“The Xpill experience created the environment for people to tell the truth, to connect based on what’s most important to them, and to understand each other in a deeply empathetic way.”

— Nathan Cheong, Managing Director, Designs for Health.

What would happen if in real life you could take the red pill from the Matrix movie and wake up to the real world? Robert Richman, former Culture strategist of Zappos, decided to find out. So he created his own red pill, called the Xpill, and tested it on volunteers at Burning Man, at workshops, and with friends. The results were amazing. The Xpill changed lives.

What is the Xpill?

The pill had various incarnations. At Burning Man, Richman used red  Tic Tacs. Later, he made red pills filled with non-gmo, brown rice powder. And for fun, he created a purple pill in deference to the red AND blue pill of Matrix (so you could wake up to a new world and stay in the same at the same time).

Sometimes getting the Xpill was a whole experience: Richman would send people a package that contained a secret book container, which included the pills, a journal, and instructions inside. No matter what the pills looked like, they had two things in common: no active ingredients and the power to change lives.

After taking the Xpill, people became better organized, started businesses, or found love. For each person who believed in the Xpill’s power, it changed their life.

How does the Xpill change lives with no active ingredients?

Simple. It wasn’t just the pill that changed their life, it was the whole experience of taking the pill.

Richman had each person who swallowed the Xpill follow a four-step process. Before swallowing, Richman requested each person set an intention (their goal), choose a date for completion, explain why they had this intention, and then share it publicly.

For example, one man who started a business said his goal was to start one in two weeks, and his reason why was so he could be rich and leave a legacy. Once he took the pill, he was so motivated he got his business ideas going in two days, not two weeks.

While these four steps are the same steps you would take when setting any goal, swallowing the Xpill made a difference in the outcome. Once you swallow the pill with an intention, Richman said, you can’t take it back.

To get the Xpill experience, contact BigSpeak Speakers Bureau today to book Robert Richman.

Kyle Crocco is the Content Marketing Coordinator at BigSpeak Speakers Bureau, a graduate of UC Santa Barbara, and the lead singer of Duh Professors. He regularly publishes business book reviews and thought articles on Medium, Business 2 Community, and Born 2 Invest.