Lately I’ve been watching “Marco Polo” on Netflix.

So far, it’s pretty good. It’s more about Kublai Khan and all the political intrigue than Polo,  who is really the observer proxy for the audience.

If you can get past the language assumptions (some Italian guy is speaking fluently to a Mongol King in China) it’s pretty interesting how he chooses his words carefully when speaking to the “Great Khan.”

Since there’s all kinds of inter-family backstabbing and jockeying for power, Kahn uses Polo as a kind of “spy” to watch some of his family members and report what he sees.

From the beginning, Kahn decides to keep Polo because he describes things pretty well.

But most of his descriptions seem to “hide” certain truths, as he’s worried what will happen if the Great Kahn realizes what people REALLY think about him.

This is how most people use language. A great thinker once described language as a “tool to hide what’s really on our mind.”

Few people understand that’s only HALF of it’s power.

Most of us are pretty natural at using language to hide certain truths.

Somebody works for a boss and did an absolute crappy job, for example. Another manager calls the boss for a reference, and the boss says something like, “Well, he always showed up on time. And he never really used any swear words.”

Now that “sort of” sounds good, but in reality it’s clear that the boss didn’t think so, since had nothing to say about his work performance.

We do this all the time. We hear an idea that’s total crap, and we say, “Hmm, that’s interesting.”

But the real power of language is when you stop covertly hiding truths, and start to covertly expressing truths.

Truths about yourself, your ideas, your business. Anything.

And it has the incredible effect of letting your listener or reader “discover” the meaning on their own.

What ideas would you to covertly slip into the minds of others?

Learn How:

Covert Hypnosis