“One of the purposes of life, and selfishly what makes people happy, is building things that are impactful.” – Dustin Moskovitz, Born May 22, 1984. I disagree with Dustin here, but only slightly, and I’ll forgive him because his audience are going to be “achievers”. People don’t typically want to build anything. Not most people…. Read More →
Five Simple Steps To Change a Person’s Belief By Using Their Emotions Against Them
“Emotion creates reality, reality demands action.” – Brian Eno, Born May 15, 1948. This is a really elegant way to explain the connection between emotion and behavior. If you can sufficiently tap into someone’s strong emotions, you can then use those to distort their perceptions and beliefs, and thus alter their subjective reality. Once you… Read More →
People Want to Be “Discovered” So Promise To Make Your Prospect Into A Star
“We’re the country of movie stars because the stars, like ourselves, represent a kind of extended infantilism, beauties waiting for the big chance.” – Jerome Charyn, Born May 13, 1937. This is real similar to how Steinbeck said no one considers themselves poor. We all fancy ourselves as temporarily dispossessed millionaires. But this is a… Read More →
Metaphors Make Manipulation Manageable
“The metaphor is perhaps one of man’s most fruitful potentialities. Its efficacy verges on magic, and it seems a tool for creation which God forgot inside one of His creatures when He made him.” – Jose Ortega y Gasset, Born May 9, 1883. Persuasive writers are basically in the business of manipulating minds through metaphor…. Read More →
Write From a Place of Emotional Truth, and Transfer That Emotion to Your Reader
“Never write anything that does not give you great pleasure. Emotion is easily transferred from the writer to the reader.” – Joseph Joubert, Born May 7, 1754. Maybe Joe here was only intending to write things that gave people pleasure. In which case, I would agree with the first part of his statement. But is… Read More →
Failure and Bad Feelings Can Be Burned as Fuel – and They Produce Powerful Work
“I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues.” – Edward “Duke” Ellington, Born Apr. 29, 1899. Hey, guess what? Everyone has problems. Big whoop. What do you do about your problems? Take them? Endure them? Or do you put them to work? As motivation. As fuel. If you’re not yet… Read More →
Escapism Motivates: Where Will You Go When You Get Away From Here?
“All the best stories are but one story in reality – the story of escape. It is the only thing which interests us all and at all times, how to escape.” – A. C. Benson, Born Apr. 24, 1862. We tell stories. Stories about the reader. Stories they haven’t heard about themselves yet. The ending… Read More →
Programming Imaginations With Impossible Imagery is the New Black
“If I could find anything blacker than black, I’d use it.” – J. M. W. Turner, Born Apr. 23, 1775. This one isn’t about the content of the quote, but more about the implications of it. Turner couldn’t find paint that was any blacker than the paints he used. He could never actually accurately show… Read More →
Repetition is the Mission… Repetition is the Mission… Repetition is the Mission…
“A lie told often enough becomes the truth.” – Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin), Born Apr. 22, 1870. This is a statement that sounds sinister because of how specific it is. If you make it as general as it is in reality, it’s not so evil-seeming. Anything repeated often enough will eventually be believed, not just… Read More →
The Art of Sinking Your Persuasive Fishhook Right in Your Prospect’s Face
“For to tempt and to be tempted are things very nearly allied – whenever feeling has anything to do in the matter, no sooner is it excited than we have already gone vastly farther than we are aware of.” – Yekaterina Alexeyevna, Born Apr. 21, 1729. If persuasion is a fishing pole, emotion is the… Read More →
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