit.
• [47:24] Melina shares her closing thoughts.
• [47:52] Melina shares Daniel’s full viral tweet.
• [49:02] We as humans feel this need to strive for that silver bullet...the one thing that will change everything, but in reality, it is a lot of little things that add up to a life and business that makes a difference.
• [50:45] Don't sit around hoping and lamenting over that one thing that could change everything. Instead, focus on one thing you can do each day to get a little bit closer to your goals and show up where it counts, so people can rely on you and your content.
• [51:44] Whenever you are listening, will you pay it forward and share an episode with a friend? If you love the Brainy Business, let's share it with more people from around the world who would love to be a little more brainy. None of this would be possible without you, so thank you again for listening, subscribing, sharing, rating, and leaving reviews. I appreciate you!

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More from The Brainy Business:

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Get the Books Mentioned on (or related to) this Episode:

• The Behavioral Investor, by Daniel Crosby
• Laws of Wealth, by Daniel Crosby
• Using Semiotics in Retail, by Rachel Lawes
• The Hype Handbook, by Michael F. Schein
• What Your Employees Need and Can't Tell You, by Melina Palmer

Connect with Daniel:

• Daniel on LinkedIn
• Daniel on Twitter

Top Recommended Next Episode: Booms, Bubbles and Busts (episode 30)

Already Heard That One? Try These:

• Precommitment (episode 120)
• Herding (episode 19)
• Prefactual Thinking (episode 71)
• Counterfactual Thinking (episode 68)
• Social Proof (episode 87)
• What is Value? (episode 8)
• Status Quo Bias (episode 142)
• Optimism Bias (episode 34)
• The Science of Opinions, with Dr. Andy Luttrell (episode 173)
• Using Semiotics in Retail with Rachel Lawes (episode 191)
• Designing for Behavior Change, Interview with Dr. Steve Wendel (episode 116)
• Time Discounting (episode 51)
• The Hype Handbook, an Interview with Author Michael F. Schein (episode 143)
• Get Your D.O.S.E. of Brain Chemicals, a Behavioral Economics Foundations Episode (epiosde 123)
• Creating Content People Can’t Help But Engage With featuring Katelyn Bourgoin (episode 201)

Other Important Links:

• Brainy Bites - Melina’s LinkedIn Newsletter
• Daniel’s Viral Tweet
• 3 Brand Lessons From The Michelob Ultra Guy
• Standard Deviations Podcast

Check out What Your Customer Wants and Can’t Tell You on Amazon, Bookshop, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository, and Booktopia