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CIA Spy: The Psychological Skill 99% of People Don’t Have

Andrew Bustamante21:4583,311 views2026-03-02
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So, what are some of the top

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skills that you think you learned

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working for the CIA that you can then

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apply to like real civilian life or the

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world?

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>> Yeah, there there are a lot of skills

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that you learn at CIA, but the ones that

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are the most applicable really have to

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do with understanding and predicting and

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directing human behavior. Mhm.

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>> Human beings aren't really that

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difficult to understand and they're not

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that difficult to predict which makes

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them not that difficult to control or

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direct. And those were the most useful

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skills that we learned at CIA.

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>> Give me an example.

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>> So, um, let me give a very funny

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example, right? I do this exper I do

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this often times with people. We are

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conditioned to make certain body

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movements just based off of what we

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encounter, right? So, when we first met,

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I extended my hand.

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>> Yeah.

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which even now, you know, I'm not trying

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to shake your hand, but you still feel

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the need to put your hand out.

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>> Yeah,

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>> that's predictable directing human

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behavior, right? With personal bubbles,

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I can literally move you. If we're

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standing next to each other, I can

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literally move you someplace where I

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want you to go just by invading your

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personal bubble. I know that if I

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silently stand too close to you, you

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will move away. And people do this all

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the time. People do it in lines. They do

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it in elevators. What CIA does is

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teaches you how to do it intentionally

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with operational utility to achieve a

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certain outcome that you want. The same

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thing is true when it comes to getting

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someone to speak. You can get someone to

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speak when they don't want to speak. You

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can get someone to say things they don't

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realize they're saying by using tools of

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elicitation. Just as a real quick

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example, I'm going to stop talking. Just

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kind of count to yourself how many

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seconds go by before you start to feel

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like you need to say something because

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the silence is so awkward.

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I mean I mean yeah like I I would go I

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wouldn't even that was awkward even

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though I knew you were doing it on

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purpose. It's still awkward.

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>> It's still awkward. So that can force

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you to get someone else to speak. I was

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counting in my own head. It was about 2

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and 1/2 seconds before I could see the

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muscles on your face start to tighten

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into a smile where you're like I could

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tell you felt awkward.

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>> Yeah.

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>> This I mean these skills are

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rudimentary. What we're going through

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right now are just simple things that

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that we can demonstrate right now. If I

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started playing the national anthem, you

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know what you would do?

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>> What?

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>> Stand up,

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>> right? Cuz that's just what happens when

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when you play the national anthem. When

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we say when we say uh you know, put your

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hand over your heart, people do. Take

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off your hat. People do. You don't even

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have to know why. If if someone just

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walks up to a man and says, "Sir, can

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you please remove your hat?" You know

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what that man is going to do?

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>> Remove his hat. Not even knowing why,

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but just because we've been conditioned

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to believe that there's some reason that

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we should obey the direction of somebody

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else. When a stranger tells us to do

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something, we feel like we need to do

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it. There are behaviors worldwide that

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fit these kinds of predetermined

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outcomes.

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the the personal bubble in Europe is

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very much smaller than the personal

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bubble in the US, but they're still a

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personal bubble. Different national

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anthems in different countries, but they

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still have the same reaction. People

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still stand up, they stop talking, they

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show a moment of silence.

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They turn towards a flag. So, these are

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the kind of um indicators that we're

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taught to look for and in in very basic

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terms because they go on and on. They go

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through, you know, eye movements, facial

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movements, how you touch your face.

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There's all sorts of skills that you can

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see whether or not you're driving a

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behavior.

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>> So that's so interesting to me. So like

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what did you call it when you can move

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someone like by doing that?

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>> Directing human behavior.

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>> No, no, but you're saying like putting

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your hand out for example, knowing that

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I was going to do the same thing. What

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is that called? Yeah, we're we're

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predicting and directing human behavior

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because I I know that culturally this is

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going to be meaningful to you.

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>> So then do you have are you always like

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a few steps ahead of anybody when you

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want them to do something? Like are you

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very you know it you you already know

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what three what's going to happen? Like

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do you have a plan? Like if you want

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this person to do that thing, I need to

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do A, B, and C to get them there.

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>> When there's an outcome I'm trying to

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achieve. Yes.

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>> But let's play this game. So, like let's

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say I was a girl that you wanted to go

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out with or vice versa. What would be

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your plan of attack? What would you do?

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>> What's the situation? What's the

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scenario? Where where are we at? How did

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we meet? Kind of give Can you give me

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some context?

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>> Oh gosh. Um

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>> yeah,

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>> like if if this is let's just say it's

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the real thing. Let's say you're the

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girl that I want you to go I want you to

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go out with me and we're in this

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situation that we're in right now. Okay.

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Right. Then I would I would most likely

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tell you that when I was with Tom and

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Lisa, Lisa's making a home-cooked

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dinner. She's making dinner tonight and

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I have to be back at their house at 6:00

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and they wanted me to invite you to come

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along cuz they haven't seen you in a

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long time.

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>> Okay, how would that make me Okay, so

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I'd be like, "Oh, that's so nice.

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>> Do you want to come with me?" Cuz Lisa

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is making dinner and she asked you to be

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there. If you haven't discovered your

5:06

natural-born spy skills, then somebody

5:08

else might be using theirs against you.

5:11

CIA teaches us that there are only three

5:13

types of people in the world. Those who

5:15

motivate, those who manipulate, and

5:17

those who are being controlled by one of

5:19

the other two. I created a threeinut CIA

5:22

style quiz to help you unlock your

5:25

secret psychological advantage and

5:27

identify your hidden blind spot. This

5:30

test was developed to help you weaponize

5:31

your naturalb born gifts and use them to

5:34

get ahead of 99% of people in power,

5:37

wealth, and purpose. It was also

5:38

designed to make sure that you can

5:40

protect yourself against those who would

5:41

use their skills against you. All you

5:43

have to do is click on the first link in

5:45

the description below or scan the QR

5:47

code on your screen to start your spy

5:49

quiz now. I want you to discover your

5:51

secret spy superpower and use it for

5:53

good before somebody else uses their

5:55

power against you.

5:57

>> Okay, that's yes.

5:58

>> Do you want to come with me?

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>> Sure.

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>> And that's how I would get you to move

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from this situation to come out with me.

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>> But what if it wasn't the case? What if

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it wasn't?

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>> None of that is real.

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Okay, fine. So, if it's not real and

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then I say yes, then what happens?

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>> So, if it's not So, I'm getting you to

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come with me for something that isn't

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real. Right.

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>> Right. So, now when I come to pick you

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up,

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>> I'll be like, "Well, Tom, I just got a

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phone call from Tom. They're not feeling

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well.

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>> Lisa canled,

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>> but we're still together." And uh I know

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that this is your neighborhood. Do you

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have a good restaurant nearby that you

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would recommend?

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>> Right. So, you you you would do a setup.

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>> Yeah. It's called a bait and switch.

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>> A bait and switch. That's a nor that's a

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good one. Okay. How would someone then

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if someone wants to land a job, how

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would they like get the person or

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actually let me start? Let me let me

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instead of giving you scenarios like I

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do a lot of these things on like how to

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be likable and how to be um how you know

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how to how to develop your people

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skills, let's say, right? How what would

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be your number one way to get somebody

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to like you? You want them to feel

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comfortable around you, which really

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means you want them to see themsel in

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you. So, you want to mirror back to them

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their behaviors, their language, their

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vocabulary, their tonality, their

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non-verbal and verbal communication,

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their values. And

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>> so, you're mirroring them.

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>> Correct. That's what the term that we

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use is mirroring as well. When you

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mirror somebody, it's irresistible

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subconsciously. They can't ignore the

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fact that they feel comfortable around

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you because you are acting like they are

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acting.

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>> So you you're so if I'm talking you'll

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match my tone and your vocabulary, your

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pacing, your volume.

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>> So when Okay. So then how about this?

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Okay. So what is it? Because I see I've

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seen that you've spoken about this. What

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is the difference between being

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persuasive and being influential?

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Persuasion and influence are two tools

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that often get misunderstood or they get

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uh they get misidentified as being one

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and the same, right? Persuasion, as

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we're taught at CIA, persuasion is

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emotional, which means it can only

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happen when you're with a person because

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that's the only time that you can make

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the emotional connection to bond with

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them. So, when I say you have to be with

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a person, that doesn't mean you

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physically have to be with them. It

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means that they have to be perceptive or

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they have to perceive that they are with

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you. So whenever you make a Tik Tok

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video for example, whoever watches that

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Tik Tok video to them in their

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perception they are in that moment with

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you even though you are not in that

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moment with them. Make sense?

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>> So persuasion has to happen in a moment

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where there's a connection between two

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people because persuasion is based in

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emotion. Influence is what happens when

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you are not connected to a person. You

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are not physically there. You are not

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represented. There's no perception of

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your presence, but they're still

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thinking about you. Something you said,

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something you suggested, something you

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did, something you recommended. That's

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influence. So, persuasion is how you

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start because you have a moment to build

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someone's emotion, their emotional

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connection, their emotional um momentum.

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And then when you disappear and they

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think of you anyways, that's influence.

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And the reason both of these are so

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powerful is because over time your

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target, your target being the person who

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watches your videos and the person who

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thinks about you when they're not

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watching your videos, the human brain

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calculates, it tabulates every second

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that it's thinking about you. Whether

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it's with you in a video or whether it's

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thinking about you on the toilet, your

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brain can't differentiate the difference

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between those two moments and the

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moments when we're actually sitting

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together. Your brain sees it as all the

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same thing. So, for example, you've

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known about me for multiple years. It

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sounds like

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>> two years probably. Yeah. You feel

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like there's a relationship with me

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that's different than the relationship I

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feel with you because you've had so much

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more exposure to me. And your brain has

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literally tabulated

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>> all of those moments and bits and bites

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and seconds and and fractions of time.

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It's put all that together to basically

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say, "Hey, you know this guy. He's

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familiar to you. You know what he's

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about. You know what he believes in. You

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guys are friends. You're going to get

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along." You your brain is telling your

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subconscious that already. Even though

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there really isn't any proof that it's

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true.

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>> 100%. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's true.

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Although I don't feel like we're

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friends, but I do feel like a

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familiarity that you wouldn't feel cuz

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you've never seen me before. You have no

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idea who I am. You're probably like,

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"Who is this girl? I'm at like sitting

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in her podcast studio." You know what I

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mean? Like you just kind of can't. This

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is like one of 50,000 podcast you've

10:43

probably done. Me, I'm like, "Oh my god,

10:45

I'm so excited to have him. I love his

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content." Right. Well, it's and it's not

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necessarily something that I want to um

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I don't want to personally offend

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obviously.

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>> Trust me, you're not personally

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offending me at all. It takes way more

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than that, honey, to personally offend

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me. But but this is the tool.

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>> No, I know. That's what I'm saying. Like

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that's that's I'm actually taking it as

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like the information.

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>> So, think about everybody who's read a

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book, right? Your favorite author. You

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feel like you know that person. You that

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the whole idea of celebrity

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>> is really just this concept on a massive

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scale. That's why we feel like we have a

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bond with our favorite actors or our

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favorite actresses. It's why we feel

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like we understand our favorite

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journalists. It's why we feel like we

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understand our favorite painters because

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>> we've spent so much time

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>> reflecting on them. That's influence

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that they've been able to put out there.

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Think about the influence of Vincent Van

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Gogh or the influence of, you know, the

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the uh any member of the Beatles.

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>> I understand what you mean. I guess my

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question was more about did your time at

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the CIA teach you how to be more

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persuasive? Like what are some of the

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tactile like tactile or actionable

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things that you cuz you now you have a

11:54

company, right? It's called Everyday Spy

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where you take these things that you've

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honed and learned and you apply them to

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everyday civilian life for people.

12:04

Correct.

12:04

>> Correct. So, what are some of these

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really important skills that could be

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very helpful and beneficial for people?

12:11

>> Well, persuasion is a great place to

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start. Um, because let's just assume

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that somebody already knows that

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influence and persuasion are not the

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same thing. And let's go ahead and also

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assume that they already knew that

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persuasion was tied to emotion. So,

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those are two big steps because the

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average person doesn't really understand

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that. But, let's just go ahead and start

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there. So, how do you teach someone the

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technical steps of persuasion

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once they understand that persuasion is

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based in emotion? Right? You have to

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start teaching them how to identify

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emotional levers in their target. So,

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you're you are kind of my guinea pig

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right now, right?

12:49

>> Mhm.

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>> So, when I when I look at you, I don't

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know what your emotional state is right

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now. I don't know if you're angry, if

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you're sad, if you're anxious, if you're

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worried. I don't know what you value. I

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don't know much about really anything

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except that there's a newspaper or

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there's a magazine on the wall that says

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that that's by the Jewish Journal and

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you made a comment earlier about being

13:12

Israeli. So that tells me that there's

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probably a connection between you and

13:16

the Jewish faith or the Israeli

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nationality or at least the Jewish

13:21

plight. So there's something there's

13:23

something there. From there, I can start

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exploring topics that are likely to

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trigger emotions. I can start talking

13:31

about uh anti-semitism. I can start

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talking about support for the

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Palestinian people. I can talk about

13:38

injustices that are happening in Gaza

13:40

right now. I can talk about injustices

13:42

that are happening in the UN when they

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try to out uh Israeli leadership. I know

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that you've you've already admitted that

13:48

you've had a meeting with leadership in

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Israel. I could assume that that if

13:53

that's not Netanyahu, it's somebody else

13:55

close to Netanyahu's circle, which is a

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chance for me to start talking about

13:58

Netanyahu's corruption charges and the

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fact that his own people are turning

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against him. These are likely to be

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points that will trigger some kind of

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emotional response. As long as I'm the

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one talking though, I won't know what

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emotions are being stirred up.

14:12

>> So, I need to make a statement,

14:16

>> kind of pry into an emotional topic, and

14:19

then wait for a response. That's the

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only way I'm going to get the feedback

14:23

to understand what is actually pushing

14:25

levers and whether those are feelings of

14:28

anger or remorse or sadness or something

14:31

else.

14:32

>> Right? So, you're able to pick up clues

14:34

basically.

14:35

>> They're you have

14:36

>> well they're very overt clues but yeah

14:38

>> so to you they feel like they're overt

14:42

to the average person. They may not they

14:44

may not even think to pull topics from

14:46

previous conversation and topics from

14:48

around the room. Right? That's an

14:49

assessment tool.

14:51

>> Um I'm And that only works cuz I'm in

14:53

your space. If we were meeting at a

14:55

coffee shop down the street, I wouldn't

14:57

have these to pull from.

14:58

>> So how would you do it?

14:58

>> You'd have to pull it a different way.

15:00

>> How?

15:01

>> A lot of it ties back to how you ask

15:03

questions and the types of questions

15:04

that you ask, right? You there's two

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types of questions. There's open-ended

15:09

questions and close-ended questions. If

15:11

you ask open-ended questions, those are

15:13

questions that don't have a simple

15:14

answer. So, how are you? That's a

15:18

close-ended question. Are you happy?

15:20

Close-ended question. Are you hot in

15:21

this room? Close-ended question. But,

15:24

you know, how did you feel when you woke

15:26

up this morning? That's a more

15:27

open-ended question,

15:29

>> right? Um, what made you choose this

15:31

coffee shop for us today? That's a more

15:33

open-ended question. These are questions

15:35

that will lead to more conversation.

15:37

>> And that is what gives you the

15:39

foundation to start probing. And then as

15:42

you start probing, you can start looking

15:43

for emotional responses. So, is that

15:46

something that you teach people how to

15:48

be more persuasive? Correct.

15:49

>> What's another thing that you teach a

15:52

lot of that people that come to you?

15:54

What's the number one thing that people

15:56

actually ask you to help them with?

15:58

>> People come to us because they are good

15:59

people who have been taken advantage of.

16:01

That's the vast majority of who comes to

16:03

us. I actually just got off a call

16:05

yesterday with a guy who built a $7

16:07

million business and was then forced out

16:10

of his own business by two partners that

16:13

he brought on 10 years ago because they

16:16

were struggling friends of his. And over

16:19

the over the last 10 years, they kind of

16:21

they they worked against him. They used

16:23

his his kindness and they used his um

16:28

faithfulness and they used his loyalty

16:30

kind of against him and they took his

16:31

business and now he's got $6,000 in the

16:34

bank and a family of four and nothing to

16:36

show for it. Um and he's like, "How did

16:39

I get to the and he's 50 years old and

16:41

he comes to me and he's like, I don't

16:43

know how I got here and I don't know how

16:45

to fix it." And of course he comes to me

16:47

because he's like, I think what I want

16:48

to do is run a public smear campaign

16:50

against them to try to get my company

16:52

back. And it's and then you have to have

16:54

that hard conversation where you explain

16:57

good people are going to be good people

16:59

their whole lives. Like you can't you

17:01

can't be good for 50 years and then

17:04

break bad and then turn into a bad guy.

17:07

M

17:07

>> so I had to explain to him like you're

17:09

you're better off starting all over

17:11

again because you know how to build a

17:13

company than trying to become a bad guy

17:16

and and coers these people into somehow

17:19

giving you back your business. It's

17:20

never going to work. And that is really

17:22

what we deal with. We deal the most with

17:24

very very wealthy people who have been

17:27

taken advantage of and who who

17:29

understand that they are either a poor

17:31

judge of character or they have some

17:33

sort of gap in their knowledge when it

17:35

comes to dealing with unscrupulous

17:38

people.

17:40

People who have been embezzled against,

17:42

people who have been cheated on, um

17:44

people who've been robbed by loved ones.

17:46

That's that's the vast majority of what

17:48

we really do see from from individuals

17:50

asking for our consulting. And then

17:52

you're teaching them exactly what

17:54

though, like if they come to you, not

17:56

that guy, but another guy, like how to

17:59

what

18:00

>> how to identify when you're being

18:01

misled, how to identify misinformation,

18:04

disinformation, how to

18:05

>> how do you identify misinformation?

18:08

>> It's all the same tools that we've been

18:09

talking about, right? You have to

18:10

understand how to assess, how to use

18:14

certain questioning types.

18:15

>> So you, like you said, it's not it's

18:17

like how you ask like the questions you

18:19

ask, how you ask them. I mean, for for

18:22

the purposes of a podcast interview,

18:24

that's pretty much as deep as I can go.

18:26

>> But with a client, I can actually go

18:28

through the specific strategies. Here is

18:31

a type of question that we can ask.

18:32

Here's seven varieties of that question.

18:35

Here are the seven different kinds of

18:37

responses you'll get from those seven

18:38

different kinds of questions. We can

18:39

give them a

18:40

>> get more deep depending on the scenario.

18:43

>> Correct? Because you have time, right?

18:45

The CIA teaches us there's only three

18:48

resources that matter. time, energy, and

18:52

money. That's it. Everything else out

18:54

there is an irrelevant resource. It it

18:57

bundles up into either time, energy, or

19:00

money. Just because you have money

19:03

doesn't mean you can make a change

19:05

because if you don't have enough energy

19:06

or enough time, the money doesn't help

19:08

you. You can have all the time in the

19:10

world and if you don't have enough

19:12

money, you can't affect the change,

19:14

>> right? So, you need to have all three

19:16

resources. So when I when I work with

19:19

clients, that's a lot of times where we

19:21

start from is, hey, these are the three

19:22

resources you have. Which of these

19:24

resources do you have in abundance,

19:27

which of these resources do you have the

19:28

least amount of? And oftentimes what we

19:31

find is people have either a great deal

19:34

of time and no money or a great deal of

19:36

money and very little time. That helps

19:39

us adjust how we will train them, right?

19:41

People who have a great deal of money

19:43

and not a lot of time, we will put them

19:45

into a very concentrated training. And

19:47

vice versa, people who have more time

19:48

than money, they'll go into digital

19:50

training.

19:51

>> So, how about what's you what would you

19:53

say would be the number one skill or the

19:55

number one thing people should do to

19:57

change the outcome of what they want to

19:59

change

20:00

>> when the reason I struggle with this is

20:02

because I would argue that most people

20:04

don't know what outcome they want.

20:06

>> I would argue that most people think

20:08

they want something, but they haven't

20:09

thought it through. So, they don't

20:10

really know.

20:11

And when you tell them to take certain

20:13

actions,

20:14

>> they'll take the action, they'll start

20:15

to see progress, and then they might

20:17

realize, well, that's not really what I

20:18

wanted in the first place. So now I've

20:20

got to kind of

20:21

>> right,

20:21

>> I've got to go back and change myself.

20:23

So what I often try to tell people first

20:25

is that

20:27

whatever you think you want, there's a

20:29

good chance that you're not self-aware

20:31

enough to even identify correctly the

20:34

outcome that you desire. You're still

20:37

living in some some echo chamber of what

20:41

you were taught, of what you were

20:42

conditioned to believe that you need to

20:44

be. Do you actually need to be happily

20:46

married? Or is that just something that

20:48

you believe because your mom and your

20:49

grandmother told you that? Do you

20:51

actually believe that you need to have

20:52

kids? Do you believe that you need to be

20:53

a mom or do you actually want to be a

20:56

mom? I'll tell you this, I've had so

20:58

many female clients and they did not

21:02

ever actually want to be mothers.

21:04

They're mothers now and they're very

21:07

good mothers and they're loving mothers

21:08

and they're dedicated mothers,

21:10

>> right?

21:10

>> But they didn't make that choice on

21:13

their own before.

21:14

>> Well, you Yeah, because you said

21:16

something earlier that's so accurate, I

21:18

think, is that so much of it, a lot of

21:21

how we live our lives is because we're

21:23

programmed to live our lives that way.