Latest / Becoming Irresistible / Season 2, Episode 14. Irresistibility Spotlight: Rudolph Valentino
Transcript
- 0:14SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to Becoming Irresistible.
- 0:16SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Jay, a high achievement lifestyle strategist and irresistibility expert.
- 0:20SPEAKER_00: Today I want to talk about something I've noticed over so many years, and I've always wondered about it.
- 0:26SPEAKER_00: And that's why I thought I'd research a little bit about it and see what came up from this topic.
- 0:34SPEAKER_00: But I'm sure you've also noticed the same thing that I have.
- 0:37SPEAKER_00: You're driving in the car, your favorite song comes on, and almost automatically your hand reaches out for that volume knob.
- 0:46SPEAKER_00: You turn it up, and sometimes you turn it way up.
- 0:51SPEAKER_00: But then maybe somebody else in the car puts on another song, one that you really don't like, and what do you do then?
- 1:03SPEAKER_00: It's really fascinating.
- 1:04SPEAKER_00: Your speakers didn't change, right?
- 1:07SPEAKER_00: Your ears have not changed.
- 1:11SPEAKER_00: The only thing that changed was your relationship to the sound.
- 1:15SPEAKER_00: So why do we do this?
- 1:17SPEAKER_00: And more importantly, what does this tiny habit reveal about the way our brains work and about what makes people irresistible?
- 1:25SPEAKER_00: So at first it seems obvious.
- 1:27SPEAKER_00: We turn up songs we like, well, because we like them, right?
- 1:30SPEAKER_00: But that's not a very satisfying answer.
- 1:33SPEAKER_00: Think about this.
- 1:34SPEAKER_00: Sometimes your favorite song is actually playing louder than the song that you disliked.
- 1:41SPEAKER_00: Yet somehow it doesn't feel louder, right?
- 1:44SPEAKER_00: In fact, you feel like you want to turn it up more, except you're probably worried about other people complaining or people hearing you from outside because your music is so loud.
- 1:57SPEAKER_00: But if there was no one around, you'd probably turn it up even louder.
- 2:02SPEAKER_00: Meanwhile, someone else, when they're listening to their favorite song and they turn up the volume, it can feel almost painfully too loud, right?
- 2:12SPEAKER_00: Even if it's at the same level or lower than what you were playing your song at.
- 2:18SPEAKER_00: So the exact same sound can bring a lot of comfort, energy, excitement to one person, but it can prove to be irritating to another person.
- 2:30SPEAKER_00: Why is this?
- 2:32SPEAKER_00: Well, it's because your brain isn't simply measuring sound, it's interpreting meaning.
- 2:39SPEAKER_00: One of the most remarkable things about the brain is that it's constantly making predictions.
- 2:44SPEAKER_00: And when your favorite song begins, your brain already knows what's coming.
- 2:48SPEAKER_00: It knows the melody, it anticipates the chorus, it remembers the emotion you experienced when you heard it.
- 2:55SPEAKER_00: When you first heard it, or maybe that time that you heard it in a certain situation.
- 3:00SPEAKER_00: In other words, before the chorus even comes on, your brain is already enjoying the anticipation.
- 3:08SPEAKER_00: And that's why sometimes the first few notes of a favorite song make you smile or make you go, oh yeah, even before anyone starts to sing.
- 3:19SPEAKER_00: Your brain isn't waiting for the reward, it's predicting it.
- 3:24SPEAKER_00: So when you turn up the volume, you're not just increasing sound, you're increasing an experience that you already expect you're going to enjoy.
- 3:34SPEAKER_00: Now compare that to a song you dislike.
- 3:37SPEAKER_00: Your brain is predicting something completely different.
- 3:40SPEAKER_00: I don't enjoy this, right?
- 3:42SPEAKER_00: I don't want more of this.
- 3:43SPEAKER_00: So increasing the volume feels like you're increasing an unpleasant experience.
- 3:48SPEAKER_00: The sound waves might be identical, but the prediction is totally different.
- 3:55SPEAKER_00: And this led me to make an even bigger realization.
- 3:58SPEAKER_00: Maybe your brain is not amplifying intensity.
- 4:03SPEAKER_00: Maybe what it's amplifying is resonance.
- 4:06SPEAKER_00: Think about it.
- 4:08SPEAKER_00: People often assume that if something is louder, bigger, more dramatic, then it's going to have a greater impact.
- 4:16SPEAKER_00: But that's not how real life works, is it?
- 4:18SPEAKER_00: The loudest person in the room isn't always the most influential person.
- 4:23SPEAKER_00: In fact, it's sometimes the opposite.
- 4:25SPEAKER_00: The flashiest advertisement isn't necessarily the one you will remember.
- 4:30SPEAKER_00: The longest speech isn't necessarily the one that changes your life, right?
- 4:35SPEAKER_00: Intensity isn't what actually moves people.
- 4:39SPEAKER_00: Resonance is.
- 4:40SPEAKER_00: You see this everywhere.
- 4:42SPEAKER_00: Think about exercising.
- 4:43SPEAKER_00: Imagine if someone forced you to run five miles.
- 4:46SPEAKER_00: You know those movies we watch where the coach forces the people to do laps.
- 4:52SPEAKER_00: And we ourselves feel miserable when we see that, right?
- 4:56SPEAKER_00: Every step feels miserable.
- 4:58SPEAKER_00: But imagine if you decided you wanted to run a marathon and now you're training for your very first marathon and you go out and run five miles.
- 5:06SPEAKER_00: That same exact five miles that you ran before.
- 5:09SPEAKER_00: It's still difficult, but it's no longer pointless, right?
- 5:13SPEAKER_00: Think about parenting.
- 5:15SPEAKER_00: Most people would not happily wake up three times every night for a complete stranger, but they'll do it for their newborn baby.
- 5:24SPEAKER_00: It's not that sleep deprivation has changed much.
- 5:28SPEAKER_00: The meaning has, right?
- 5:30SPEAKER_00: Meaning changes your experience.
- 5:32SPEAKER_00: And so this is where this connects back to everything we've been talking about on this podcast.
- 5:37SPEAKER_00: Irresistible people, they aren't the people necessarily demanding attention.
- 5:42SPEAKER_00: They are the people who resonate, right?
- 5:46SPEAKER_00: When someone truly resonates with you, you voluntarily turn up their volume.
- 5:52SPEAKER_00: You lean in.
- 6:05SPEAKER_00: Nobody has to convince you.
- 6:07SPEAKER_00: You naturally want more of it.
- 6:09SPEAKER_00: And that's exactly what's happening with your favorite song.
- 6:13SPEAKER_00: You don't increase the volume because someone told you to, right?
- 6:16SPEAKER_00: You do it because there's something inside you that wants more of that experience, a deeper experience with that.
- 6:23SPEAKER_00: And so as parents, this matters a lot.
- 6:27SPEAKER_00: Because we often think our job is to be louder or to have more rules, more lectures, more reminders.
- 6:35SPEAKER_00: But children usually don't remember the loud moments.
- 6:40SPEAKER_00: They remember those moments that resonate.
- 6:43SPEAKER_00: The conversation that makes them feel understood, makes them feel seen, or a teacher who believes in them, right?
- 6:49SPEAKER_00: The coach who challenged them at the right moment.
- 6:54SPEAKER_00: Or the parent who got curious and started asking questions instead of giving them a painful lecture.
- 7:02SPEAKER_00: Resonance lasts longer than volume.
- 7:07SPEAKER_00: So the interesting part about this is that we all have a volume knob and we can turn it down, and we can turn it up, and that volume knob is related to your attention.
- 7:20SPEAKER_00: Right?
- 7:21SPEAKER_00: Every day you decide where your attention goes, you decide what gets amplified.
- 7:27SPEAKER_00: And sometimes we're playing on loud the music that we really don't resonate with, and it's painful, but we leave the volume knob there because other people expect us to.
- 7:42SPEAKER_00: The truth is we should turn now the volume on those things that we don't resonate with.
- 7:47SPEAKER_00: And turn the volume up on things that we do resonate with.
- 7:50SPEAKER_00: What ideas are you returning to right now?
- 7:53SPEAKER_00: Who are the people that you keep spending time with?
- 7:55SPEAKER_00: What habits are you repeating and what conversations are you replaying?
- 7:59SPEAKER_00: Whatever you are turning up, whether or not you like it, that becomes a soundtrack of your life.
- 8:05SPEAKER_00: And that's true whether it's hope, a soundtrack of hope, or a soundtrack of fear.
- 8:13SPEAKER_00: Or it could be a soundtrack of confidence or a soundtrack of self-doubt.
- 8:16SPEAKER_00: Your attention.
- 8:18SPEAKER_00: What you choose to turn up the volume knob on is the amplifier.
- 8:22SPEAKER_00: So the next time you're driving and your favorite song comes on, notice what your hand is doing.
- 8:26SPEAKER_00: It reaches for the volume without you even thinking.
- 8:30SPEAKER_00: So go back and think about what you've been turning up the volume on lately.
- 8:34SPEAKER_00: Ask yourself if you're amplifying the people who are helping you to grow.
- 8:40SPEAKER_00: Are you amplifying ideas that are moving you forward versus amplifying voices that are keeping you small or anxiety or worries that are holding you back?
- 8:50SPEAKER_00: And because now we understand that the brain doesn't amplify based on volume alone.
- 8:56SPEAKER_00: It amplifies based on resonance.
- 8:59SPEAKER_00: So if you want to become irresistible, don't just focus on being loud.
- 9:04SPEAKER_00: Focus on becoming someone who resonates in a way that people naturally want to turn you up.
- 9:12SPEAKER_00: That's where real influence lies.
- 9:15SPEAKER_00: Not in forcing people to listen to you and grabbing for attention, but in becoming someone that people want to hear more from.
- 9:22SPEAKER_00: I hope you've enjoyed this deep dive on the volume knob, and thanks for listening.
- 9:28SPEAKER_00: Until next time, stay irresistible.