The Dots — A Book by Sylvain Labs

IT'S A BOOK

What is influence? How does it work? Why are we influenced by the people around us? Why does Gwyneth Paltrow’s recommendation on humanely harvested pigeon feather pillows matter? These are some of the questions that plague marketers, policy makers, and innovators. The Dots is how we at Sylvain Labs draw the connections between those seemingly random bits of information to develop a clearer picture of the role influence has on the world.

Through humor, a series of analogies to physics, a litany of pop culture references, and an algorithm to harness the power of influential people, this book helps readers develop an actionable approach to influence. Most importantly, it offers a more fun and interesting view of the way people interact with the world and encourages others to connect the dots they might otherwise ignore. It’s one thing to know that influence exists, but it’s another thing entirely to understand it in a way that enables someone to take action toward successful change and growth. The question of influence is at the core of every behavior. And if influence can be understood, understanding culture in general may not be far behind.

Plus it has pictures! Cool Story Bro

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When we talk about influence, what we’re really talking about is the impact that one person, idea, or institution has on the decision making of others around them (without coercion or a really big stick)

A UNIFIED THEORY OF INFLUENCE

People talk about influence in a multitude of ways. We’ve been given data and proprietary tracking methods and a cottage industry of companies whose sole job is to track it. But none of these things make influence itself actionable. We needed a unified theory of influence, a way of thinking about influence that everyone could use, and that acts as a starting place for building big and impactful work.

The Dots presents the first theory of this kind to the world— The Fabric of Influence. Borrowing from Einstein's Special Relativity, this model allows everyone to start thinking about influence not just as the effect one person has on another, but how all of those individual moments of influence add up to something bigger throughout the wider culture. It lays the foundation for us to see the forest for the trees, or maybe, to see the Beyoncé for the Bees (in the Beyhive).

CREATING INFLUENCE WELLS

Influence has a shape— it’s an Influence Well. Think of it similarly to how the sun’s mass creates a gravity well that keeps the earth in its orbit. The more influence a person has, the deeper their influence well. As a person’s or brand’s influence grows, it leaves a deeper, more lasting impression, affecting the decisions and actions of more and more people that surround it in every direction. The larger the well, the larger the impact. The goal is to understand how people make decisions, and how influence plays a role in that decision making process. The Dots gets to the bottom of this and explains how you can adjust the size and shape of your own Influence Well to impact the decisions of those around you.

CREATING GOD ALGORITHMS

Looking beyond the Influence Well, The Dots explores how people build up influencers— a celebrity, an athlete, or even a boss— to a higher status in their minds that impacts the way they make daily decisions. We call this idea The God Algorithm, and with this book, brands can learn how to emulate the people around the world that deeply influence the people they want to talk to. Consider it an influence-hack — a way of speaking to your audience that has already proven it will strike a chord.

ACTIVATING THE MIDDLE CLASS OF INFLUENCE

Your brand doesn’t need to be a T.Swift-level social juggernaut, or know one, to have an impact. The rise of social media and internet celebrities changed the way influence works, and in this book, you’ll learn how The Middle Class of Influence can be just as magnetic as the most globally recognized faces. More importantly, you’ll learn how to cut through the noise of 21st Century celebrity and find the influencers who will best captivate your audience.

PRAISE FOR THE DOTS

With a mix of masterful storytelling, anthropological observations and pop culture references, The Dots takes the simple step of twisting your perspective ever so slightly so you can see influence in a whole new way. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel, instead it gives you a new set of tools to pressure test your decisions and have the largest impact possible. It’s not about knowing the cool kids. It’s about a new lens for viewing the world. Frank Cooper III
CMO, Buzzfeed

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