#58: Want More Sales? Lower the Cognitive Load in Your Marketing

The StoryBrand Podcast

StoryBrand.com

Marketing, Business

4.7 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 9 February 2026

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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Every day, businesses lose sales because their message is hard to understand. If your website or sales pitch uses complicated words or vague ideas, customers will move on. That's because it creates mental friction, and the brain's natural response is to check out. You might think you're sounding smart, but unclear communication often makes people feel confused or uninterested. And when people feel confused, they don't buy. So how can you tell if your message is too complicated?

In this episode, Donald Miller breaks down the concept of "cognitive load" and how it silently kills marketing efforts. You'll learn how to simplify your messaging, why "putting the cookies on the lower shelf" works, and how a billion-dollar company shifted gears by making its value proposition crystal clear. Whether you're running a political campaign, pitching investors, or just trying to sell more sweaters, this episode shows you how to make your message lighter, clearer, and more effective without dumbing it down.

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Learn how to make your marketing and messaging work using a proven framework in the updated book, Building a StoryBrand 2.0. Order it now on Amazon or wherever you buy books!

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to the Storybrand podcast based on Donald Miller's bestselling book,
0:06.0	Building a Story Brand.
0:07.2	Each week on the podcast, you'll get exactly what you need to craft clear messaging
0:11.2	that connects with more customers and grows your business.
0:18.4	A very big mistake people make in their messaging and their marketing.
0:22.3	They use messages that have high cognitive load.
0:25.8	And I see this over and over.
0:27.5	High cognitive load has cost politicians the White House.
0:33.0	Like they could have won the White House if they didn't use high cognitive load statements.
0:38.7	And they lost. And so they always wanted to be president. They didn't use high cognitive load statements, and they lost.
0:42.2	And so they always wanted to be president. They didn't get to be president because they used high cognitive load. It has cost corporations billions of dollars, market share, lost to their
0:48.3	competitors. It has caused small businesses their survival.
0:57.3	They literally went out of business because they were using high cognitive load statements.
1:01.5	So what in the world am I talking about with the statement high cognitive load?
1:06.8	I would say the statement, the phrase high cognitive load, is in itself high cognitive load,
1:11.9	but I'm the only one who gets to do that because I'm trying to explain it to you so that you don't do it.
1:15.0	High cognitive load is when you talk over your client's head.
1:16.5	It's when you talk over your customer's head.
1:17.9	It's when you talk over your voter's head.
1:21.7	And I'm telling you, the ramifications of that are severe.
1:23.2	You don't want to do it.
1:28.2	Whenever you are communicating about a product that you're selling, an idea that you're sharing,
	...

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