Author Archives: AJ Kumar

The Art of Spinning a Conversation

One of the most challenging professions you can get into is the industry of Public Relations. The challenge isn’t necessarily a physical difficulty, but a psychological one. PR people, sometimes referred to as “Spin Doctors”, are responsible for preventing any type of damage to their client’s reputation. They possess the linguistical talent to sway you to believe whether something is right or wrong, powerful isn’t it.

For example, if a celebrity was arrested for drinking and driving, then it would be up to the spin doctor to persuade the public that it wasn’t the celebrity’s fault, it was because of all the pressure from the paparazzi that influenced this celebrity to alcohol addiction. The celebrity goes to a rehabilitation center and the blame is now turned around to the paparazzi, even though it was the celebrity who was drinking and driving in the first place. Just recently, after Kanye West’s little blunder, his “Spin Doctors” probably advised him to put the blame on his mother’s passing. It didn’t do that well, but it did take some heat off of his stupidity. Wait a few months and everyone will love him again.

Another great example is from the movie Thank You for Smoking. This is an awesome movie about a guy whose job is to defend the tobacco company’s reputation. Not an easy task, but he manages to do it.

Most of you reading this have no use to hire your own Spin Doctor, but learning how they do it can take you out of the most difficult of scenarios.

Never Directly Disagree

People will challenge your ideas, concepts, products, beliefs etc, but you should never directly tell them that they’re wrong. Here are some phrases to use when someone says something to you before you shift the conversation:

That’s a valid concern
That’s right
I agree
That’s true
I can appreciate that
you’re right
I understand
you’re absolutely right

Example 1:

Them: You have too little experience for me to give this job.
You: That’s a valid concern

So whatever it is the person is accusing you of, acknowledge it, repeat and then continue.

Starting your Spin

Here are phrases you need to use after you acknowledge them for what they said. These phrases will allow you to make a smooth transition from something pointed at you to persuading them to believe what you say is actually right:

So what I hear you saying is…
What I sense…
So if I understand correctly, you’re saying…
What I think your feeling is…
What I’m noticing you say is…
What it sounds like your saying is…
What it looks like your saying is…
I believe that you’re really trying to say…
Sounds like to me that you’re…
What I think you’re saying…

Example 2:

Them: You have too little experience for you to get this job.
You: That’s a valid concern and it sounds like to me that you’re looking for someone who will get the job done in the time you want it, aren’t you? Most of my clients feel that way too before they CHOOSE ME and give me the chance. If I can get this job done for you in X days, would that work for you?

In this example, you spun the conversation from them talking about you having little experience to getting the job they want done, faster.

Example 3:

Them: I’ve never heard of your company before
You: I understand and what I think your saying is that you’re looking to find the best deals possible right? As we talk about making this happen, I’m sure you starting to feel comfortable knowing that I’ll save you more money and the get the job done in less time, does that work for you?

In this example, you spun the conversation from them feeling insecure about your company’s reputation to feeling comfortable knowing that they will be saving money by choosing you.

Final Thoughts

You can’t control what other people say about you, your products, services, or company, but you can persuade them to change their mind.

Has there ever been a time when you needed to use this technique?

5 Steps to Reprogram Your Brain With NLP

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Has there ever been a time in your life where someone said something to you that hurt you? Maybe it was someone really close, maybe not, but whatever was said still affects you today? Most people have had some kind of experience in their past that actually prevents them from getting the results they want now, in the present, which ultimately affects their life in the future. Fortunately, our minds are like VCR tapes, they can be recorded over on. You can literally replace an event that’s happened to you in the past with something different or modified. Can you imagine how much less resistance you’ll have to move forward if that particular event didn’t affect you the way it did?

The following are the 5 steps that you need to go by to reprogram your brain. You can do this yourself, but it would much better if someone did it to you. I’ve written the steps like a script so you can just read it verbatim to yourself or when you do it to someone else.

Step 1

I want you to go back and experience the last 40 seconds of an event that has happened to you in the past that still negatively affects you today. I want you to see the person who is saying the things they are saying. I want you to hear the person who is saying the things that they are saying. I want you to feel the feeling that you felt when the person was saying those things. Close your eyes and begin…

What feelings did you get as you played the event in your head? Hurt? Sad? Angry?

Step 2

This time do the same as Step 1 with a few changes. I want you to think you are sitting in a movie theater and watching the event unfold on the movie screen. Change the following about the person who is saying the things that give you the negative feelings you get.

Change this person’s nose to a big red clown nose.
Change the voice of this person to sound like Mickey Mouse or the Chipmunks.
Picture this person picking their nose while talking.

When ready to play the movie, make sure that those three things are happening at the same time… Let’s play the movie!!

Step 3

Now let’s play the movie in slow motion. You see the big red clown’s nose and the person picking their nose. You also hear the Mickey Mouse or chipmunk voice as the person is saying the things this person said.

Step 4

I want you to float out of your movie seat and go sit by the projector. I want you to observe yourself sitting in the seat watching yourself on the big screen as the incident is playing. Everything is the same as step 2. The big red clown’s nose, Mickey Mouse or the Chipmunk’s voice and picking his or her nose while saying the things this person said. I want you to fast forward through the film.

Step 5

Now think of the same incident again. What feelings are you getting? Your sad, hurt, and angry feelings should be gone and transformed into some kind of humor or amusement.

The 10 Most Persuasive Dudes in Movies

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Sometimes it’s a persons looks that gets them ahead in life, sometimes it’s their money, and hey sometimes it’s their family. One skill a person can learn no matter how ugly, fat, stupid, or poor you are is the ability to persuasive. Imagine if you had the ability to be as smooth, charismatic, charming, and linguistically talented as some of the actors below:

Chris Gardner (Will Smith) in Pursuit of Happyness

Don Ready (Jeremy Piven) The Goods

Chris Varick (Vin Diesel) in Boiler Room

Tommy Callahan (Chris Farley) in Tommy Boy

Blake (Alec Baldwin) in Glenngarry Glen Ross

Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise) in Jerry Maguire

Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckahart) in Thank You For Smoking

Joey O’Brien (Robin Williams) in Cadillac Man

Jim Young (Ben Affleck) in Boiler Room

Trent (Vince Vaughn) in Swingers

You can get used cars, stocks, or just pick up on girls, but learn the art of persuasive communication you’ll be able to anything you want ;).

Are You an Information Junkie?

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I can take a guess and bet that most of you who read my blog and the other blogs out there on personal development get some sort of “high” with every new article. When I say “high”, I mean in the sense of empowerment. To go even further, you feel as if you are doing yourself a favor by learning about new ways to take your life to the next level. Now, the obvious question is, are you? After you read one of my powerful articles, do you really go back to “reality” and take action on this new information you just learned about? Has there even been a time when you read an article, then just forgot about it?

“Forget it about it”

Chances are that you’ve read dozens and dozens of articles on the web about how to do “this”, what to do with “that”, and 18 million steps to be “something”, etc. Do you ever get an empty void type of feeling that tells you, “I need more…”? The truth of the matter is that most of the stuff you read, whether it be online, in a book, or at a seminar, you will forget about within 1 hour to give or take a few days. You, like most other people, just have that feeling inside that tells you to keep reading, keep studying, and wait until you have everything single bit of information you need, before you take action. Why is that? The answer lies in the ‘fear department’. It could be you fear of failure, rejection, success or a number similar issues. So let me start by saying that the average person will usually forget almost 80% of the information they learn every day. Chances are by the end of this day, you will probably forget most of what you’re learning from this article. Well it’s wasn’t necessarily your fault in the past, but it will be after you finish reading this…

Take Action

The most successful people on the planet can take bits and pieces of information from a few pages in a book and implement it in their business right a way. Not only that, but these types of people are not afraid of failing. In fact, one must fail forward fast if your interest is in growing and moving forward.

Here are different ways we learn according to the William Glasser’s Institute.

10% What we READ
20% What we HEAR
30% What we SEE
50% What we SEE and HEAR
70% What we DISCUSSED with OTHERS
80% What we EXPERIENCED PERSONALLY
95% What we TEACH TO SOMEONE ELSE

Obviously the best way for you to retain information is by teaching someone, but how can one teach someone something they haven’t done themselves. So what the statistics above should tell you is that the sooner you learn something new, the faster you better take action on it, since the quicker you do, the better you’ll understand it. As you begin to shift your mindset to this new style of thinking, I want you to go back to a time when someone told you to do something and you did it. What happened? Were you instantly satisfied with the results? Let’s take the time you learned to drive a car. You read about it, you took action and followed through with what you read and then you practiced it. Sooner or later after that moment, you practically mastered it or at least allowed yourself to do it as if it were second nature. Pretty powerful, isn’t it?

Since your beginning to understand the urgency of this issue, I need you trust me and pay attention to what I have to say. After you read this article, I want you to read one of my previous articles immediately take action. It’s very simple guys and gals, learn something new and do it right away. If you don’t, then consider yourself to be as useful as a computer, full of information, but you probably won’t make a dime off of it. I guarantee that if you do what I say, you’ll see better results than you would by reading 5 books back to back.

To recap, read an article of mine or even someone else’s for all it matters and figure out a way to apply it in your life seconds or even moments after your finish reading it. Write a comment and share your experiences with me below.

The Expressive Personality Type

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Have you ever paid attention to how people interact with one another? I’m betting that most of you don’t. After you increase your level of awareness, you’ll gain a better understanding of how people generally work. Increasing your awareness levels means that you are consciously paying attention to what is going on around you most of the time.

Having the ability to tell what type of personality someone is within only 30 seconds or so of conversation is probably one of the best communication tools you can learn. Having the know how to detect what a person is allows you to transform the way you should be interacting with that particular client. Since your first few minutes of interaction is the most vital, pay close attention to what they say and how they say it.

Personality Type: Expressive (Let’s do it!)

Now that you’re familiar with the quick and assertive Driver, we move on to the can you shut up already Expressive. Have you ever noticed that every time you go to a party, function, or gathering, there is always this one person who everyone swarms around (maybe it’s you)? Expressive people absolutely love being in the spotlight. Their workplaces are normally messy compared to a neat Analytical. Even though their workplaces, cars, or rooms tend to be messy, they would still be able to find what their looking for through their memory (they don’t necessarily lose everything). Expressive people love to talk, so let them. They generally have very high emotion and make decisions rather quickly. There are generally excited to see what happens next.

Here are the characteristics of an Expressive:

Tends to run late, lots of commitments and rushed lifestyle.
Desires to be center of attention. Will attempt to draw focus of a group.
Can’t stand being bored, impatient. Will get stressed and fidget in lines, looks for distractions.
Generally have brightly colored clothing/cars/houses. Values ‘flash’.
They are animated and lively when they speak or tell stories. Sometimes seems ‘loud’.

As a special note, since many people misinterpret Expressives as people who talk a lot, avoid placing someone in 1 of the 4 personality types by the length in time they talk to you. Analyticals and Amiables also tend to talk a lot after they feel comfortable around someone, so the amount of time they take talking is irrelevant. You must use the other criteria I’ve listed above to determine if one is Expressive or something else.

How to Sell to an Expressive

When dealing with Expressives, all you need to do is let the them talk and slowly steer the conversation in the direction you want to take it by taking control and asking the right questions. Expressives tend to get off topic very quickly so be patient.

I’m not sure if I was always an expressive or that I recently just became one. I questioned which personality I was because it can be difficult to determine it at a young age. I’m certain, now that I’m 23, but I originally started thinking about this when I was 17-18 and I had no clue what I was, most people didn’t. Many times you’ll hear people saying that they’re Expressives because Expressive people usually get most of the attention. Also, since I’m in the sales industry, people like to say that they are Expressives because they are led to believe that all great sales people are Expressives. Obviously this is false and just a common misconception or excuse that people use because they can’t yet achieve the success they want.

Selling as an Expressive

Dealing with an Expressive person from the other personality type’s point of view is relativity easy, but as an Expressive, you need to learn how to tone it down. It’s important for you to realize and understand when your your stories go off on a tangent.

Are you an Expressive? If not, what experiences have you had with an expressive?

The Driver Personality Type

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We can generally place the type of person you are in 4 personalities: Driver, Analytical, Expressive, and Amiable. Each of us falls under only one of the listed types. We hold to that type and live our lives within its bounds.

We do not change types except in times of great stress. Over the next few days, I’ll cover one of the four types of personalities and explain to you exactly how they think and most importantly, make decisions.

Then, as you begin to understand how to tell the personalities apart, I’ll teach you the ability to allow yourself to become versatile in any selling situation, won’t that be great? Now I want you to focus on a guy like Simon Cowell as we talk about Drivers.

Personality Type: Driver (Let’s do it now)

People who fall into the Driver personality type tend to be very controlling and possibly demanding. They know what they want and they aren’t afraid to let you know.Â They normally have little to no emotion and make decisions quickly and assertively.

To quickly sum up the characteristics of a driver:

Demands control or will take it when available. Looks for opportunity to be ‘in charge’.
Will get things done, likes goals and achieving them. Frames life as a sequence of I did this.
Straight to the point, looks for the bottom line. Dislikes complexity or ambiguity.
Little patience for the small details that aren’t clearly in line with goal seeking.
Doesn’t like situations where they have no say in what’s happening.
Appears to be arrogant and standoffish. Can seem overly aggressive, especially in the heat of a project. Will see people as ‘obstacles’ or ‘allies’.
Can appear as Alpha male/female type

Drivers may appear intimidating, however, you must remember to put your emotions aside and not take things personally. Since I would say that I’m an extreme expressive, I find myself to be a very emotional person. By emotional, I mean that I pretty much wear my mood on my shoulders. When I use to work for Mike Ferry, the best trainer and coach from the Real Estate industry, my team leader was a very arrogant driver. He always wanted things done his way or the highway. Our communication was so one sided that I would constantly get mad by just talking to him. However, later, as I began to understand the way people work and make decisions, I realized that it wasn’t his fault for being such a prick, it was mine. Since I wasn’t communicating the way he wants to be communicated to, our personalities clashed. Remember, it’s not about you, it’s about the person in front of you.

How to deal with a Driver:

When presenting information to a Driver, avoid graphs, power point presentations, charts, and lists of data. Keep it short, simple, and sweet.

Expressive Personality Type:

Prevent yourself from going off on a tangent. If you absolutely must tell a story, give them the point of the story first. Otherwise, they’ll keep thinking about what your story is supposed to lead up to and quickly become annoyed by it.

Analytical Personality Type:

Drivers are general very annoyed by analytical people. An analytical shouldÂ obviously avoid stories, details, numbers, etc. If you must give them stats, give them the end results, not the entire formula that led you to that answer.

Amiable Personality Type:

Drivers usually love amiable people because amiable people aim to please and do whatever the driver tells them to do. Amiable people, just remember to stick to the point, and speak up!

Are you a Driver? If not, what experiences have you had when dealing you dealt with Drivers?

How To Handle Objections Using The “Future Pacing” Technique

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Has there ever been a time you persuaded someone to do something or buy something? Then the person came back to you a couple hours, days, or weeks later and changed their mind? This is a very common occurrence, let me explain. When people are influenced to make decisions by some type of sales person, they almost always have some type of buyer’s remorse. This happens usually because people tend to buy on their emotion, rather than logic. This is usually because the salesman was able to do such an amazing job with getting that client excited about buying. However, excitement eventually runs out, and the sales person isn’t always there to re-sell them on whatever it was they sold them on to begin with. So how do you keep a person committed to the sale without actually having to be there?

How to keep people committed

There is a brilliant technique called Future Pacing that allows you to almost magically persuade someone to keep their commitment when objections come up after the sale has been completed. The idea, like most of the concepts I teach, is simple. What you’re doing is creating a scenario(s) in a person’s mind that may happen in the future. So after you close the deal, you’ll need to rehearse a practical scenario(s) that may occur to this person.

For example:

Let’s say that you are convincing a client to purchase a car. They are a bit hesitant to sign the contract because their wife might get upset. Right away, we know that even if your client decides to say yes, his wife might change his mind later. So what you’ll need to do is future pace the objection(s) the wife my bring up and teach your client how to handle them. That way, your client is working as your salesman, selling his wife on why he moved forward with the deal.

8 Steps to Future Pace Someone

Acknowledge their commitment to you
Reinforce the reasons they decided to say yes to you
- Ask them ‘why’ questions. Why did you say yes? What made you agree with me?
Reiterate their response and intertwine them with benefits as to why they made the decision.
Add a couple more motives about why they made the right decision
Create a mental scenario of an event that might happen in the future
- i.e. “If you talk to your wife and she isn’t as excited as you with the car, what reasons will you instantly remember and explain to her allowing her to understand why you said yes to me today?”
Reiterate and detail out their response. Use their response to create another compelling statement for their decision to say yes today.
Ask, “Can you think of any other reasons to use to influence your wife that you’ve made the right decision?”
If done correctly, your client is securely closed along with being rehearsed to handle the objection they might get from their wife who may object later.

Is this practical?

Yes, this is 100% practically and easy to integrate. In fact, here are some of the many scenarios you can use it in:

Buyer’s remorse – People regret what they bought most of the time. Sometimes they just forget about it, other times they decide to return it.
Significant other – When haven’t you seen a case of someone coming back to you saying that their husband/wife were unhappy with their purchase.
Family – Family can easily persuade you in and out of choices you’ve made
Friends – Like family, friends also have a big influence on what you buy. Their opinions determine whether keep or not.
Events – Sometimes evens conflict with each other and one event must be sacrificed.
Competitors – Competitors are almost guaranteed to try and sell your customer their products that are the same or similar for cheaper.
Writers/Bloggers- They sell products online and offer 100% money back guarantees. What is to say that you’re customer won’t come back and actually ask for it.

Also, when you future pace someone, you need to make sure you have some leverage with their motivation. Use pain and pleasure when discussing their motivation, so you know which direction you need to take them.

Future pacing is a very valuable technique that can help you retain more customers faster. The more customers who keep your product/service, the more likely they are to recommend to their friends and family. After a person has made the decision, and an outside influence can’t persuade them otherwise, they will automatically begin to convince themselves that they’ve made the right decision. This all begins with your ability to future pace them.

How to Use Someone’s Past Experience to Your Advantage

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Most people make decisions based on their past experiences, cultural background, and beliefs. Ultimately, every experience a person has gone through, significant or not, will play a role in how a person makes a decision today, in present time. Now this concept can be used both in your favor, or against you, depending on your approach. Have you ever read something once and then decided to read it a few more times because you were so compelled to take action? This time will be like that time, let me explain…

Several years ago, I learned a technique that allows you to get a person to think about a feeling they had in the past and use it toward your advantage in present time. The phrase “has there ever been a time when you…blah blah blah” triggers your client to think of a time when they “blah blah blah”. After you authoritatively use that phrase and obviously replace the blah’s with what I teach you below, your prospect will begin to think of that time in their mind and have that particular feeling in present time. Keep reading, even if you’re a bit confused.

Phrases

There are actually several different variations to this phrase, lets go over a few of them:

Has there ever been a time when…
Have you ever…
Do you remember when…
If you think for second, you can probably remember…

Obviously you can change it, mix it, or do whatever you want, but you get the idea. Ultimately, you want a phrase that simply gets your prospect to think of a general incidence int the past. The key word is general. In fact, the more specific you are, the less chance you’ll have at this working. So be as vague as possible.

Instead of:

Has there ever been a time when you were talking to someone about xyz and they turned you down?

Use:

Has there ever been a time when you felt rejected?

The difference between the two is obviously the vagueness. It’s important to be vague because your prospects aren’t your friends. Unlike your friends, you have no clue what kind of life, incidents, situations, and scenarios your prospects gone through. Does that make sense?

Linking

So after you get the prospect to actually think of that time when they felt that particular way, you need to link that feeling to the current situation or scenario. To do this, you use the phrase:

This time is like that time, let me explain:

Then you simply explain to the prospect how their past experience is just like this current situation. After that, you want to amplify the pain of the mistake they made in the past so they won’t make the same one again in the future (present time).

Whether you are beginning to feel a bit confused or not, let’s go to the next section.

Objections

So ultimately, this technique is most commonly used to handle objections you get from prospects your trying to sell xyz to. Whether you’re selling a house, selling a car, or selling vacuum, this concept works in ANY selling situation.

Let’s give you an example of one of the most common objections that anyone selling anything has heard of: “I want to wait…”

Client: I want to wait

You: You want to wait, I completely understand. Let me ask you, has there ever been a time in your life when you wanted to do something, but waited, and then did it anyway. And then, you ended up spending more time or money then you originally wanted to? (SHUT UP and let them process this)

Client: well, yea sure, who hasn’t”

You: This time is like that time, let me explain…

You would typically use this technique toward the end of your presentation. Sometimes you can use it toward the beginning, but you just need to remember, being vague is key.

Do you understand what I mean?

See what I do is I take techniques like this one (has there ever been a time when) and combine it with other techniques, concepts, and strategies, and I use it to become persuasive communicator.

You need to understand that your communication is your biggest weapon. The people who have the ability to persuade someone to do something are the ones who are able to become successful at a faster pace. The saying, it’s not what you know, its who you know is the perfect example. Knowing how to sell myself to important people has gotten me further than just working on a particular skill/trait.

So I’m curious, now that you’ve been able to learn a technique that you can apply in your business right now, how will use it? Have you read something this compelling before, but disregarded it, and continued to live the same average life you’ve always lived? This time, make the right decision and follow my advice, you will be glad you did.

In what type of scenarios will you use the (has there ever been a time…) technique?

The Difference Between Being Influenced and Brainwashed

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Ever feel like you’re being brainwashed? And by the way I’m not suggesting that you totally agree with everything in this article because I’m a nice guy and have your best interests at heart. It’s just that you know there are times when you find yourself suddenly craving a big Mac or salivating about that new GM muscle car or the new Ford mustang or just absolutely have to have those special tooth whitening strips so you’ll be more attractive… And moments before you watched the commercial or read the ad, you weren’t even thinking about it. The question is… are you being brainwashed?

Or just influenced?

According to my secret sources in the US Military, for brainwashing to be present all 5 of the following conditions must be met. So ask yourself now

Have you been removed from your normal environment of influence or confined to the compound and not allowed to leave no contact with outside?
Have you been deprived of sleep getting less than 6 hours per night? (psst are your children brainwashing you?)
Are you given emotional, physical or psychological pain or punishment if you disagree?
Do you get pleasure or rewards if you agree to get with the program?
Has your bio-chemistry been forcibly changed through diet or drugs?

Now maybe one or two of these elements are present in your marriage, your job, your sports team, church, chamber of commerce, fraternity or sorority, etc.

But remember, all 5 elements must be present for more than a weekend. After all it may take a bit of time to be internalized into your unconscious mind.

Now, you don’t have to think about army basic training or boot camp unless of course you want to…But if you were to think about it, imagine this:

You are far from home and confined to some sweltering, mosquito infested base
You are woken up at the crack of dawn every day by scratchy recording of a bugle playing reveille. When you least expect it they wake you up in the middle of the night for drills.
If you don’t get with the program you are shouted at, made to do extreme physical penance (give me 50 push-ups worm) and are subject to other emotional and psychological punishment.
If you get along and follow orders and are a good little soldier you get praise, awards, medals, shore leave, extra dessert etc.
Think about the food in the military! Just eating S.O.S and mountains of potatoes every day will change your bio chemistry.

I don’t know why, but all of a sudden I’m thinking about this Christian summer camp I went to with my church youth group for a week the summer between 9^th and 10 grade.

Hmmm.

I wasn’t in my normal environment. It was way nicer. A beautiful camp on a pristine lake in the mountains.
They kept us up late singing songs and woke us up really early. Averaged about 5 hours a night.
They didn’t shout or use overt physical pain. But they made us feel guilty as hell about all the impure thoughts we were having about the opposite (or same) sex. And all the sin we were carrying around with us. It felt painful to me. Very painful. So very, very painful. Forgive me Father for I have SINNED.
If you gave your life to Jesus you got applause and that special feeling of getting with the program. Plus some of the cutes girls were serious bible thumpers and I wanted in with them for more SIN for which I must feel shame and guilt!
Damn! No drugs or bizarre food. The food was good. For some people it was better than home. Nobody was made to drink actual cool-aid or eat bugs.

So even though 4 out of 5 is pretty darn close, I managed to survive Christian summer camp with all my skepticism and doubts intact. Never underestimate the power of bad food or at least very different food to tip the brainwashing scales. It’s all in the details.

Now let’s talk about TV.

You are not isolated from your normal environment of influence. When you’re watching the tube you are most definitely in a zombie like trance but you are usually sitting on your own couch.
You’re sleep patterns are not interrupted. In fact many people prefer to fall asleep watching TV. There seem to be few reports of people sleep walking into a Hummer dealership with a bag of cash after falling asleep in front of the telly.
A really good commercial may remind you of the pain you are already in and may anchor pleasure to the idea that you can get out of pain by making a decision and taking action. Think about your hard earned dollars sneaking out your leaky, inefficient old windows pain
A master influencer will definitely link pleasure to his or her idea or outcome for you. now think about how wonderful the snug, tight, energy efficient thermal windows will be as they save you bushels of cash over the next 30 years…
An argument could be made that McDonalds food will change your body chemistry and get you hooked. Or all those pharmaceutical ads for the weight loss drug (with the rectal leakage side effect) could get you hooked and change your bio chemistry. But you’re still in your own home and they have yet to figure out how to get the TV to dispense their stuff. Plus, the other elements of brainwashing must also be present and you can always turn off the TV.

So in a nutshell, TV advertising, is not brainwashing. Ads may be powerful. They may be insidious. They may be persuasive. They get stuck like a sappy love song in your rostromedial pre-frontal cortex and play over and over again. They may be hugely influential. They may not always be a force for good in our lives.

But you can always hit the off button so it ain’t brainwashing.

Now I know you didn’t totally agree with everything I’ve said in the past or right now or in the future so if there are other things you agree with me on feel free to leave a comment below or just think of me as a genius for the next few moments… that’s right.

About the Author: Mark Shepard, NLPT is a Master Practitioner and Trainer of NLP, Hypnosis & Time Line Therapy. Read his blog: Modernjedi.com

7 Ways To Motivate Your Employees Without Being A Jerk

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Most employees behave very similar to children. They fiddle around twiddling their thumbs together when there is nothing to do. They grunt, moan, and groan when they must get up in the morning to go to work (children go to school). And the biggest similarity is the rush of excitement they have when it is time to go home. If your employees are acting and behaving like children, how do you think this affects your

bottom line? How do you expect your company to make the necessary expectations to meet and exceed your goals?

Molding the Perfect Employees

Building a successful company begins with having a productive team. Having a productive team usually comes from the influence of a great leader.

1. Add Emotional Incentives

Even if your employees are not working for commission, look for ways to offer some benefits for working hard and getting the job done quicker. Many of you reading this have employees who earn a fixed income for a certain amount of work. From an employee point of view, if the work is done the job is done for the day. An employee who has nothing to do can cause distractions to other employees who are working. Like a domino effect, this encourages inefficiency throughout the office. From an employer’s point of view, if an employee finishes their work early, they should be given more work. Unfortunately, since both the employee and employer usually don’t see eye to eye, the employee begins to work slower to avoid getting new work. Even if you do not offer them a brand new car, something is better than nothing. Something as simple as allowing your employee to leave a few minutes early can almost instantly increase their motivation. Some examples of incentives include:

Go home 1 hour early on Friday.
Better parking spot
Extra break time
Leave 15-20 minutes early on any given day
Free lunch
The most comfortable chair in the office
Small cash bonuses ($50 or $100 can motivate most people)

2. Create a Positive Environment

The work environment alone can quickly change the productivity for everyone in the office. As powerful leaders, we must ensure the work environment is uplifting, exciting, and enjoyable. Zappos, an online retail sales company retains more trustworthy employees than a majority of the companies out there. During an interview on Mixergy.com, the CEO from Zappos Tony Hsieh said that his company does over a billion dollars in sales a year because of their customer service. To filter out the good employees from the bad, Tony offers his new hires $2,000 to quit and shockingly, hardly anyone takes it. Do a quick survey with everyone as to what type of environment compels them to be more excited to work there. Make the necessary changes and you will see a noticeably positive change.

3. Monitor your Employees

It is not necessary to discipline your employees for a sneeze that takes away 5 seconds from work, but it is important to monitor what your employees are doing most of the time. From wasting time on useless web pages to chatting with friends, pay close attention to how they spend their time during work hours. Preventing your employees from doing what they are not supposed to be doing can increase productivity miraculously. Let’s say you have 20 employees who take away 10 minutes each day to do personal things on the computer. That over 3 hours each day of lost productivity. Invest in employee monitoring software that gives you the freedom to monitor everything your employee does from anywhere in the world.

4. Communication

Do you even know the names of all your employees? Sure you are busy, but if I were to tell you that personalizing your relationship with your employee can dramatically raise the level of their performance, would you do it? All you must do is spend 5-10 minutes each every week talking about their challenges, hopes, and dreams. Having a well connected employee also makes it easier to address concerns or issues around the work place.

5. Create Teams

Create teams by mixing up the skillful employees with the ones not so much. Friendly competition can easily speed up the work flow and be fun for the employees along the way. Reward the winning teams each week with a free lunch, VIP parking spots or the other incentives listed above.

6. Learn the Power of Motivational Speaking

Imagine having Tony Robbins speak to your staff every morning before they start work. Do you think your employees will feel good and excited to be there? Spend a few weeks reading books on personal development, leadership and public speaking and learn to be a powerful motivator. When you have the ability to speak with power and influence you will be able to persuade your employees to continuously have a positive mindset.

7. Give Employees a Say in the Company

Have you ever heard of an incident when an employee had some crazy idea that was accidentally discovered and helped a company make millions of dollars? It interestingly enough happens all the time. Your employees are constantly working with you product/service every day, so naturally they will begin to develop ideas that can potentially help the company grow. Let them know that they have a say in what goes on and you will begin to see a growth in your employee’s commitment and interest in the company.

The more productive your employees are, the quicker the company will grow. It may sound simple and obvious, but working on employee productivity is an ongoing task. Create a game plan on how you can implement these 7 strategies right away.