Put the Pill in the Cheese

Lulu Cheng Meservey is a communications expert who helped Substack punch way above its weight. Her secret? Understanding that people don't care about your message. They care about what they care about.

'It's a huge lift to try to change someone's worldview or their passions. It's a light lift to take the thing you want to talk about and just shape it to fit into their worldview.'

She calls this 'putting the pill in the cheese' - like feeding medicine to a dog. The pill is what you need them to accept. The cheese is what they already want.

This is parenting communication in a nutshell.

You want your kid to eat vegetables. That's the pill. But lectures about nutrition don't work - kids don't care about nutrition. What do they care about? Getting bigger. Being strong. Running faster. That's the cheese.

You want them to share. That's the pill. But 'sharing is nice' is abstract. What do they care about? Having friends come back to play. That's the cheese.

Lulu's insight: 'You'd have to be superhumanly gifted to create a message so powerful that someone who didn't care at all suddenly makes it their passion.'

Stop trying to make your kid care about what you care about. Find what they already care about, and wrap your message in that.