So I’ve been deep in prep mode for next weeks Money Making Messaging workshop (save your spot here) and it's landed me in some weird and wonderful places.

I'm sure you've felt the same thing where you're in a scroll hole, beyond save-able and you can't get out, but this time, I didn't wanna be saved.

It starts so pure... One tab open, good intentions, very responsible. And then the algorithm decides it knows better than you do and just… starts suggesting things. Aggressively. Personally. Like it’s been reading your diary. Which, now that I think about it, isn't completely unrealistic cos Claude knows everything by now...

Which is how I ended up two hours into a Youtube video of a British man with a very calm voice reading his own book into a camera. I'm serious. The whole video is him just reading his book he wrote 10 years ago that he pulls down pirated versions of weekly.

The man is Phil M Jones. The book is Exactly What to Say. And Daddy Algo (lol) delivered him to me right in the middle of prepping a workshop that is entirely about the words that make you money. Which, honestly? Rude of the algorithm to be that right.

Phil studies the specific phrases that make people’s brains say yes. Not in a manipulative, used-car-salesman way. In a “humans are wired a certain way and you can either work with that or against it” way. And some of what he shared I have been doing instinctively for years without ever knowing why it worked.

Here are the five things I pulled out for you, served on an email platter... silver was out of stock.

One. The rejection-free opener.

“I’m not sure if it’s for you, but…”

When you say this, the other person’s brain hears no pressure and relaxes. Curiosity spikes. They lean in. You get to float an idea without it feeling like a pitch.

I’m not sure if it’s for you, but I happen to have one spot left in June.

That’s it. Try it and try not to be smug about it.

Two. Stop explaining yourself when they push back on price.

They say “that’s a bit more than I was expecting.” You panic. You justify. You launch into a fifteen-minute monologue about your process and your experience and your software subscriptions and meanwhile they’ve mentally moved on.

Phil’s answer is four words: “what makes you say that?”

Not defensive. Just genuinely curious. Because nine times out of ten the objection isn’t actually about the number. You’ll never find out what it really is if you start arguing with a figure.

Ask the question. Then shut up. The silence is doing the work.

Three. The follow-up that doesn’t make you feel like a stalker.

You sent the quote five days ago. You are refreshing your inbox every twelve minutes and immediately closing the tab because you cannot handle the answer.

Try this: “I’m guessing you haven’t got around to looking at the proposal yet.”

It takes the shame out of not having done the thing. They either rise up (“actually I did!”) or confess (“you’re right, I haven’t”). Either way, the conversation is moving again. And the word yet at the end is doing an extraordinary amount of heavy lifting.

Four. “Most people in your situation…”

When a client is dithering over scope, the human brain is comforted by knowing what other humans have done. We are pack animals in blazers.

“Most people at this stage go with the full suite because it means we’re not patching things later. Some start with just the logo. Either works, depends where you’re at.”

You’re not pushing. You’re showing them the map. The map is enormously reassuring.

Five. The word “enough.”

When someone is choosing between two options and you want to nudge them toward the more comprehensive one without being weird about it, just ask: “would [the bigger option] be enough for you?”

The brain immediately answers yes, that’s plenty and what just happened is they chose the bigger option without feeling sold to.

Sneaky. Effective. Using immediately.

Phil’s whole thing is the verbal game. What to say in the room, on the call, in the follow-up. And it works because the right words meet people where they actually are instead of where you hope they are.

But your words are doing work long before anyone picks up the phone.

Your website. Your socials. Your proposals. All of it is either calling in the clients who see the number and go “yes, absolutely” or quietly filtering them out in favour of the ones who want to haggle you down to something that makes you want to cry into your coffee.

That’s exactly what we’re getting into this time next week.

💸 Money Making Messaging 💸

Live. 27 May. 10am AEST. Free. Save your spot here​

Sixty minutes on the specific words that are making you look cheaper than you are, and what to swap them for. Daddy Algo can take the morning off. This one I planned.