What If You Just Looked Up

Yesterday I was getting cash out to pay for my haircut as they’re cash only. Up flashed a message that said ‘70% of customers check their balance before withdrawing’

That’s a great example where there’s a preferred behaviour for the customer - so the company behind it has tried to nudge them in the direction they want them to act. Also this week…

The barbers themselves have online booking, which both means I can guarantee a slot, whilst also showing me how busy they are (scarcity implying they’re the best in the area)

I saw someone selling an AI course, offering a draft email to send to your boss to explain why the course would benefit the company

I bought a coffee from a coffee shop using decoy pricing where the medium was priced just below the large, to make the larger drink look like a bargain

I shopped at a supermarket that had different small items available to buy at each checkout, to test which ones should stay their permanently

I visited a shop that was deliberately designed to disorient me, increasing the chance that I’d stop searching for what I wanted initially, and that I’d just spend time browsing

These examples are EVERYWHERE

Most coaches would benefit from ignoring optimised hook strategies and DM protocols from guru mentors

And just look up and pay attention to how businesses they shop with are steering them in every kinda which way they want

Connections

• [[Behaviour Modification Finished]] — Every example here (ATM nudge, barber scarcity, decoy pricing, disorienting shop layout) is a miniature version of Harrah’s behavioural modification system. Businesses of every size are doing this. Coaches just haven’t noticed because they’re staring at their content metrics instead of at the world around them.
• [[The Lionel Messi of Content]] — These real-world nudges are Messi-like interventions: small, precise, low-effort actions that dictate outcomes. The ATM message costs nothing to display. The decoy price is a line on a menu board. The shop layout is designed once. Maximum impact per unit of effort — the opposite of “cover more distance.”
• [[Older Problems Are Harder To Solve - Evolutionary Economics]] — All these nudges solve ancient problems: getting humans to check their balance (loss aversion), choose the bigger coffee (anchoring), browse longer (spatial disorientation). These are 4-million-year-old psychological levers. No content strategy course teaches this — but it’s more relevant to selling coaching than any hook formula.
• [[Ludic Loops]] — The barber’s online booking system showing scarcity is a ludic loop: see availability → book → feel like you secured something scarce → return. Uber’s forward dispatch is the same mechanism. The question for coaches: what’s your ludic loop that keeps clients engaged?
• [[Skinner Boxes]] — Decoy pricing is variable ratio reinforcement for purchasing decisions. The customer feels like they “discovered” the better deal. Slot machines use the same cognitive architecture. Could a coach design their pricing or check-in system with the same psychological mechanics?
• [[The Four Levels of AI Maturity for Coaches]] — At Level 4, a coach could systematise these observational insights. AI scans the real world for behavioural design patterns → coach translates them into client experience design. The observation habit is Level 3 thinking. The systematisation is Level 4.

Tensions

• Observation vs. implementation. Noticing nudges everywhere is intellectually satisfying but doesn’t automatically translate into coaching application. The gap between “that’s clever” and “here’s how I’ll use it” is where most coaches stall. The challenge: build a bridge from observation to action.