Influence by Robert Cialdini
Listen to the Episode with Neal Schaffer Here:
Listen to the Episode with James Hipkin Here:
This is one of those rare books that has now come up in two separate conversations on this show — recommended independently by both Neal Schaffer and James Hipkin. When two guests with very different areas of expertise point to the same book without prompting, that’s worth paying attention to.
Neal brought it up at the end of our LinkedIn conversation as the book that grounds everything else. James Hipkin recommended it in our discussion on AI-driven marketing strategy for law firms. Different contexts, same conclusion: if you want to understand why clients choose one lawyer over another, why certain content builds trust while other content gets ignored, and why the tactics you’re using either work or don’t — this book explains the psychology behind all of it.
Why Neal Schaffer recommended it:
Neal described Influence as the foundation for understanding how people actually think and make decisions — not just as consumers, but as humans. He pointed to social proof as one of Cialdini’s central concepts: the instinct to follow what others are doing as a signal that something is worth attention. On LinkedIn, this shows up everywhere. A post with significant engagement draws more engagement. A lawyer with a clear niche and consistent presence reads as more credible than one with a scattered profile, even before a single word is read. Neal’s point was simple: understanding these principles at the root level makes every tactical decision you make on LinkedIn sharper.
These aren’t social media strategies. They’re human patterns that predate every platform you’re on. That’s what makes this book genuinely evergreen — and why it keeps showing up in conversations about marketing, AI, and authority building on this show.
Influence by Robert Cialdini
From the publisher:
The foundational and wildly popular go-to resource for influence and persuasion—a renowned international bestseller, with over 5 million copies sold—now revised adding: new research, new insights, new examples, and online applications.
In the new edition of this highly acclaimed bestseller, Robert Cialdini—New York Times bestselling author of Pre-Suasion and the seminal expert in the fields of influence and persuasion—explains the psychology of why people say yes and how to apply these insights ethically in business and everyday settings. Using memorable stories and relatable examples, Cialdini makes this crucially important subject surprisingly easy. With Cialdini as a guide, you don’t have to be a scientist to learn how to use this science.