Category Archives: Conversational Skills

Hallucinate Your Way Rich

Think Your Way Out Of Trouble

A long time ago, they used to think that negative numbers were evil.

This was back when math was still in its infancy.

Since the idea of a “negative thing” (how can you have negative six apples?) didn’t seem to exist, the idea was considered heretical.

Slowly but surely (and luckily) people started to accept the idea of negative numbers.

Same kind of thing happened when they invented “imaginary” numbers.

But ask any mathematician, and they’ll tell you that “imaginary” is not really accurate.

But the name stuck, and here we are.

These “imaginary” numbers are necessary to calculate anything that has to do with sinusoidal fluctuations (like electronic circuits).

One of the famous scenes from the Bible is when Jesus threw out the “money changers.”

Why were they called money “changers”?

Isn’t that like going down to the bank and exchanging dollars for Euros?

Why would those people be bad?

The reason is that way back in the day, lending money at interest was considered a sin.

So the clever money lenders changed their names to money changers.

They would lend money in one currency, and collect in another.

And they collected their “interest” in the form of a “currency exchange fee.”

This is how they got around the ban against charging interest.

This isn’t to say money lenders today (or back then) are good or bad.

But if you are clever enough, and you can think abstractly enough, you can work your way around any limitation.

If you can’t think very cleverly, abstractly, or laterally, when you come up against an obstacle, you’re stuck.

You look around for somebody to tell you what to do.

This is the way most people run their lives.

But if you can think differently, think abstractly, think creatively, any problem is really just another opportunity in disguise.

To all the other simple thinking folks, it’s just a problem.

But to you, it’s an opportunity.

Seeing the world this way requires practice.

Consistent mental practice.

It’s not based on any magic switch in your brain.

If you are, however, willing to put in the few minutes per day of mental practice, you’ll soon see a world FILLED with opportunities that others only recognize as obstacles.

Learn How:

NLP Mind Magic

Trippy Trees

Which Metaphor Do You Prefer?

An old Chinese proverb says that if you wait by the river long enough, you’ll see the bodies of your enemies floating by.

Meaning with enough patience, you can conquer all enemies.

On the other hand, Keynes, a famous economist, said that on a long enough timeline, we’re all dead.

Meaning if you need to wait longer than a normal life span for something to happen, you might never see it.

Waiting patiently is fine if you are the Grand Canyon.

It’s been there forever, and it will be there forever.

From the Grand Canyon’s perspective, the time in which us silly humans came to look at it is really only a small blip over the course of its life.

Of course, this is just a metaphor, as canyons don’t really have a perspective.

They just sit there while the relentless trickle of water consistently wears down billions of tons of rock.

Patience is important to humans, but only under the right context.

Often times we pretend we are “waiting” when in reality we are just too afraid to act.

We even give ourselves things we are waiting FOR.

I’ll wait until I lose a few pounds until I start dating again.

I’ll wait until my next raise before I start to learn about investing.

I’ll wait until summer before I start my exercise program.

Of course, most people are very patient with how well they convince themselves they are being patient.

The real secret is that making big changes is a BAD idea.

It’s much easier to make very, very TINY changes.

And do them consistently.

Just like a relentless trickle of water can build a huge canyon, with small daily exercise, you can build some MASSIVE changes.

Ideally, you can start with thinking exercises.

Since you can do them while just sitting there.

If you learn a few NLP procedures, and practice them daily, pretty soon you’ll have a much more RESOURCEFUL outlook.

You’ll slowly whittle down fears, and slowly build up confidence.

Just a little bit a day is all you need.

Learn More:

NLP Mind Magic

What's He Looking At?

How To Think Like Einstein

One of the most troubling experiments from psychology is the Asch experiment.

They put a guy in a room, and showed him two images.

One was a single vertical line.

The other had several vertical lines.

The task was to choose which of the several vertical lines was the same length as the single vertical line.

Easy peasy, right?

It was, when he was alone.

But then they put him in a room with a bunch of other people.

And the other people PURPOSELY chose the WRONG line.

And the test subject also chose the wrong line.

Alone, choosing the right answer is easy.

But when humans are surrounded by people who are choosing the wrong answer, choosing the right answer is VERY DIFFICULT.

In over 70% of the tests, the test subject KNEW the right answer, but because of social pressure, they chose the WRONG answer.

One of the reasons we humans behave like this is we never learn HOW to think.

We only learn WHAT to think.

Or more accurately, are TOLD what to think.

And when we think what we are told correctly, we get rewarded.

When we think we what are told incorrectly, we are punished.

This is more or less how modern society runs its school systems.

Is it any wonder that by the time we are finished with school, we’ve LOST most of our creativity, and originality?

Luckily, the brain is like a muscle.

(They’ll never tell you this in school, quite the opposite).

You can easily PRACTICE the way you think and strength of how you think.

This will make you much more resistant to the goofy ideas of others.

Goofy ideas that they likely accepted unquestionably from somebody else.

(and those from somebody else, etc…)

Want to know precisely WHY Einstein was such a genius?

Because he THOUGHT differently.

He IMAGINED differently.

He wasn’t even that good a math.

When it came time to mathematically explore his ORIGINAL ideas, he had to OUTSOURCE the math to his buddy.

That capacity of thinking differently, of imagining differently exists within you.

You’ve just got to find it and exercise it.

Once you think differently, (about whatever you want) you can live differently.

HOWEVER you want.

Learn How:

NLP Mind Magic

Dragons Are Everywhere

How To Jump Over A Tree

Once upon a time a young student went to see the local Kung Fu master.

“What would you like to learn?” asked the old guy.

“I want to be able to leap over a huge tree,” the young kid said, not sure what to expect.

“OK, follow me,” the old master said.

“Seriously?” the kid thought, following along.

The old master planted a seed in the middle of a field.

“Jump over this,” the master said.

“Seriously?” the kid asked. The master nodded, completely serious.

The kid jumped over the recently planted seed.

“Perfect,” said the master. “Come here and do the same, every day. I will check on you in a few years,” he said, totally serious, and walked away.

The kid dutifully obeyed. After fifteen years, he was leaping several meters in the air.

By the time the master returned, the kid was now a man, and was famous for his physical skills.

Not only was he leaping over the large tree, but he was teaching the local kids all about patience and dedication.

That with only a small amount of daily effort, you can build miraculous skills.

Or as Kid Rock says in one of his songs:

“Persistence pays and if that holds true, I’m gonna buy this F—— planet before the time I’m through!”

Most people spend their entire lives looking for ONE secret that will give them instant riches, instant fame, instant sex, instant health.

But if they spend that SAME effort on just a few daily activities, they would have created a masterpiece with their lives.

Instead, they keep searching for secrets that don’t exist.

All that effort, wasted.

How do you spend your days?

All you really need is to shift how you spend just a few minutes per day, and you will be remembered forever.

Get Started:

NLP Mind Magic

Explore The World

Awaken Your Inner Explorer

I used to do a lot of backpacking.

On one trip, a buddy of mine and I decided to cut across a huge valley.

There wasn’t any marked trail, so we had to wing it.

This was before most people had GPS enabled devices, so we had to learn how to triangulate.

Meaning take an old fashioned map, put it on the ground, and try to estimate which mountains around us were which mountains on the map.

Then we’d line up the map so it matched the mountains, and drew a line from each peak, on the map, toward the center.

Where they all crossed was our location.

The smaller of a triangle, in the center, the more accurate the location.

Usually this is a pretty good way to check where you are, if you know now.

But it does require an accurate map.

And accurate maps require things like planes and satellites.

Way back in the day, before they had those things, maps were much less accurate.

If you look at some maps from way back before humans started traveling around the globe, they were very vague.

Kind of like the maps in the beginning of fantasy adventure books.

Before agriculture and societies were invented, nobody knew where anything was.

Nomads just spread out across the earth, following the sun and the edge of the sea.

Probably the most BAMF’s of all time, when it comes to navigation, were the Polynesians who went across vast oceans.

All they had were stars, ocean currents, and paddles.

Nobody does that unless they have a very STRONG reason to.

To explore, discover, conquer.

You might say that’s the human spirit.

To keep learning, discovering and creating more.

Even if you never leave the city of your birth, you have that ancient drive.

To keep doing more of SOMETHING.

If you can put that ancient drive to good use, you can create a pretty good life.

Build a business, create works of art, find new scientific discoveries.

This does require that you get in the game and get your hands dirty.

No maps would have been made, no treasure discovered, no peaks climbed if those ancient explorers had played it safe.

Get in touch with that ancient nomad.

The explorer within you.

And get in the game and get some.

Learn More:

Ego Taming

Infinity

What Business Are You In?

One of the biggest ideas in self development is the idea of a “secret.”

The concept that if we learn “one weird trick” we’ll be able to finally realize our dreams.

Guys that want to do better with girls want to know the one “secret pattern.”

People that want to lose weight want to learn the “one strange diet trick.”

One common story is what happens to lottery winners after they strike it rich.

Especially if they are the blue collar, paycheck-to-paycheck type.

Humans NEED to be motivated by two things.

Moving away from pain, and moving toward pleasure.

Everybody’s got their own unique mix, but without BOTH of these, it’s hard to feel “on purpose.”

And when lottery winners have all of their financial PAIN taken away, it feels great.

At first.

But once that new level of “happiness” feels “normal” they start to get into trouble.

A person without any real motivation AND a lot of money is a BAD combination.

This is why invariably, people who suddenly get a lot of money are almost always ruined.

Humans need incentives, both inside and outside.

Most people that get up at the crack of dawn don’t do so because they like it.

They do so because they feel they MUST.

Either because they’ve conditioned themselves that way, or they have an EXTERNAL set of incentives.

Their job or family requirements demand it, for example.

Most people that made their fortune didn’t have their sights set on money.

Or even the “thing” they were building.

They liked the deeper process.

Of being driven.

To get more, do more, be more, create more, build more.

Walter White, the fictional meth cook, famously said he wasn’t in the meth business, he was in the EMPIRE business.

A sudden bucket of money will DESTROY your drive to build your own empire.

How do you write a classic novel?

So far, nobody knows.

The process seems to be wait a hundred years, and see what books are still being read and enjoyed by various generations.

Consider the “secret” to your life the same.

You won’t really know until you’ve built it.

Then you can look back over your long and successful life and think:

“Oh yeah, now I get it…”

Life, empires, fortunes are not secrets to be “discovered” or “taught” or “revealed” on a mountain top.

They are the sum total of your thoughts, actions, and behaviors.

Once you’re on the right path, you’ll know.

You’ll feel driven, you’ll feel the need to keep moving forward no matter what.

And money will be a useful byproduct.

Learn More:

Wealth Tuning

Genius Ideas Baby

The Birdhouse Strategy

Humans feel best when we are on purpose.

When we’ve got a reason to get up.

When we are in the process of building or creating or moving towards something.

Going on roadtrips is fun for this reason.

Part of the fun of going on a trip is the time it takes to get there.

If we could transport ourselves, like on Star Trek, from our living room to a faraway beach, it wouldn’t be nearly the same.

Maybe because the time it takes to get to our vacation spot (wherever it is) helps us to slowly shift from everyday mindset into vacation mindset.

Sitting in a car or a plane for a few hours literally feels like we are “leaving behind” our normal selves, and moving toward our vacation selves.

Which puts a HUGE barrier to insulate our vacation experience.

But you don’t have to go on vacation to feel on purpose.

Just doing a project which takes a lot of work gives you the same feeling.

Slow growth toward a better future.

Even building a birdhouse (if you’re into birdhouses) is a pleasant experience.

Taking something in your mind, doing the daily tasks to slowly turn your idea into a physical thing.

And once you put it in your backyard, (and see the birds using it) you can remember the process of turning thought into thing.

For a birdhouse or a road trip, it’s easy to measure your progress.

If you’re doing something and you don’t have a way to measure your progress, it’s easy to pretend you’re improving but you’re really not.

One of the “meta” ways to measure your progress is how much money you make.

On one level, this sounds very selfish and almost evil.

But on another level, it makes perfect sense.

So long as you aren’t a bank robber, the money you GET represents the value you’ve PROVIDED to others.

To be sure, there are a LOT of ways you can provide value to others without expecting to get paid.

But if you look at the money you make as directly related to how much you provide to others, it’s a fantastic way to keep score.

It’s very easy to focus on.

Do whatever it takes to EARN more money, and use that as your gauge.

For many people, however, this is VERY frustrating.

It shouldn’t be.

It should feel just like going on vacation or building a birdhouse.

Some people are lucky, and they are born with this mindset.

For them, making money is natural, fun and easy.

And it can be for you as well.

Learn How:
Wealth Tuning

The Wasteland Of Their Mind

How To Spot The Cheaters

Once a friend of mine asked me to go with her and her sister to buy a car.

They didn’t want to get taken advantage of by a stereotypical car salesman.

Most people don’t like salespeople for this reason.

Especially ones that get paid primarily by commission.

The idea of getting paid pure commission is pretty terrifying for most people.

This is why there is so much turnover in sales.

There is a low entry for of a lot those jobs, since some places hire anybody.

They don’t have to worry about training or anything.

The companies themselves are leveraging the law of numbers.

They figure they’ll hire 100 people a month.

Due to Pareto (the 80-20 rule), 20% will make most of the sales.

The rest will generally quit after a couple of weeks.

The idea of a guaranteed salary, on the other hand, is VERY compelling.

But in a sense, all people “live” by pure commission.

Meaning the quality of the lives we live are based on how we interact with others.

To get “good” results, you need to interact with others in a “good” way.

Most of the time, there’s plenty of overlap.

A win-win type of outcome.

Both people are benefiting.

A “non-zero-sum-game.”

Zero sum games, on the other hand, are interactions where one person benefits at the expense of the other person.

Many argue that it’s a dog eat dog world.

And the name of the game is get whatever you can, and don’t get caught.

If you walked onto a car lot, you would expect to be “sold.”

But most of us don’t want to be sold or taken advantage of when we don’t expect.

Which makes us very vulnerable.

Especially to those who are always on the lookout for any advantage they can get.

To them, all’s fair in love and war.

And the best strategy with that mindset is to not advertise.

To come in under the radar.

Like the proverbial wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Luckily, if you do some linguistic drills, you’ll learn to spot those types a mile a way.

Even better, they’ll know that you know.

So they’ll keep their distance.

Learn How:

Weaponized Hypnosis

Split Open Their Mind

Awaken Their Most Powerful Instinct

One of things that causes us the most problems is having a “mismatch” of our instincts and our modern world.

This is pretty easy to understand when it comes to something like hunger.

An “instinct” that makes us hungry any time we see or smell food, even if we weren’t hungry before.

Back when it took a lot of effort (and sometimes a lot of risk) to GET food, this was a healthy trait.

It kept us always searching for food.

Imagine if we NEVER felt hungry, no matter what!

Sure, if you’d like to lose a few pounds, this may be a dream come true.

But what if you not only never got hungry, but food tasted totally neutral?

If you HAD to remember to EAT?

Most people wouldn’t think about it, and we’d all be rail thin.

Luckily, we HAVE a never-ending desire to eat.

And plenty of other instincts as well.

But like hunger, one of our big problems in modern society is we STILL have these ancient instincts.

Many of them are very subtle, and they operate outside of our conscious awareness.

When you are OVERLY obedient to your “hunger instinct” it’s pretty hard NOT to notice.

But many of these other instincts operate in a way so we NEVER realize what’s happening.

However, some people DO understand these ancient instincts, and understand them VERY WELL.

And they tend to USE them in clever ways.

One of our PRIMARY instincts is to follow somebody who “resonated” genuine authority.

Most of our instincts were put together long ago, when most of us were nomads.

And nomads need a leader.

Without a strong leader, any ancient tribe was lost.

But the lucky tribes who had a STRONG leader, they’d follow him or her to the ends of the Earth.

And just like our hunger instinct, all humans are hard wired to CRAVE the feeling of being near a naturally authoritative and strong leader.

Of course, we don’t need to follow crazy people out into the wilderness.

What would be a modern equivalent of a “tribe” of people following a strong “tribal” leader?

The inspirational coach who leads a team of misfits to a championship.

The genius business person to leads a company to greatness.

The mesmerizing storytellers (actors, directors, writers) who lead our emotions to wonderful places.

Why not YOU?

Learn More:

Cult Leader

Joining Of The Minds

Wordless Persuasion

I saw this really corny romantic comedy a while ago.

A guy and a girl were in love, and the guy died.

But after he died, he’d left behind a trail of “bread crumbs” for the girl (his grieving widow) to find.

The deal was they’d only known each other so long, and that was his way of showing her all the things important to him.

The movie was about her following all these clues, going to his hometown, learning all about his childhood, meeting his friends, etc.

Little too “romantic” for my tastes, but the idea is pretty cool.

To leave a bunch of bread crumbs for people to follow.

Especially if something is cool at the end.

Luckily, you don’t have to die to pull this off.

It’s actually pretty easy to do conversationally.

All you do is ask the right questions in the right order, and you can lead people to some pretty amazing feelings.

Feelings they’ve likely never felt before.

Most people are always talking about themselves.

Even when we are listening to others, part of our brains is trying to figure out what to say when they’re done talking.

If you can momentarily turn that part of your brain off, and just ask the right questions, you can lead people to some fantastic ideas.

The questions are easy to ask.

And they are really easy to answer, especially if you ask them right.

Done correctly, you can not only ask easy questions, but get them feeling fantastic without ever needing to say ANYTHING.

A lot of people feel a bit shy about talking about talking about their deepest desires.

But you can set it up so they don’t have to even talk.

And you can keep leading them deeper and deeper into the middle of their most secret fantasies.

All the while anchoring those wonderful feelings to whatever you want.

Your idea, your product, your service, or you.

Imagine all the ways you could use this!

Get Started:

Secret Agent Persuasion