#015 - Navigate Your Issue - 7 Day Challenge - Day 2

Welcome to the podcast Change a Law. This is John Thibault, the founder and CEO of iLobby and the author of the book how to Change a Law, where we discuss politics, policy, and, well, political persuasion, because we want to empower voters to start thinking about changing laws. So join us. Welcome back to day two. So we're gonna strike off day one. That takes care of day one. We're now on day two. You figured out your issue. You know what it is. You've looked at those 78 issue codes. You picked the one that you think is the most important. And I think it's great that you've done that. And now what we're gonna do is dive into that a little more deeply. You're ready to begin. You have your issue. You know what you want to get done. Now we're going to move on and say, well, what is it you really want to say? But before we do that, what I'd like to suggest is that you need to do something else. You need to pick your position, okay? And what that means is, am I on this side of the issue, or am I on this side of the issue? And if you think about it, there are usually two sides to every issue. We've heard that over and over and over again. So there is a positive side and a negative side. So where are you? Are you on the positive side, meaning I want to get this thing done, or are you on the negative side? I want to stop this thing from happening. The thing we're going to get clear on right here is, what is your position now? Why does that matter? Well, your position is critical because you are either for something or against it. You are either for building the wall or you are opposed to it. You are either for gun control or you are pro second Amendment. Now, I'm being fairly simplistic here, but generally, when you have a contentious issue, there's always going to be another side. And what this really is about is who has the right answer to solving this complex problem. And right now, you've delegated authority to the powers that be, and you're letting them decide, and you're letting the special interests who come in to lobby on this one way or the other for them to decide on behalf of their clients, and you're not in the room now that you know your issue, get clear on what your position is. And then here's the other thing that's really critical, okay? And people often overlook this. They just say general things like, hey, you know, the world should be more peaceful, or we need to have better gun control laws. And those are kind of like slogans, don't you think? And the problem is a politician can't form law based on a slogan. So when you say, no more war, stop the drugs, free this or free education or lower taxes, those are good general ideas, but in fact, you have to become a little more specific if you expect to carry your message forward. Okay. It's really that simple. And the people who do that are the ones who get an audience and then they work with the politicians and, and they move forward. And so if you ever wonder why you're frustrated, why nothing's happening, well, part of it is in the past, not today, but in the past, you didn't know your issue, you didn't know your position. You focused on politicians and not the issues. And thirdly, you weren't specific enough. And this is where a lot of people fall away because they say, well, wow, that's a lot of hard work. And I say to you, you're absolutely right. But if something is worth it, then I think you'll find that doing the work is the only way to get through it. The last thing I want to put here is specific. Be specific. Hopefully you downloaded the debate writer's guide and the and that gives you a quick overview of the steps that we are going through here. And that will give you an indication that this is not a huge amount of work. Again, what we're doing is breaking it up into very small chunk size pieces. I think it's important for you to work with a partner or a friend or someone in your company or your trade association. And that way you have more input about what you want to get done, but it's not required. You can do this by yourself and easily get through this. You've got that, you've got your position. We're gonna get specific, you're gonna know what you're talking about and start pulling these thoughts together. And in the next day, we're gonna accelerate a little bit where you're gonna have to do a little bit more work and we're going to show you how to start pulling this stuff in and how to really shape it so that this is meaningful for you. Okay? Because before I say we're done with day two, we're going to ring the bell. You are dismissed. And again, we want to calm down. We want to solve problems and you are the key to helping solve some of these great challenges that we're facing. Okay? You really are. You probably don't realize it, but you need to come forward and get your voice heard. Thanks for sticking with us through day two. We're done. And tomorrow we're on to day three. We'll see you later. This has been the podcast Change a Law by John Thibault. To learn more, just sign on to our website@www.ilobby.co. or you can also visit www.changealaw.com. thanks for listening.