Robert Cialdini’s Pre-Suasion begins with a warning: If you wait until your moment of need to influence someone, you’re too late.
We opened the webinar with that line for a reason.
During the session, someone said:
“My lawyer told me to lay low. Don’t prepare. Don’t put anything in writing.”
That advice leads to longer sentences. Period.
It leads to Presentence Reports that parrot what the government gave the probation officer.
It leads to sentencing hearings where the only version of your story is the government’s.
It leads to judges saying, “I’ve heard your speech, but I don’t see any evidence.”
And then you go to prison without a single asset to persuade the people who will decide how much liberty you receive while inside—and how soon you’ll come home.
In the webinar, I played a clip from a judge who told me:
“Defendants make great speeches. But without a record, how do I know it’s true?”
Someone else asked about mandatory minimums. I shared a story about a doctor who received four years instead of the mandatory two. The judge told him:
“I’m not sentencing your résumé. You created victims.”
We also talked about what it takes to be remembered—for the right reasons.
I used the Purple Cow example.
You drive past fifty cows and don’t notice any of them. But if one of them is purple, you stop. You look. You remember it.
That’s what judges, probation officers, and case managers deal with every day. Dozens of defendants saying the same thing:
“I’m sorry.”
“I take responsibility.”
“I’ve changed.”
You might as well say, “blah, blah, blah.”
If nothing in record or central file proves you are different from your plea agreement or DOJ press release, you’re asking them to believe what they’ve already been trained to doubt–YOUR WORDS.
People are more likely to help you if they see something in you that reflects their own values. We talked about that in the webinar too, and gave examples.
We ran a shared values exercise:
- Who is your judge?
- Where did they go to school?
- What kind of law did they practice?
- What values show up in their rulings?
Then we asked:
- What have you done that reflects those values?
- Have you documented it?
- Can you show it?
We also covered the excuses people use to justify doing nothing:
“This is overwhelming.”
“There’s too much to do.”
“Where do I even start?”
“Nothing matters anyway.”
“I just need to decompress.”
To counter that, we shared Robert Greene’s strategy from The 33 Strategies of War: Segmentation.
What’s the next right move?
And if you can’t figure out what to do with the whole day, start with the next ten minutes.
Write one paragraph.
Edit one part of your narrative.
Email one person.
Read one document you’ve been avoiding.
You can do that—or you can make excuses. But you can’t do both.
Then we shared Jerry Maurer’s story.
Sentenced to 22 months. Came home after five.
He didn’t wait. He created a release plan and handed it to the people who would decide what happened next: his case manager, his probation officer, his judge.
He understood one of the key ideas we teach: create an asset that does not currently exist.
Here’s what Jerry wrote me:
“Justin. Thank you for your candid advice back on Dec 18th. I first changed my Camp from Fort Dix to Otisville then surrendered on Jan 29th. I took advantage of Scott and Joseph’s advice and had my Release Plan created. Happily I was told of my release date on June 30th (only 5 months in) was to be on July 3rd (only 4 days later and on my 34th wedding anniversary). I’m out and on my job and sleeping at the Brooklyn Halfway! I can’t thank you enough.”
Best,
Justin Paperny
