The rule of reciprocity — doing a small favor makes it highly likely the other party reciprocates, even for unequal asks — demonstrated a real purchase outcome when offering a Diet Coke led the seller to knock $4,000 off a motorcycle.

2:31reading the best books again at different times in your life, it's a totally different book. You think you've read it and what I found is you you remember, you know, shockingly little of books. And so, going back and reading great books is um is like, you know, the gift that keeps giving in that sense. So, so that's what I'm doing. >> Uh did you ever read the blog post that

2:51I wrote about Influence, his book? >> No. >> Uh in 2014, I had just read his book and I wanted to implement what he what he he talked about and he has this rule called the rule of reciprocity, which basically just says, uh let's say that uh neighbor one goes to neighbor two, let's say I go to Shawn and I say, "Hey, can I borrow a cup of

3:10sugar?" and you say, "Yeah, I got you." The next day, if you come to me and say, "Hey, can I borrow your car for the day?" even though even though those two ask aren't even remotely equal, I, because of the rule of reciprocity, am very likely to lend you my car because the rule of reciprocity states that if you do something nice for someone, they are they have a high chance of doing

3:31something nice in exchange to you, even if the they aren't equal. And uh that's like how society is is built, one could say, is like based off the rule of reciprocity. So, when I was a kid, I was uh 24 years old, there was a motorcycle for sale, I think for $1,800, and I went to buy it and I took photos and documented all of this as I

3:49went, and I was like, "Hey, uh you have the motorcycle for $1800? Let me see it. Let me check it out. Awesome. Oh, by the way, I'm really sorry I'm late. I I just I wanted to stop and get a Coke cuz it was kind of hot outside. I got one for you if you want one. Do you want one?" And he goes, "Yeah, sure. Thanks." Um

4:04and then uh as I start talking to him and I'm like, "Look, I love this motorcycle, but like I'm a young guy. I don't have a lot of money. I know you're asking for 18. >> [snorts] >> Could Could you do 14?" And he goes, "You know, you brought me the Coke. You seem like a nice kid. Yeah, I guess I can do that." And so like there's a blog

4:19post where I took photos of myself like when he was when he was like turned around like signing the paperwork, I like took the took the photo. But anyway, the rule of reciprocity is pretty amazing. >> So, let me tell you a funny follow-up story to that. I remember you telling the story about the Diet Coke and the negotiation and how you always bring two Diet Cokes to a negotiation, correct?

4:39You've told me this before like 10 years ago, right? >> to bring a gift. Yeah, I try to bring something. >> Well, I took it as Diet Coke. So, here's what happened. I uh recently uh I was coaching this high school basketball team, as you know. And anytime I'm doing a project, I want to try to make it as interesting, as cool as possible. And what I do sometimes is