“A man always has two reasons for doing anything: a good reason and the real reason.” – J. P. Morgan, Born Apr. 17, 1837. Morgan was talking about parsing the reasoning behind the market moves his competition were making. But we are going to approach it backwards. If you want to persuade and influence people… Read More →
How to “Inception” Your Ideas Into Other People’s Brains – With Only a Pencil and Paper…
“A strong emotion, especially if experienced for the first time, leaves a vivid memory of the scene where it occurred.” – Algernon Blackwood, Born Mar. 14, 1869. You ever see that movie “Inception” where that team of mental mercenaries implants an idea into someone’s memory, so that they mistake it for their own? I can… Read More →
Don’t Lie to Yourself – Deception is What Fuels All Persuasion
“THE ONLY WAY YOU CAN CONTROL PEOPLE IS TO LIE TO THEM. You can write that down in your book in great big letters. The only way you can control anybody is to lie to them.” – Lafayette Ronald Hubbard, Born Mar. 13, 1911. Get out the Preparation H because every time his topic comes… Read More →
The Cure for Boredom and Being Boring: How to Be Interesting All the Time
“The greatest sin for a writer is to be boring.” – Carl Hiaasen, Born Mar. 12, 1953. If you can manage to keep yourself free of this sin, the world can be yours. It doesn’t matter if you’re not so convincing, or so poetic, or so informative. Your readers will forgive you for that. Just… Read More →
The Crystal Ball Says… Success Is Just Around the Corner, So Grab That Pistol and Follow Me.
“Most successful pundits are selected for being opinionated, because it’s interesting, and the penalties for incorrect predictions are negligible. You can make predictions, and a year later people won’t remember them.” – Daniel Kahneman, Born Mar. 5, 1934. Gurus need to make a lot of predictions. That’s really why people follow us at all. People… Read More →
How to Mentally Enslave People With One Stupid Trick – It’s Irresistible! Lol, Sorta.
“Gifts make slaves.” – Levi Strauss, Born Feb. 26, 1829. Cialdini stated this in a less harsh way. He calls it the Law of Reciprocity. When you receive a distinct item of value from someone else, you are compelled to grant them something in return. We feel that we owe them. That we are indebted… Read More →
You Have to Feel Bad Before I Can Help You Feel Good. You Have to Be Bored Before I Can Catch Your Eye.
“The two enemies of human happiness are pain and boredom.” – Arthur Schopenhauer, Born Feb. 22, 1788. It may seem like a shitty thing, to sit around plotting ways to make people unhappy with their current existence. But that is what we do for a living. We don’t describe products and services. That’s bitch work…. Read More →
Only Two Things Have Potentially Infinite Value: Art, and Information… (And Art IS a Kind of Information)
“The price of a work of art has nothing to do with what the work of art is, can do, or is worth on an existential, alchemical level.” – Jerry Saltz, Born Feb. 19, 1951. Information is like art in this way, at least when it’s for sale. For example, imagine a piece of information… Read More →
Good Advertising Consists of Desirable Lies People Prefer to Hear (Because the Truth Sucks the Glaze Off a Donut Sometimes)
“Sometimes you have to lie. One often has to distort a thing to catch its true spirit.” – Robert J. Flaherty, Born Feb. 16, 1884. Consider a poem, which often describes reality with a refined and elegant metaphor – one that reveals a deep but unobservable truth about a given thing. But despite the bard’s… Read More →
Lie Like a Magician, and Make the Audience Work the Magic For You
“When a magician lets you notice something on your own, his lie becomes impenetrable.” – Raymond Teller, Born Feb, 14, 1948. A lot of people think persuasive writing is about what you say to people. Your words push their buttons and they act. But a lot of times, it’s what you DON’T come right out… Read More →