This episode the interviewer becomes the interviewee. Jonah sits down with Brian Miller on his podcast, One New Person, to discuss his identity as a magician, copywriting and a chance encounter with one person that had a ripple effect on his life. Brian is a magician turned speaker with the goal of helping people feel heard and valued in our disconnected world.

You may remember Brian from his Discourse in Magic episode, Episode 54 – Networking for Magicians. or you may have heard about his book, Three New People, which advocates for a change in how we approach interacting with each other.

One New Person is Brian’s new podcast. His intention is to highlight ordinary people who are doing meaningful work and shaping the world around them. Believing that every interaction you have and every person you meet is important, Brian has his guests discuss an interaction that had a ripple effect in their life.

It wasn’t until recently that Jonah began to feel confident in telling people that he was a magician. Before, he would find himself telling people it was alright to laugh, almost as a defense mechanism for how absurd the concept could be to most people. However, between producing so many shows and his podcast, Jonah now feels like he has the ability to say he is a magician without feeling like an impostor.

While Jonah likes the creative side of magic, he does find himself drawn towards the advertising and marketing side of magic. He feels that if his marketing is better than his show, then his show needs to get better, and vice versa. It becomes a tug-of-war, constantly pushing him to better his understanding of marketing and to better his magic.

Jonah goes on to highlight how the structure and intention of copywriting is similar to performing magic on stage. The goal of both are to communicate an idea from one person to the next in the clearest way possible.

When Jonah was in elementary school, he was known as the person who did magic. When he was heading off to summer camp, he opted to leave behind his tricks, bringing only a single deck of cards from the dollar store with him; he was on his way out of magic. Or, he was, until he met Ben Train who was working in the tuck shop at the camp. Ben reignited Jonah’s interest in magic after showing him a seemingly impossible card trick.

From there, Ben acted as Jonah’s magic teacher, his co-councilor at Sorcerer’s Safari, and, now, as his business partner with the Toronto Magic Company. All of this came from meeting at a summer camp with Ben showing Jonah a card trick.

Three New People

One New Person

Brian’s Website

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