The real rules to master the game

Greetings, Chief Storytelling Officers.

I went to Game 4 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals this week. It’s crazy how quickly things can change in sports. After being up 3-0 in the series, it’s now tied 3-3 and going to a deciding Game 7 at Boston.

The narrative went from Boston collapsing to Boston standing strong. That’s the amazing thing about a narrative. It can change in an instant.

To all of you 2,247 readers, let’s dive into this week’s issue.

-Robbie

DEEP DIVE: The Real Rules

Kobe Bryant read the Referee Rule Book.

Let that sink in. THE REFEREE RULE BOOK!

Now you might be wondering why he read the Referee Rule Book. Kobe gave an interview about this and he talked about how the rule book told him where the refs would need to be on any given play. By understanding the rotation the refs use, Kobe found blind spots and ways to draw attention when he wanted it.

What Kobe figured out is that by knowing the rules of the game, he could exploit them.

Every other player knew the rules of basketball. Kobe knew the rules within the rules. That’s what separates the good from the great.

I bring this up because it’s the same in the game of business.

There are rules and then there are rules. (Vesper’s line about Bond’s dinner jacket being the reference there)

Why the real rules matter

When you understand the deeper set of rules you can use them to your advantage. After all, this is what I had to do as a trial lawyer during my 102 jury trials back in that part of my life.

This is the part where people get all upset about “exploiting the rules”.

I don’t feel bad about that at all. And neither should you.

Let me give you an example from my past in one of the toughest cases of my career. Cue the Law and Order: SVU theme music.

I was trying a horrific child abuse case. Grandfather had abused his granddaughter. Sadly this wasn’t the only family member he had abused, but it was the first one who was willing to stand up in court and face him.

There were certain rules of evidence that prevented me from getting into certain facts. Specifically some of the abuse of other family members. But I knew the rules of evidence and set a trap. I walked the defense attorney into the trap and next thing he knew, I’d turned a tough case into a slam dunk guilty and maximum punishment.

The defense attorney was left shell shocked at the turn of events.

Here’s why it played out the way that it did.

Every couple of months I would read the Texas Rules of Evidence and the Texas Rules of Criminal Procedure. Cover to cover. I’d talk with our appellate lawyers about things I wanted clarification on and then I’d read the case law that was cited throughout.

Even if I’d read the same case before, I read it again.

Nobody would know the rules better than I did in a courtroom. Just like Kobe, I would know where the ref (in my case the judge) would be at any given moment and the calls they would need to make.

So what does this mean for you?

Whether you’re here for storytelling content, fundraising content, or both there are deeper rules than most people realize.

When it comes to storytelling, you have to develop the ability to tap into a deep emotional place inside of yourself and attach it to your words. You have to understand the different structures and framing. You have to get deep into rhetoric to use the right words at the right time to create the right effect.

I will tell you this right now, it’s a powerful place to live.

The good news is that I spent far too many hours on this stuff so you don’t need to and wrote a book on it. Specifically for how to do this type of storytelling in the pursuit of raising capital, attracting talent, and closing deals. That announcement is coming soon for pre-orders. (feel free to reply to this newsletter to get the early access).

When it comes to fundraising, the rules you’re told to follow aren’t the rules you should follow.

The people telling you the rules, want to make their lives easier and better. In other words…

The deeper rules come from human nature and psychology. Here’s the thing, I used this approach to try the toughest cases in the state of Texas. And win. I was lucky that because of my time as a child abuse prosecutor I got to work with psychologists, psychiatrists, brain scientists, and other experts from the FBI to make sure I knew exactly how to convince a jury that a person was guilty.

It’s these same rules that I studied as history major around nationalism, narrative control, and my senior thesis on the rise of the religious right. It’s the same rules that I use with founders today that have now raised $563,000,000 in capital.

The traditional approach plays by the rules. The competitive storytelling approach exploits the rules to dominate the game.

There’s a reason one of my favorite books is Dune. It’s all about psychology, game theory, and strategy. Just take this quote as an example of it’s deeper understanding.

“A process cannot be understood by stopping it. Understanding must move with the flow of the process, must join it and flow with it.”

You don’t need to and shouldn’t play by traditional rules. Be more like Kobe. Find the weak spots. Know the angles. Create unfair advantages so you can raise capital.

I loved being a trial lawyer. Once I figured out the rules everything fell into place. My goal is for those of you interested in fundraising, this newsletter provides you a deeper insight into how to do it effectively.

To take this a step a further, if you’re a founder that’s fundraising for the first time I finally decided to build a product specifically for you.

It’s called Founder Fundraising Foundations.

You can learn more by clicking this link and learn the deeper rules of the fundraising game.

The simple fact that you read this newsletter tells me that you know how important it is to understand these deeper rules for both storytelling and fundraising.

You can win this game.

You’re on the right path. Keep going.

RESOURCES for Founders and Storytellers

This tweet thread by Nathan Baugh on Christopher Nolan’s process is amazing.

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Ever get asked tough questions as a founder and want to know how to answer them? Check out this video.

FINALLY...

We started with Kobe, let’s end with Kobe.

“Everything negative- pressure, challenges- is all an opportunity for me to rise.”

See you next week.