If we do not grab the attention of others immediately, we could lose them forever.
There is no doubt that technology has made our lives easier, but it has also made our lives harder in invisible ways. Technology-induced change has created an explosion of content and choice—a deluge of products, services, and voices in constant competition for our attention. In our always-on, internet-connected world, wave after wave of information bombards our senses and dilutes our individual voices. Whether we are conscious of it or not, we’re drowning in a sea of white noise.
As noise around us grows into a never-ending thrum, it reduces our ability to hear one another. Artists struggle to grow their audiences. Writers fail to retain readers’ concentration. Advertisers’ work fails to generate sales. Innovators can’t get support for their ideas. Businesses have a harder time attracting new customers. We’re trying to stand out but because of the digital onslaught, people are so overwhelmed that they are only partially paying attention.
Being noticed is the first step to success. Being remembered is the next. But those two factors have become nearly impossible to control. How can you guarantee that anyone will look at what you’re doing in a sea of other options? How can you be sure you’ll stick in their minds?
The Iconist solves this problem.
Taking lessons from history, psychology, the arts, and pop culture, The Iconist provides a clear formula to help you stand out, be heard, and be remembered at will. At the start of any connection we need to speak simply to be understood. The Iconist gives you an easy-to-use manual on how to distill yourself down, no matter what you do, and lead with the right simple message to grab attention from others. This book is a handbook to achieve radical simplicity. And these days, it is only simplicity that gets attention.
I currently work as a messaging, design, and communications expert, consulting with entrepreneurs and new businesses as well as successful artists, brands, CEOs, and innovators (some of whose stories are in this book). All of them, even the highly successful ones, came to me struggling to be heard in a world overloaded with too much of everything.
My unconventional life’s journey led me to explore the art and science of standing out, and eventually uncover a solution that can help everyone. As a child of poverty and neglect I was rarely in school and had little parental supervision. It was a confusing time for me; my days were shapeless and my focus was scattered. As a kid, time already seemed to move slowly; the smog-refracted sun of the polluted Los Angeles sky only added to my languor. Burning gray concrete was the only world I knew; I recall struggling to remember what rain looked like.
In these barren L.A. neighborhoods, we were the featureless, future-less kids that would eventually serve as America’s lower rung. I feared my future would be an agonizing one of physical labor and drudgery. Eventually, I turned things around, graduating high school and then going on to attend the London School of Economics. Yet it would be twenty years before I realized that the seeds sown in those early years of deprivation, invisibility, and struggle were the precursors to a major passion in my adult life: discovering what it takes to make something—anything—STAND OUT despite the avalanche of information in the world. My work has focused essentially on the “economics of attention.”
The reason we pay attention and remember something is based in our innate perceptions and a set of unchanging primal laws that I call Blocks. Blocks are the simple mechanism underlying what makes anything iconic. In some form or another, Blocks have always existed in the world. A Block is the primal elementary form, sound, or phrase that, once repeated, makes anything iconic, able to break through and stick in any onlooker’s mind. Through instant recognizability and repetition, a Block becomes an Icon in the mind.
The beginnings of the idea underlying Blocks took root in my mind while I was studying the work of the architect Louis Kahn. Kahn was the subject of a 2003 Academy Award–nominated documentary directed by his son, Nathaniel. Kahn became what many experts consider to be the most significant architect of the twentieth century—but only in the waning years of his life.
As I sat in a tiny independent film theater, watching the documentary on Kahn’s architecture, something about the unforgettable, bold, monolithic nature of his work triggered a memory of a Billy Joel interview I had read as a teenager. Joel was asked why he was able to write so many hits. Joel said that he was more interested in what made music last than what made it beautiful, fun, or artistic. He said in his youth he worked hard to be more of a musicologist than a musician. Most of all he wanted to know why Beethoven’s Fifth (you know, dun–dun–da-dun!) had remained relevant for over two centuries. I had spent almost fifteen years pondering this question.
So, as I sat learning about the work of a very different creator, I started wondering if there was a connection between Kahn’s monolithic structures and Joel’s repetitive melodies. It was as though a spark went off—my skin actually got hot.
With my background in economic history, I set out to see if there were in fact patterns of iconic communication. Was there an economics of attention? What makes some things imprint in the mind while other things are repelled? What causes any business, science, art, idea, or message to stand out and become iconic?
How would this function at a time when it has become damn near impossible to be seen among such an overwhelming amount of messaging, products, and services in the world?
What I found turned my head around, having implications far beyond music and buildings.
I spent the next decade testing and trying to consolidate and codify a set of rules for what I found. In the end, they were actually very simple. So simple that even though examples exist everywhere, all around us, we don’t often notice them. I consulted some of the leading tech innovators, social change agents, CEOs, trailblazing engineers, designers, artists, and rock stars in the world about what causes something to stand out and take hold in the mind. It turns out the principles work across any medium—from music to visual art, design, public speaking, even drafting an email, résumé, or dating profile. Anyone can use the principles of human perception in this book to get attention for the things they care about. These principles—I think of them as timeless primordial laws—are the foundation of my work with businesses and individuals today.
Now, there have been many books written on the subject of why something stands out, sticks, and endures; however, many of them fall short because they are trying to grasp a very simple mechanism but end up overcomplicating it. They don’t clearly articulate the primordial rules of why people pay attention, and in turn, that makes it hard for you to use the actual rules that do exist.
What makes some things imprint in the mind while other things are repelled? What causes any business, science, art, idea, or message to stand out and become iconic?
In The Iconist, I will teach you how to stand out, capture attention, and imprint in the mind. Whatever field you work in, I will show you how to use these patterns of human perception to craft completely irresistible content that demands engagement from others. Despite its simplicity, what makes something catch our eye is so obvious that it can be hard to see. So much of the time we’re so close to our art or work that we can’t understand how to value it and represent ourselves with simplicity to grab the attention we deserve. I am offering you a formula to get this right every time. The stories I’ll tell here show the irresistible laws of attention from many angles so that everyone from a child to a CEO can use them.
Within this book you are going to meet many of the business leaders, scientists, artists, designers, historical figures, and social change and culture makers who inspire me and whose work gets me out of bed in the morning. I have been fortunate enough to know many of the people you will read about and feel grateful to call many of them friends.
In my journey from extreme illiteracy and poverty to the London School of Economics and relative prosperity, I’ve observed that no matter our life circumstances, many of us feel the weight of obscurity, at least in relation to our personal dreams. Fear of failure is what most often keeps us from going after what we want. The mechanism of how Blocks and Icons work is as simple as a lever and I hope you use it to reach your greatest dreams and aspirations.
—Jamie