255: Stop Turning Dials and Start Flipping Switches | Publisher Eric Nelson, Executive Editor at Harper

Eric Nelson is Executive Editor at Harper and Vice President and Publisher of Broadside, HarperCollins conservative imprint. Since joining Harper in 2017, he has published thirteen New York Times #1 bestsellers. In addition to his time at HarperCollins, Penguin, and Wiley, he has worked as an academic editor, literary agent, and author, including his successful parody Oh, The Meetings You’ll Go To, written under the pen name Dr. Suits. As a publisher, his client list includes Joe Scarborough, Jesse Watters, Pete Hegseth, Dan Carlin, and Chris Rufo, among others.

In this episode we discuss the following:

• Eric gave us a powerful lens for capturing attention: most advice lives on a dial (e.g., work harder, care more), but what actually sticks is a switch, something you either do or you don’t. We all know that eating less and exercising more is what matters when trying to lose weight. But it’s that third thing—the concrete, measurable action like drinking celery juice—that gets people to buy the dieting book.
• As Eric reminded us, it’s not about being provocative for its own sake—it’s about being provocative and defensible. The best ideas make people think, “I always believed this… now I can prove it.”
• I’m excited to use the lens Eric provided that helped him start making money in his career. He switched from being a dumb smart person, to a smart dumb person. Rather than advance the conversation for 1000 people, Eric entered the conversation of a million people.