He's made a career of using the power of words.

Testing them in focus groups and using them for impact on public opinion and emotion in political campaigns and presidential debates.

A national leader in the communications field.

Doctor Frank Luntz once said, 80% of our life is emotion and 20% is intellect.

And I'm much more interested in how you feel than how you think.

He's been credited with changing the term global warming to climate change, and his sometimes controversial style has drawn national attention, as he has consulted for influential political candidates, including George W Bush.

Newt Gingrich, Ross Perot Pat Buchanan and Rudy Giuliani.

So let's head out on locatio to meet the astute, sharp witted doctor Frank Luntz.

Doctor Frank Luntz, it's great to have you here on Business Life 360.

Frank Luntz: It's a privilege.

I hope that I can live up to that bio.

Kristi: Listen, let's dive in.

In reading that bio.

I would really like to know, for the purposes of being succinct how do you describe what you do?

Frank Luntz: I'm a word guy.

Literally two words.

Someone needs to do a speech for a wedding.

Someone needs to do a toast for a business.

An issue needs a sentence or a paragraph or a page to sell itself to the public.

That's my job, is to find the right words.

Kristi: So why words?

Frank Luntz: Sometimes the communication is not based on issues.

It's based on visual.

So I'm wearing a tie of little soldiers here.

I don't have a sport coat because I want to project and informality.

You're very striking.

You want to project an image of authority and knowledge or wisdom.

Everything that we do the words help.

But the visuals are so much more important, particularly to people under age 30 who don't read anymore.

Kristi: It's not what you say.

It's what people hear.

You say that all the time.

So why did.

Frank Luntz: A lot of money off of that.

Kristi: Still working for you?

So why do certain word carry more weight than others?

Frank Luntz: Because they mean more.

I'm sorry.

I made a mistake.

I learned my lesson.

How can I make it up to you?

Or how can I make you a whole?

Will you forgive me?

Five different ways to apologize.

And each one of them, in order, makes the apology that much more serious and that much more credible.

They're saying the same thing.

But the first one says I'm an idiot.

The second one says, I've learned from it.

And each one of them is a progression that says to the person I want to make you whole again, knowing that it sometimes takes that much makes you a better communicator.

It's all true.

It's all authenti because God help you if you lie.

The public can tell.

Kristi: What do we talk about?

Influencers in the medi or podcasters or what have you.

Is it who is saying it?

In other words, for example, are certain influencers when they say it?

Does that mean it.

Kristi: Necessarily true?

No.

Because of who's saying it?

Frank Luntz: Not really any more because they don't trust anyone anymore.

And in fact, if you still have that credibility, if you still have trust, there's something special about you.

One of the greatest challenges of the last ten years is that trust and credibility have been decimated by politicians, journalists.

People in the news.

By the way, even this thing right here, and this is one of the problems that people spend so much time on their phone that they stop seeing reality and they spend their time looking down rather than looking around.

That also kills our credibility because it kills our attention span.

We've been lied to.

We've been misled.

And worst of all, we've been betrayed.

And so we tend not to want to get burned yet again.

And that makes communication so difficult.

Kristi: Speaking of trust when it comes to the media's use of emotionally charged or biased communication and words, that is truly shifte the trust in our institutions.

So what role do you think word choice plays when it comes to driving polarization.

Frank Luntz: It' tremendously important.

Is it.

And the state ta which is a tax on rich people, or is it a death tax which is a tax on dying.

It's the same thing.

But it has a different focus.

Is it global warming with scares the hell out of people.

Or is it climate change which seems like a scientific or a health situatio rather than an immediate threat?

Is it government takeover of health care or government control of health care?

Is it?

By the way, I'm tracking this right now.

Is this a sparkling beverage or is it carbonate it because of it's carbonate.

It's got chemicals.

If it's a sparkling beverage, it's a party in a beverage.

Just these little things.

Is a gambling or gaming.

How you term how you phrase i determines how people see you.

Kristi: For sure.

So perception is reality when it comes to words.

Frank Luntz: Yes.

But reality needs to be the truth.

And I'm so devoted to this right now.

I'm still doing interviews like this.

I've had two strokes in the last five years.

And so it makes my life that much more difficult.

But I feel like it's that much more important.

We have to get the truth back.

We have to be on a relentless pursuit of the truth.

Not as we see it, but as it actually is, because that's the core of our democracy.

That's the core of our society.

What makes America so great?

It's not our income, it's our guns.

It's not all wars.

And our military might.

It's the idea that we have more trust, more faith and trust in each other that we will help each other when we need it.

Kristi: Doctor Frank Luntz, thanks so much for being on business Life Basics.

Thanks for all you do for our world.

You're making it a better place.

Frank Luntz: I don't do enough.

I'm determined to do more, but I appreciate that.

Kristi: Thank you.