{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"The Dialog","title":"1.36 / Are you saying what people need to hear?","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":1886,"description":"I spent months writing the one book I'd write if I could only write one. 70,000 words made the manuscript, and I cut another 150,000. My literary agent showed the proposal to several people, and they all said about the same thing: these are great ideas, but no one will buy it.\nThat's what feedback really looks like. It's rarely about whether you're right. It's about whether people can receive what you're saying.\nNick Surface and I pick the book story back up from Episode 33. It's a story with a lesson, and it's a lesson trusted people in my life have been telling me for a couple of years.\nIsn't a great idea enough?\nNo. My friend Erwin McManus told me, \"You've done a great job thinking about what you want to say, which is really important, but what you don't think enough about is what people need to hear.\" What you say is always at the mercy of a person's level of understanding.\nWhy does so much networking feel transactional?\nAt my first youth pastors' conference I just wanted friends. A youth pastor with about 2,000 in his youth ministry asked me to swap speaking spots. When I told him I couldn't pay an honorarium, that was the last time I talked to him.\nWhy does alignment matter more than opportunity?\nMy dad says it's never about what you're doing, it's always about who you're with. So when the agency wanted to represent me long term, I signed for one book.\nWhat do you do when trusted people keep giving you the same feedback?\nYou listen. This is the kind of book you write as your fifth book, once people trust your voice. I'm in a season of learning that.\nPeople and books referenced\nErwin McManus: think less about what you want to say and more about what people need to hear\nThe Way to Live by Josh Craft: Josh's first book\nChapters\n0:00 Cold open and show intro\n0:53 Closing the loop on feedback\n1:48 What does a literary agent actually do?\n3:51 \"If you don't like it, go find someone else\"\n4:03 What Erwin McManus asked me\n5:58 Your words are at the mercy of their...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/7YsfA4gq5VzjhvmKvDET1pQqT0OM6yxv1laklKclR7g/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS83ZWZh/MTRmZDEzOWRjZGQz/Y2M2NThkNzYwOTJj/ODA4MC5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}