PODCAST EPISODES

On today’s behavioral economics foundations episode we are going to be talking about the network effect (or perhaps it is more accurate…

Today, we are going to be talking about subscription models and membership groups. I have been thinking about an episode on this…

Today, I am very excited to introduce you to Brian Ahearn, one of only 20 trainers certified by Robert Cialdini to teach…

Today’s episode discusses why every business needs to revisit their lead magnets, freebies, and opt-ins right now. I’ve mentioned on a couple…

Today, we are going to be covering confirmation bias – I know this sounds like one of those concepts you probably think…

Today’s episode features a discussion with Dr. Dan Ariely – you know that name by now right? We talk about the numberless…

It is amazing to realize that we have been together now for 100 episodes and that by the time this comes out…

Today, we are going to be talking about bikeshedding, also known as Parkinson’s Law of Triviality. There is definitely a reason I…

Today, I am very excited to introduce you to Dr. Julie O’Brien, a behavioral scientist applying concepts from behavioral economics in business….

Imagine any experience, from eating out to buying something online, and consider these questions you have probably heard a lot: “How was…

I am very excited to bring back Nikki Rausch, from Sales Maven and one of my very favorite people on earth. You…

In a world of selfies, Instastories and YouTube…it’s hard to not be on camera these days. With the coronavirus pandemic (which I covered in episode 91), the world has been flocking to Zoom, which before the end of February had already added more active users than in all of 2019. Today’s episode gets into concepts like familiarity bias, confirmation bias, and comparisons that are working to make our brains hate seeing and hearing ourselves from the outside looking in.

I am very excited to introduce you to Dr. Sudy Majd, a behavioral scientist applying concepts from behavioral economics in business. Sudy…

Have you ever wondered why it’s blindly accepted to just do things the same way they’ve always been done? Have you noticed…

Fundamental attribution error is another example of a behavioral economics concept with a really terrible name. Similar to my choice to call…

Coronavirus (or COVID-19) is everywhere on the news, and everyone’s talking about it. The statistics and status of outbreaks are changing rapidly,…

I am very excited to introduce you to Samuel Salzer, founder of the super awesome resource Habit Weekly. He provides content via…

In a previous episode, I talked about a study on happiness which found that when asked if people thought they would be…

Companies are getting more savvy about using behavioral economics not only to sell products, but to help consumers make better choices. Will…

Social proof was introduced by Robert Cialdini in his book Influence. It’s one of the six principles of persuasion (accompanied by reciprocity,…

Last year on the show, there were behavioral economics analyses of Apple Card, Costco and Starbucks and this is the first time…

As students of behavioral economics know even when we are aware of our biases, they still exist. Our brains and subconscious act…

This show is all about how to stack products and services to make them the most appealing to your potential customers. Those…

Clutter has a negative impact on your brain. It can lead to disorganization, overwhelm, increased stress, and even health issues. That’s why…

I don’t know about you…but I am having a hard time believing that it’s 2020 already. 2019 was such an amazing year…

In honor of the new year, today’s episode is about how to make behavioral change that sticks. Welcome to 2020 everyone! 2019…

Merry and happy holidays to you all – whatever you celebrate or don’t, wherever you are in the world…I hope you are…

Holidays are a time filled with traditions and reflecting upon the past, remembering the good ol’ days or reliving your childhood…while creating…

I am so beyond excited to introduce you to Nir Eyal, author of the fantastic new book Indistractable, which I have mentioned…

“How do I raise my prices?” is a question I hear all the time. You all know that pricing is my jam….

Happy Thanksgiving! This episode is coming out the day after Thanksgiving, also known as Black Friday – a day of crazy deals…

Litter is found just about everywhere you find people. Discarded wrappers and dropped pieces of paper aren’t meant to be cluttering up…

It’s that time of year when everything starts to speed up. We all have so much to do for our businesses and…

Six months ago, I did my behavioral economics analysis of Costco, which has zoomed into the 11th most downloaded episode of this…

Roger Dooley is here to talk about his new book Friction. Roger is the founder of the Neuromarketing Science website, host of…

You may remember episode 68 on counterfactual thinking (why we ‘what if’ and ‘if only’). That episode and the Inc.com article I…

 How do successful people get things done? A lot of it has to do with setting and achieving goals. A topic…

After a year of doing this podcast, I’ve noticed trends in the topics I’ve been requested to do. My Human Behavior Lab…

I love the concept of counterfactual thinking. In fact, it was one of my favorite things to read about in school –…

Motivation is definitely a key piece of the mindset puzzle, so it’s no wonder its been taking up brain space for me…

The Brainy Business Pricing Course is now live. For a fun twist on today’s episode, I am interviewed by my good friend…

I’m so excited to finally talk to you about my study on behavioral economics and increasing savings rates. In my master’s program,…

The physical representation of concepts is an important tool to use in your business. Things like colors and shapes can be recalled…

Testing and experimenting is one of the best ways to find what works best for your business. This week we are talking…

If you’ve been listening to the podcast for a while, you already know that humans aren’t rational (and, honestly, you probably know…

Last week we talked about how to surprise and delight customers, as well as the difference between satisfaction and delight and its…

First off – welcome to episode 60! How exciting – I love hitting milestones and I am excited to celebrate this one…

Buying things isn’t all fun and games – and the process of paying for things can actually cause pain for many people….

Last week was the tribute to NASA in honor of the 50 year anniversary of Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the moon….

In honor of the 50 year anniversary of Neil Armstrong landing on the moon, we are going to talk about behavioral economics…

Hopefully, you tuned in last week for the special anniversary episode, where I went over the top episodes by downloads, your votes…

Welcome to season two of The Brainy Business. This episode is a special anniversary episode celebrating the first year of the podcast….

Today is our last episode in the series on biases – and the last episode of the first year of the podcast!…

We are getting near the end of our eight week series on all the biases. There is just one more to go…

Last week we got to finally have the episode on time discounting, which was very exciting for me because as many of…

Today, we are getting back to our behavioral economics foundations episodes to discuss time discounting. I hope you enjoyed the last three…

This has been an amazing month as I spoke at eight different events across the country on 6 different topics, from pricing…

 This episode is about present versus future biases. This is part 4 of our 8 part series about biases. We’ve already…

This behavioral economics podcast episode is about memories. Specifically, it will be an overview of memory biases  Last week, we took a…

If you’ve been listening to the podcast for a while, you have likely heard me mention Costco before. They do so many…

This is the second episode in the series on “all the biases” broken up into eight categories. Last week, I told you…

This is the start of a new series on cognitive biases. To present the series in an organized fashion I found around…

It’s time to talk about rebranding, refreshing or reinforcing your brand and when and why. During this episode I am going to talk about the difference between rebranding, a brand refresh and what it means to reinforce your brand…as well as examples of each one with advice to help you decide when you should do each in your own business.

Branding is one of my all time favorite topics. If you are new to the show (in which case, welcome) you may…

We are digging into Apple’s recent announcements today, with a heavy focus on Apple Card. When Apple made its announcements and Apple…

This is the end of our series on nudges and choice architecture – we started with an introduction to the concept in…

In this behavioral economics podcast, I talk about the importance of feedback, and why it lets us know if we are doing a good or a bad job. I give several real life examples involving cars, banking, our continued HVAC example, and some fun gadgets that help us conserve energy or be better weekend painters. I talk about the importance of visual cues and incorporating all of the senses and how the concepts in this series can be used to improve your business.  

This behavioral economics podcast is another foundations episode where we discuss the E in NUDGES: expect error. I think this might be…

This week marks the halfway point in our episodes on the types of NUDGES. We have already covered incentives and understanding mapping….

Now that we tackled incentives last week, we will jump into understanding mapping – both what in the world that means…and how to use it to your best advantage in your business. In this behavioral economics podcast, I share how nudges and my 5 Steps for Mapping can be used in your business to encourage the buying process.

This episode will explain what iNcentives mean when it comes to nudges, I will reference some excerpts from Nudge by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein, as well as some of their research papers. The goal of this behavioral economics podcast will be to help you think about how to offer incentives and nudge your clients to look at things differently while using nudges in your business.  

Nudges and choice architecture are complex and advanced topics. During my master’s program, I had an entire course on choice architecture, so…

Today’s behavioral economics foundations episode is all about the optimism bias. I hope you’ve got your rose colored glasses, because here we…

I recently took a trip down to College Station, Texas to visit the Human Behavior Lab at Texas A&M University – which is (at the time of recording) the largest human behavior lab in the world. Today’s behavioral economics podcast gives you an inside look at what happens inside of a laboratory like this.

What happens when our brains get overwhelmed? What is the impact on decision making? Today’s behavioral economics podcast is going to focus on these foundational topics. Businesses always ask people to take some sort of action (buy this, click here, download that). It’s a good idea to be careful not to overwhelm your potential customer. An overwhelmed brain will move on and file your business in the “maybe I’ll look at this later” pile.

Mirror neurons are the topic of today’s behavioral economics podcast. We are really going to get into what they are, how they work and why they matter in any business. Mirror neurons are the key to empathy and our ability to learn from observing others instead of only by doing things ourselves.

This episode is relevant today because of the current status of the stock market, which had a tumultuous 2018 to say the least, as well as the recent rise and fall of cryptocurrency.  In this episode, I will cover optimism bias, overconfidence, herd mentality, time discounting, and emotions like envy and excitement.

Why is it so hard to keep our resolutions even when we have the best of intentions? That is what this episode is all about. I am going to dig into 5 ways we have all been approaching resolutions wrong, and give you the strategy you need to change that in 2019 once and for all.

This behavioral economics podcast episode is the final installment of my series on the five senses. We’ve already talked about sight, smell,…

Today’s behavioral economics podcast is all about the sense of hearing and sound. As a vocalist, avid music lover and podcaster, sound and the sense of hearing is very near and dear my heart. I talk about the basics of hearing and how the brain interprets signals from the ear. Similar to the sense of smell, sound can have a huge impact on what the brain perceives. I share some fun studies and articles that involve music, pop culture, branding, and I even play some some branding sounds for you to guess. As always, everything ties back to how you can use sounds to make your business more appealing to your target market.

Today marks the halfway point in our series on the five senses – we have already talked about sight and smell…and today we are digging into taste. Smell is directly tied to the emotional center of the brain and also closely bonded to our memories. Taste is not as strong in that department, but it still has more of a link than some of the other senses. In this episode, I talk about parts of the sense of smell that are closely tied to taste. We dig into mirror neurons for the first time. In case you don’t know, I explain what anosmia is and tie everything into ways to increase and improve your business.

This behavioral economics podcast continues our series about the five senses. Last week, I talked about the sense of sight. This week I’m talking about the sense of smell. No matter what type of business you have, these episodes will apply to you. The senses are all powerful and create memories the brain uses to make decisions, and decision making is a big part of successful business.

This is the beginning of a series on the five senses – beginning with sight and moving through sound, touch, taste and smell (not necessarily in that order). I am starting with sight because it is the most powerful of our senses by far and the things I am going to share with you in this episode are going to just blow your mind.

Reciprocity is the perfect topic to talk about this time of year. Today’s behavioral economics podcast is another foundations episode, and it’s all about reciprocity. I explain how our brains process gift giving and why we often give reciprocal gifts of higher value than the original gift.

This behavioral economics podcast is building on the most recent foundations episodes to really dig into the power of habit. Last week I really went deep into what habits are and how they work. Today, I am going to share a bunch of examples of ways businesses use habits to their advantage (and how you can too!). I talk about how 95% of purchases are habitual and how this habit formation can be combined with reciprocity and loss aversion. I give several examples from big companies and my personal life. Then I break it all down so you can apply the same principles to your business.

This behavioral economics podcast is about habits and habitual buying. It is another one of my behavioral economics foundations podcasts. When a lot of us think of habits, we focus on bad habits, but we actually have more good habits than bad. Our subconscious does about 99% of the brain’s processing and this applies to habits and buying habits.

Today’s episode on defaults is going to absolutely blow your mind. You probably don’t realize it, but defaults are everywhere. Basically, every choice has a default. Think of the default as what happens if you do nothing – or if your customer does nothing. More often than not, when presented with a series of options people will go with the default. Listen in to learn how critical it is to consider the default option, complexities of choice architecture, and more.

Herding is the topic of today’s behavioral economics podcast foundations episode. This concept is similar to the way animals herd and for many of the same reasons. For safety, being in the center of the herd offers protection from predators. There is also an assumption that if everyone is running in the same direction they must know where they are going. During this episode I will give examples of how to use herding to your advantage in business, and how herding can go terribly wrong.

Today’s behavioral economics podcast is another foundations episode, and it is all about priming. When primed, your subconscious remembers it recently heard a number, or a statistic or something and that influences the next assumptions it makes – even if they are not even remotely related. I share examples of how easy it is to trick the brain into thinking and answering something wrong with just a little priming.

I talk about the power of numbers in today’s episode. I get in to some of my most frequently asked questions (including ending prices in 99 or 97). I also talk about pricing strategies like using random or “interesting” numbers. I share research, examples, and how you can apply framing using numbers in your business.

 Framing is one of my favorite behavioral economics podcast topics. In the past few weeks, I have covered foundational topics like…

Today’s behavioral economics podcast is about availability. This is another foundational episode that ties in to last week’s episode about scarcity. Similar…

Fall is a favorite season of mine and probably a favorite season to many of you. It’s also the time of year…

Mindset is something that everyone struggles with from time to time. Whether you are experiencing a lack of confidence or stuck with…

Our brains use relativity to make comparisons when assigning value. Relativity is one of my favorite concepts and part of the behavioral…

Today’s behavioral economics podcast is another foundational episode focusing on anchoring and adjustment. My last foundational episode was Episode 9 – Behavioral Economics…

In this behavioral economics podcast it is time to apply what I have been talking about in the first 9 episodes through…

Because this is a behavioral economics podcast, it is time to build our behavioral economics foundations. This is the first in a…

I’ll be talking about the meaning of value on today’s behavioral economics podcast. The past three episodes have been dedicated to the…

The past two weeks have been dedicated to my “it’s not about the cookie” framework, which shows how the experience and all…

Last week, I talked about The Truth About Pricing, you might want to listen to that episode before we dive into today’s episode…

Pricing is a top concern for most business owners, service people, and sales people. Today, I’m going to tell you the truth…

I am so excited about today’s episode. Why? Because I love questions. I love asking them, being asked them, evaluating them, and…

All over the place these days – they offer you something for free, you fill out a form and get onto their…

What are the Top 5 wording mistakes? This was a highly requested topic when I did a survey on The Brainy Business Facebook…

 Welcome to The Brainy Business® Podcast. My name is Melina Palmer. I am super excited to chat with you every week…