Incept

Incept Incept helps founders and leadership teams de-risk the decisions behind their brand, pitch, and product before they become expensive to fix.

01/09/2026

A discount doesn't just change the price.

It changes the comparison.

And that comparison can change what your brain thinks something is worth.

The new ThinkShift, The Down Down Deception, is now live.

Leanne and I unpack the Coles “Down Down” Federal Court judgment and what it reveals about anchoring, reference pricing and trust.

We get into:
- Why the brain rarely judges price in isolation
- How a “was” price becomes the anchor for everything that follows
- Why discount tickets reduce the effort required to make a decision
- How a saving can be presented in a way that still feels psychologically misleading
- Why the supermarket shelf is really a decision interface
- Why short-term conversion can come at the cost of long-term trust

The line I keep coming back to is this:
The brain never asks, “Is this cheap?”
It asks, “Compared to what?”

That question matters well beyond supermarkets.

Listen here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7y4ASK3PWsm9uO1P8obHzY?si=e807f52d79704833

A founder once spent 40 minutes walking me through their architecture diagram before mentioning what the customer actual...
30/08/2026

A founder once spent 40 minutes walking me through their architecture diagram before mentioning what the customer actually paid for.

They had built something genuinely impressive.

Every technical integration was mapped. Every edge case accounted for. Every subsystem named.

To them, that density was proof of value. It showed how much hard work and intellect had gone into the product.

To the investor sitting across the table, it was pure cognitive friction.

When people evaluate high-stakes decisions, they do not buy complexity. They look for clarity, certainty, and reduced risk.

The moment a pitch demands mental gymnastics just to understand the business model, the brain categorises the entire opportunity as uncertain.

The shift happened when we took that dense technical narrative and anchored it entirely around the commercial transformation.

Perceived value went up the second the cognitive load went down.

We ended up keeping the architecture diagram, tucked away in the appendix where nobody ever asked to see it.

27/08/2026

A product sits on the shelf at one price for months.

Then the price goes up.

Then it comes back down with a big discount ticket.

Looks like value.

Feels like a saving.

But what if the “discounted” price is still higher than the old regular price?

That is where pricing stops being just a number and starts becoming a psychology problem.

Next week on ThinkShift, Leanne and I unpack the Coles “Down Down” Federal Court judgment, the psychology of anchoring and reference pricing, and why the price beside the price can be more powerful than the number you actually pay.

This isn't just a supermarket story.

"The Down Down Deception" is coming next week...

25/08/2026

A fake deadline might convert once.

Run it again and again, and you start teaching customers not to believe you.

That’s the problem with scarcity.

It works because losing an opportunity can feel more powerful than gaining a benefit. But the effect depends on the constraint being real.

The new ThinkShift, Why limited feels valuable, is now live.

Leanne and I unpack:

• Why scarcity changes the way the brain frames a decision
• How loss aversion makes “missing out” feel more painful
• Why “only 2 left” works until people realise it never changes
• How countdown timers and deadlines lose power when they reset
• Why waitlists can signal demand without relying on discounts
• Where genuine urgency ends and manipulation starts

One of the lines I keep coming back to from this episode:

Every fake deadline you run is a loan against every real one you’ll need later.

If your business uses launches, stock messaging, deadlines or waitlists, it’s worth asking one question:

Is the scarcity real?

20/08/2026

“Only 3 left.”
“Offer ends tonight.”
“Join the waitlist.”

You’ve seen all three.
You’ve ignored plenty of them.
And some still work.

Why?

Because scarcity doesn’t create value. It creates urgency. And the brain is very good at confusing the two.

Next week on ThinkShift, Leanne and I unpack why limited feels valuable, what loss aversion has to do with it, why real deadlines can move people to act, and why fake scarcity eventually trains your audience to ignore you.

If you launch products, run promotions or manage waitlists, this one matters.

Why limited feels valuable... coming next week.

18/08/2026

A typo can make you question the numbers.

A slow website can make the whole business feel slow.

A polished proposal can make competence feel obvious before the work has even started.

That’s the halo effect at work.

The new episode of ThinkShift, One signal changes everything, is now live.
Leanne and I unpack how the brain takes one trait or cue and lets it colour everything that follows.

We get into:
- Why first impressions become filters for later information
- The difference between a signal and actual proof
- How the negative horn effect can undo an otherwise strong impression
- Why design, pricing, confidence and credentials influence what people assume
- What happens when AI makes traditional trust signals easier to manufacture

The question isn’t just, “Does this look good?”

It’s, “What does this make people assume about everything else?”

13/08/2026

A typo. A blue tick. A confident answer.

None of these should tell you everything about a person or a business. But your brain often acts like they do.

One visible signal can change how you judge everything that follows.

A polished website can make a company feel more capable. One broken link can make you question the parts of the business you can’t see. Confidence can look like competence. A credential can start feeling like proof.

That’s the halo effect.

Next week on ThinkShift, Leanne and I unpack why the brain builds such big judgements from such small signals, where this shows up in business, sales and leadership, and why AI is making some of our old trust signals much less reliable.

S2:E7: One signal changes everything.

Coming next week.

10/08/2026

Polished writing can still fail.

It can sound smart, read well and generate no action.

The problem is often not the offer.

It’s the effort required to understand it.

In the new episode of ThinkShift, Dr Leanne Elich and I explore how language reduces or creates friction.

We unpack why vague messaging, generic AI copy and unclear calls to action make the brain work harder, and why that extra mental effort costs you clicks, replies and sales.

You’ll learn:
• The science behind processing fluency
• Why concrete words outperform buzzwords
• How to improve your headlines, emails and calls to action
• How to use AI without losing clarity or persuasion

Words That Make People Move is now live.

06/08/2026

AI has made polished writing cheap.

But polished doesn’t mean persuasive.

You can write something that sounds professional and still makes people stop, hesitate or scroll past.

Next week on ThinkShift, Dr Leanne Elich and I unpack the psychology of language.

We explore:
• Why vague messaging makes the brain work harder
• Why concrete language beats buzzwords
• How processing fluency affects clicks, replies and sales
• How to write headlines, emails and calls to action that drive movement
• How to use AI as a thinking partner, not a content factory

The new episode is called "Words That Make People Move".

It’s out next week.

04/08/2026

New ThinkShift episode: Why Smart People Get Scammed.

Think you're too smart to get scammed? That's exactly what scammers are counting on.

In this episode, Dr Leanne Elich and I cover:

Why authority, urgency, social proof and overconfidence can override even the sharpest minds
How AI has removed many of the warning signs we once relied on
Why businesses remain prime targets despite having policies and procedures in place

From fake investments and CEO impersonation to AI-generated voices and deepfakes, today's scams don't exploit a lack of intelligence. They exploit how the brain makes decisions under pressure.

The people who get scammed aren't the ones who stop thinking. They're the ones who stop checking.

Listen now. Link in comments.

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