As an attorney, I've learned a few things about how to communicate with people, especially people that don't agree with me. So today I'm going to give you three top secret powerful, simple tools that you can use today instantly to improve your communication. Welcome to the Jefferson Fisher podcast where I'm on a mission to make your next conversation the one that changes everything. Wherever you're listening right now, I'm just going to ask you to do me a favor and that is find the button where it said subscribe, like, follow and click it. It's not a lifelong thing. It's something that helps me a lot because what it does is it tells wherever you're listening that this is good content and my promise in exchange is that I'm going to make you a better communicator episode after episode. I'm going to be here to make sure that your words have power. So thank you very much. Now, before we get into it, I want to tell you about Cozy Earth. 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Get rid of that idea. There are plenty of people that go to law school that aren't good communicators. I mean, that's just that goes in any profession that you can think of just because you go to law school does not tie into good communication skills. Now litigation on the other hand, where you are representing one party and somebody's representing another and you are in the courtroom. That's very different. So let me tell you some things that I have learned as an attorney that is going to help you day to day. How can you better communicate and argue like an attorney? You're ready? Number one, turn more of your butts into ands, more of your butts into ands. I want you to think right now, wherever you are, maybe you're listening at your office, maybe you're walking, running. Think about email in particular. We get this kind of framework and sentencing all the time. You say, I like this or I think this, but have you ever had somebody compliment you and kind of draw it out and you're waiting for the. But hey, I really like it. I think this is really cool. But it's not for me. It is the separator of many things and it hurts your dialogue. And as an attorney, I have learned this technique for many years because of depositions. When I'm cross examining a witness, I want them to be giving the information that I need. And if I start to use the word, but I'm instantly putting up walls between them. It's the same way if you said something and I go, but, but what about, say, I'm not even accepting your point of view when you say that? I'm just going, but, but what about him? But he did this, but what about this? What do you think about this? You're putting up walls. So let me give you some examples of this. Think of, let's say there's somebody who says, yeah, I, I really like this, but it's not. For me, you just deleted everything, but has the tendency of deleting anything that comes before it and builds onto it. This is a very common scenario. I love you, but this isn't working for me. Or, I mean, maybe you're in a relationship right now and you've been through a breakup and they say, well, I love you, but it deletes everything. I love you and I need to tell you this isn't working for me. You hear the difference? You hear the difference and how more assertive that is, how more grounded that is. Here's some other examples. Somebody who goes, I hear what you're saying, but I disagree. Instead, it's, I hear what you're saying and I see things differently. You hear that big difference. Here's another one. I'm sorry I did that, but it wasn't my intent. Remove the butt, replace it with an. I'm sorry I did that and that wasn't my intent. Now, huge difference. You can already hear that. So start thinking in your emails, how are you going to replace that? How are you going to move that? Because it's going to increase your communication skills tenfold. And every day for my depositions, I might be asking a witness. I've seen people ask witnesses if I say they give me an answer and I say, well, yeah, I hear you say that, but my question is more X. And they immediately claim up. If I were to say, no, I appreciate you telling me that. But what I'm really trying to get at is they claim up because it goes, oh, what I'm telling you doesn't matter. You don't really want, you don't want what I give. Oh, excuse me. I guess what I just said doesn't matter at all to you. And so it puts up a wall. If you want to level up your communication, listen to me. You need to switch your butts and replace them with ands. I promise you it is going to be a game changer for your communication if you're willing to do it. You're going to start catching it all the time. It's going to be a lot better for you. Number two, stop arguing over the specific and start going to the general, especially when things start to get heated. I get all the time where somebody is saying something to me that I disagree with wholeheartedly. And it's very tempting to start getting into the minutiae of it and start trying to pick it apart. That doesn't do any good. You know this. Somebody's telling something. Let's say your grandmother is telling you how you should be raising your child or your grandfather is telling you how you should vote or you're getting into an argument with parents or somebody at the office and they start talking about specifics. Instead of diving right into it and going tit for tat and trying to just, it's a back alley knife fight of just a thousand paper cuts. Go to the general meaning instead of thinking micro. I want you to think macro. One of the best tools that has helped me when I can tell that when I'm talking to when this things are starting to get heated. I say, I agree. Hear me out. I don't say, I agree with what you're saying. I say, I agree. That's worth the discussion. I agree. That's worth talking about. I agree. That's a point. I agree. That's a way to think about it. You see, instead of just arguing about the little things, which most of the time really don't matter. They really don't. I start agreeing on the overall thing. Let's say you and I disagree over something politically. But I know we're just arguing over the little things. Instead of getting into the minutiae, I might say, yeah, I agree. I agree. We should take care of our the next generation. I agree. Find things to agree upon. You hear how people say find common ground. I don't necessarily agree with that all the time. What you need to do is find any ground to where you can get above to where you feel like you're breathing above the argument. And a lot of times that comes from not thinking macro, but thinking macro. I agree. That's worth talking about. I agree. That's worth the discussion. That one right there. I use all the time. I might be talking to a witness and they start trying to pull me into something and I might say, I know what? I agree. That's a concern. I agree. That's a fair concern. I don't have to agree with what they said. It's just, I agree. That's a fair concern and it instantly draws them down. It's a wonderful way of stopping them from getting defensive and it's worked time and time for me in the courtroom and in the depositions. Now, before we keep going, I want to take a second to tell you about peak. Now, I was born raised a coffee guy, but over the last few years, I've really found a lot of joy in teas. I drink tea at night in the mornings on the go. And one of the ones that I have in my daily routine is peak. That's P I Q U E is these little tea crystal packets. So it's not like an actual, you have to steep it or anything. They've already done that in the process with the crystal. 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Here is something you're going to hear from me a lot because it works. It certainly works in the courtroom. It definitely works in day to day that you can use anywhere, anytime. And it's this, if you want to have strength and if you want to have very assertive language, I'm not going to enunciate. Now, I am a good old Texas Southern boy. Sometimes I'm sure you've noticed I mumble. I mumble a lot, but if I'm wanting to really get into something and I want somebody to pay attention and understand I mean business and I'm very serious, I will enunciate every word that I say because it is making it crisp. It is making it pointed. And it's not just me enunciating. I slow things down. So if I'm asking a witness a question and if it's very important, I'm not going to just breeze right by it. I'm not going to go real fast. I'm going to slow it down. I might say, Mr. Williams, you did not go to the store. You hear out that's a lot more grounded rather than me say Mr. Williams eating out of the store. Did you? You didn't go. They're going to just take that away. So if you slow it down, it's like you stay in flow in the conversation. You stay in flow. Think of it as if you're pulling some thread or you're opening a jar. You're trying to untie something or you're hooking a fish and it's pulling on you. The tighter you pull, you snap it. So if you try to go really fast when things are getting really hectic and chaotic and tense in your conversation, you yank, you will snap that line and you will lose them for a very long time. But if you breathe and slow down your words and you annunciate and you go with the flow and you draw it out, make the conversation last longer, you're going to add in pauses, you're going to add in silence. You're not working in defensiveness. You're working in wisdom. You're giving time to regulate. So whenever you find and whenever I have ever found a witness to be very adversarial to me and I know they don't like me, I know that has a lot more to do with their emotion and a lot more based on their assumptions of who I am. So when I can slow down, not only do I listen better, they regulate better. And so it is something that I use time and time again. I want you to think of that imagery of whenever you rapid response to something and you get really angry, you rush into the response without thinking through it, you're snapping the line. You're snapping the line. I want you to give with it a little bit, then pull it back a little bit and you can do that by using your breath and slowing things down and drawing out the conversation. See, I told you, it's not that it's not all that legally stuff. It's not the henceforth, wherefore, whereas there in mumbo jumbo, that doesn't mean anything. These are tools that I've picked up as an attorney in the courtroom, in the depositions, you name it, mediation rooms that have helped me improve my communication. And these are tools that can transcend any place that you are. So if you feel like you're getting worked up in the car and you're driving with your spouse, draw out the conversation, use more silence. If you find that somebody is arguing with you about something instead of getting into the minutiae and the details, find things above it that you can agree on. I agree this is worth talking about. Easy to use. And number one, get in the habit. You say, I'll reverse this. Get in the habit of turning your butts and hands. That one to me is the most powerful. That one is the most powerful because you pick it up. Just get, get militant. I mean, get disciplined about finding ways to turn your butts into ants because butts put up walls and build bridges. So use the one that gets you where you want to go. All right. 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