3 Books and the power of audience journeys
Neil Pasricha is the bestselling author of books like The Book of Awesome and, his new book about resiliency, You Are Awesome.
Last year, Neil decided to launch a new podcast, crafting it a very specific way. The show is called 3 Books, and Neil is on a journey to find the 1,000 most transformative books in the world. Each episode he interviews one guest to share the three books that helped shape their lives. Guests include Seth Godin, Gretchen Rubin, Judy Blume, Malcolm Gladwell, David Sedaris, Pete Holmes — and more.
Curiously, if you do the math, you’ll find it’s impossible to reach 1,000 books while having each guest share 3 at a time. That’s just one part of Neil’s genius — he invites you on a journey, which in and of itself is intriguing, and then he leaves a detail or two open to interpretation until a big reveal near the end. In fact, his first broad-appeal project, a blog called 1,000 Awesome Things, did something similar: Over several years, he wrote 1 short post per day pointing to awesome things found in every day life (e.g. the cool other side of the pillow; old rusty playground equipment), and framed his blog as a countdown. The desire to join the journey, and of course the desire to know what would be #1, helped launch Neil to international fame, multiple bestsellers and TED talks, and a thriving speaking business.
Back to his podcast: 3 Books does something magical which more podcasts (and, truly, any creative series) can learn from. Ultimately, Neil runs an interview show, but it’s wildly different than any other interview show. Typically, we think we need lots of post-production flourishes to achieve that, and so we don’t attempt it. But all Neil does is create a specific angle, a lens through which he can view each interview — and each interview is itself a smaller piece of the overall journey.
The angle: He’ll interview someone you’ve heard interviewed before, BUT through a discussion of their 3 favorite books of all-time. Sure, you’ll learn about their lives and careers and hear more about their brilliant ideas for the world — but you’re doing so through a very different lens than you’ll find anywhere else.
The journey: To find the 1,000 most transformative books in the world — and we, the listeners, are part of that journey.
Neil doesn’t distribute his show to listeners so much as invite listeners on a journey with him. That’s the power of embarking on a personal journey to discover and learn and grow — and publishing that work for the rest of the world to see (or hear).
The brilliance of 3 Books is something I tried to understand by deconstructing Neil’s show together with Neil himself on the latest episode of my podcast, 3 Clips. If you see a resemblance, well, I was so inspired by Neil that I wanted to learn more about great shows … three clips at a time.
You can hear our discussion wherever you listen to podcasts, including Apple, Spotify, and Overcast.
Regardless of whether you listen to our discussion, remember: Being different doesn’t mean pulling a stunt. Arguably the most underused approach to differentiation — and to earning audience love — is to embark on a journey, then invite others along.
Where will you venture? Where will you take us?
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You can find Neil and his show at 3books.co.