The Dark Playbook Behind Success (Mind Control & Propaganda)

        # The Psychology of Mass Movements, Marketing & Success

*Lessons from Bernays, Napoleon Hill, Dan Kennedy, and the Legends of Direct Response*

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## Topics & Main Speaking Points

### 1. Edward Bernays & The Psychology of Mass Movements
- Sigmund Freud discovered the subconscious mind for psychology
- His nephew Edward Bernays applied these concepts to marketing and mass movements
- Bernays' first campaign was selling World War I to America — through emotion, not logic
- Before Bernays, people bought what they needed; after, marketers created wants and desires
- This is the foundation of "subconscious selling"

### 2. Identity-Based Marketing
- People don't buy products — they buy identity
- Attach your product to an identity your customers want to become
- ClickFunnels example: Created the "Funnel Hacker" identity
- Bernays case study: Got women to smoke by making cigarettes a "torch of independence"
- Giving people shirts, stickers, symbols = putting on their "superhero cape"

### 3. The Power of a Common Enemy
- Eric Hoffer: "Hatred is the most accessible and comprehensive of all unifying agents"
- "Mass movements can rise without a belief in God, but never without a belief in a devil"
- Every great movement has an "us vs. them" dynamic
- Examples: Apple vs. IBM, Pepsi vs. Coke, Democrats vs. Republicans
- ClickFunnels enemies evolved: websites → LeadPages → Infusionsoft → venture capitalists → drifters

### 4. Orson Swett Marden & Success Magazine
- Discovered Samuel Smiles' "Self-Help" book and spent 15 years writing his own manuscript
- Hotel burned down, destroying his 5,000-page manuscript
- Instead of quitting, he bought a 25-cent notebook and rewrote from memory
- Published "Pushing to the Front" — became the #1 bestselling personal development book
- Launched Success Magazine in December 1897
- Magazine failed in 1911-1912, headlines read "Success Fails"
- Came back in 1918 and built it bigger than before by 1924
- Lesson: Winners keep going through cycles

### 5. Napoleon Hill's "Outwitting the Devil"
- Written right after "Think and Grow Rich" but never published in his lifetime
- Too controversial — discusses religion, school, and societal control
- The devil's main tool: Getting people to become "drifters"
- Drifters vs. Non-Drifters: 98% of people drift, only 2% have definite purpose
- "Hypnotic rhythm" — patterns that keep people stuck (phones, social media, addictions)
- You can be driven in one area of life but drifting in others

### 6. Offer Types: Repair vs. Improvement vs. New Opportunity
- **Repair**: Fix what's broken (early entrepreneurship)
- **Improvement**: Build a better mousetrap (anything with "er" — faster, better, smarter)
- **New Opportunity**: Change the entire paradigm (best option)
- ClickFunnels wasn't positioned as "better email marketing" — it was a NEW thing called a "sales funnel"
- Steve Jobs mastered this: iPod wasn't a better CD player, iPhone wasn't a better phone
- New opportunity will outconvert improvement offers every time

### 7. The Value Ladder
- Price increases as value increases
- Can't sell the expensive thing first — must provide value at lower levels first
- Like dating: You don't propose on the first date
- Each level builds trust for the next level

### 8. Showmanship in Business (4-Part Framework)
1. **Attract** — Grab attention (the hook)
2. **Emphasize** — Make it memorable (Walter Chrysler had elephants stand on cars)
3. **Emotionalize** — Create feeling (people buy feelings, not facts)
4. **Action** — Clear call to action

### 9. Corey Rudl & Direct Response Marketing
- Pioneer of internet marketing, died at 32 in a racing accident
- Took Dan Kennedy's direct response principles and applied them online
- The big secret: Build an email list
- $1 per month per subscriber on your list
- 30,000 subscribers = $30K/month = financial freedom
- Direct response vs. branding: Track every dollar, build lists

### 10. Ego, Humility & Cycling
- Carnegie: "No man achieves any great things unless in his private thoughts he believes he is superior to all other men"
- Need ego/confidence to lead, but must stay humble externally
- "Cycling" = failing and coming back (every great entrepreneur cycles)
- When you succeed, give credit to your team; when you fail, take responsibility yourself
- First success often leads to "drinking your own Kool-Aid" — then you cycle

### 11. Elmer Wheeler's Sizzlemanship (6 Selling Principles)
1. People buy through emotion, not logic
2. Sell the sizzle, not the steak (destination, not process)
3. Use clear, simple language (third-grade level)
4. Use "kind of like" bridges for complex concepts
5. Engage the senses and imagination
6. Create vivid visions of life after purchase

### 12. The Subconscious Mind & Creativity
- Your conscious mind only works through 5 senses
- Subconscious mind brings ideas when you disengage
- Henry Ford walked back and forth instead of sitting at a desk
- The "6-hour workday" — last 2 hours for thinking, not working
- Subconscious beliefs act like a thermostat — they snap you back to your "set point"
- To break through, you must change your subconscious beliefs

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## Rewritten Script (First Person)

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### The Man Who Weaponized Psychology for Marketing

Sigmund Freud discovered the subconscious mind — or what he called the unconscious mind — and he used these concepts in psychology to help patients overcome what was holding them back in life.

Nobody thought to use this stuff for business or marketing.

Then his nephew, Edward Bernays, started listening to Freud talk about all this, and something clicked. Freud was using it clinically — here's how you help patients, here's how you fix their limiting beliefs. But Bernays thought: I could use these principles to create mass movements. I could get people in the masses to move and change everything.

So he took Freud's concepts and brought them to America. Freud was actually furious about it — he thought these tools shouldn't be used for marketing and sales. But Bernays saw the vision.

His first major campaign was World War I.

Nobody wanted to fight in that war. And normally, when people sold something, they would sell features and benefits. Here's why the war is good. Here's why we're going to win. They tried to sell it logically.

Bernays said no. People don't make decisions logically. They make them emotionally.

So he started creating stories to emotionally get people to buy into the war. Within a year, he had all of America believing in it. And it was all because he influenced their feelings.

Before Bernays, especially in early America, people bought what they needed. I need a new shovel. My toilet broke. I'll buy that thing. Bernays came in and said: If we play off people's desires, we can create wants. We can put desires in people's hearts, and then get them to buy what they want — not just what they need.

This is incredibly relevant today. When I'm selling from stage, or in a webinar, or during a challenge — I'm not selling what people need. They don't need a funnel. They don't need my software. I create desire. And that desire is what actually sells them.

It's tapping into their subconscious beliefs and desires. That's how you get people to move.

I have an entire event built around this concept called Subconscious Selling. It's all based on these same principles Bernays figured out. Freud used them for clinical psychology. Bernays used them for mass control. And now we use them for challenges, events, webinars, video sales letters — everything we do in online marketing today.

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### Why People Buy Identity, Not Products

One of Bernays' principles that changed everything for me: People don't buy products. They buy identity.

You take a product and attach it to an identity — that's the key.

Here's a practical example. When we built ClickFunnels, it was software. Just a product. People aren't typically passionate about software. So I knew I couldn't just sell the product. I needed to attach it to an identity.

What's the identity of the person who will use this software?

We created something called the "Funnel Hacker." This is what funnel hackers do. This is what they believe. This is how they show up. These aren't people trying to get rich quick — they're people trying to change the world.

We created the identity first, then attached the product to it.

Bernays has a brilliant case study in his book Propaganda where he did the same thing with the cigarette industry. After World War I, a tobacco company hired him. They said: We saw what you did getting everyone excited about the war. Can you do that for smoking?

At the time, men smoked, but women did not. It wasn't done.

Bernays went back to Freud's principles. He had to create a new identity for women. So he organized this dramatic demonstration with news cameras everywhere. Beautiful women came out, all smoking cigarettes, and called them "torches of freedom" — symbols of independence and liberation.

It wasn't about the cigarette. It was about the identity.

The tobacco companies had tried everything to get women to smoke. They changed the colors of the packaging. Nothing worked. But when Bernays created an identity that women wanted to become and attached the cigarette to it — people moved in masses.

Attaching identity to product. Such a simple concept. Such a powerful one. It's been huge for everything I've built.

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### The Superhero Cape Effect

When I spoke at Grant Cardone's 10X event, there were 9,000 people in the room. Most of them had never heard of me. I wasn't the famous guy — I was just there to sell.

I had 10 minutes at the start of my presentation to create an identity. To create something people could attach to.

So we handed out packets to all 9,000 people in the audience before I went on stage. Each packet had a big sticker that said "Don't open until Russell Brunson comes on stage."

I came on stage, opened my packet, and inside was a pen, an order form, some notes — and a sticker that said "Funnel Hacker."

I explained what a funnel hacker was. This is what funnel hackers believe. This is how they operate. Then I asked: Does this sound like you?

Everyone said yes.

I said: Congratulations. You're all officially funnel hackers now. Welcome to our community. Put this sticker on your laptop or your phone case.

Instantly, I went from being a stranger on stage to someone who just welcomed them into a tribe.

I showed case studies of other funnel hackers — people they could relate to, people they wanted to become. They saw themselves in those stories. And then I gave them the identity. The sticker. The symbol.

When someone joins our ClickFunnels community, we give them a funnel hacker t-shirt. We've been doing this for 10 years. I've seen people wearing them all around the world.

I showed this to Kaelin Poulin, who built the Lady Boss movement. She did the same thing — gave people shirts that say "I'm a Lady Boss." She told me: When people put it on, it's like putting on their superhero cape.

When she said that, it clicked for me. Taking on an identity — funnel hacker, lady boss, whatever it is — it's like putting on a superhero cape. You become something different. You have a new identity.

You're no longer just some random person. You identify with something bigger. And that brings people together.

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### Hatred: The Most Powerful Unifying Agent

I was reading Eric Hoffer's book The True Believer, and something jumped out that surprised me.

He talks about how to unify a movement. How to get people to come together. And he says the most powerful unifying agent is hatred.

Wait — hatred? I thought it would be a positive vision. A mission. Something inspiring.

No. The thing that unifies people the most is hatred.

He writes: "Hatred is the most accessible and comprehensive of all unifying agents." And then: "Mass movements can rise and spread without a belief in God, but never without the belief in a devil."

For you to create a mass movement, you have to create a common enemy. Us versus them. That's what separates a movement and gets people to actually follow you.

Look at any religion. There's always God and the devil. Two forces. And the way you get people to move toward God is by focusing on the hatred of the devil.

When I was researching Expert Secrets, I wanted non-religious examples so people wouldn't dismiss it. So I looked at Christ — who I believe was the greatest of all. He was very divisive. He said "I came with a sword to divide." He wasn't trying to make peace with everyone.

Then I looked at the opposite end — Hitler. Evil incarnate. But he used the same tactic. Common good, common enemy.

Same tactics. Very different purposes.

In business, look at Steve Jobs and Apple. Who were they fighting? IBM. The establishment. The man.

In politics, look at every election. Democrats and Republicans aren't saying "look how great our candidate is" — they're saying "look how terrible their candidate is." The entire messaging is focused on hatred. Because it's the greatest unifying agent we have.

For ClickFunnels, our "devil" shifted over time.

At first, we were trying to prove that funnels were even a thing. So the devil became websites. We did a whole "Death of the Website" campaign.

Later, we picked specific companies. I'm very competitive — it comes from my wrestling background. When I wanted to be state champion, I put my competitor's picture on my wall. I thought about beating him constantly.

So when ClickFunnels started getting traction, I looked at who was ahead of us. LeadPages had just raised $30-40 million in funding. They became our target.

Positioning psychology says number two always attacks number one. Pepsi always attacks Coke. Coke never acknowledges Pepsi exists.

So we went hard after LeadPages until we passed them. Then we stopped talking about them. They were dead to us.

Next target: Infusionsoft. Same thing. Attacked until we passed them. Then stopped.

Now, in my older age, I don't feel as comfortable going after specific companies. So we shifted to fighting ideas.

Venture capitalists versus bootstrappers. We became the bootstrappers — people who build real businesses without cheating by raising money. Venture capitalists became the common enemy.

After I read Napoleon Hill's Outwitting the Devil, he talks about how the devil tries to get people to become "drifters." So I did a whole presentation on being driven versus being a drifter. That became our new common enemy.

I've used this over and over in different areas. And the lesson is clear: You have more power to unify people when you focus on the devil than when you focus on the positive.

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### A Warning About These Powers

One caveat I always give people in my higher-end events: You can use these powers for good or for evil.

Throughout history, these principles have been used for both. And I think one of the biggest problems is that people don't know what they're doing. They get started, they apply these principles with a good heart, and then they start having success.

Fame is scary. You see people start succeeding, people start following them, and then they start drinking their own Kool-Aid. They start believing their own bios. That's when things shift. That's when big movements and big companies crash and burn.

I was lucky to learn this early. About 14-15 years ago, before ClickFunnels, I was building my first company. It was growing. And I got to a spot where I believed my own bio. I was drinking my own Kool-Aid. I thought I was something special.

That's when my entire company collapsed. Overnight. I had to fire almost 100 people in a day. We went from a huge office building to this tiny little space. We were scrambling just to stay alive.

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### The Story of Orson Swett Marden

Let me tell you about one of my favorite characters in history.

His name was Orson Swett Marden. He was a business owner, trying different things — buying hotels, starting businesses. Somewhere along the line, he found an old book in his attic called Self-Help by Samuel Smiles. It was the first personal development book ever written, from Europe.

He read it, and it changed his life. He got so excited that he started writing his own book. He spent 15 years working on this manuscript. When he was done, it was about 5,000 pages.

One night, the hotel where he stored the manuscript burned to the ground. Everything was gone.

Think about that. 15 years of work. Destroyed overnight.

What would most people do? Throw their hands up. Walk away. Done.

Instead, Orson walked to the convenience store, bought a 25-cent notebook, and started rewriting the book from memory. That night. In the ashes.

He eventually published it. The book was called Pushing to the Front. It became the number one bestselling personal development book of its time. Presidents read it. Thomas Edison read it. Henry Ford read it. All the great minds of that era were influenced by this book.

A couple years later, he had the idea for Success Magazine. In December 1897, the first issue went out. It wasn't just a book anymore — it was a magazine reaching people across the entire country.

By 1908, there were millions of people reading it. They moved into a 12-story building in downtown New York. Everything was happening.

Then in 1911, investors came in and changed things. They tried to make it more "businessy" instead of personal development. By 1912, the magazine failed completely.

And back then, there was no social media — but there were newspapers. Headlines everywhere: "SUCCESS FAILS."

Imagine that. You've been teaching success principles for 15 years. Your magazine fails publicly. Everyone's talking about it. Everyone's excited to announce that the success guy failed.

Most people would hide. Change industries. Disappear.

Not Orson. He said: This failed, but I'm not a failure.

For the next few years, he kept a few staff members and wrote books. He wrote 30-40 personal development books during this period, trying to figure out how to get the magazine back.

In 1918, during World War I, he found an investor willing to bring Success Magazine back. He bought it out of bankruptcy and relaunched it.

Over the next six years, he built it bigger than ever. By the time he died in 1924, more people were subscribed than at the previous peak.

That's what winners do. They don't stop. They cycle through failures and come back stronger.

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### Napoleon Hill's Secret Book

Napoleon Hill wrote Think and Grow Rich — that's the book everyone knows. But right after that, he wrote another book that he never published in his lifetime.

It's called Outwitting the Devil.

In this book, he has a conversation with the devil. The devil is like a witness on the stand, forced to answer questions truthfully. Napoleon asks: How do you control the hearts of men? What's holding people back from being successful?

It was so controversial that Hill was scared to publish it. The devil even warns him in the book: If you publish this, you'll be destroyed. Your career will be ruined.

He talks about religion. School. Societal systems. Things that were very controversial in the 1930s — and still are today.

His wife got the manuscript after he died. She read it and said: No way we can publish this. It'll ruin everything.

It went to the Napoleon Hill Foundation. Multiple CEOs said: Not publishing this.

Finally, one of them said: This might be the best thing he ever wrote. We should publish it.

They worked with Sharon Lechter to clean it up and make it relevant. And I recommend listening to the audiobook — you hear the devil and Napoleon Hill going back and forth. It's incredible.

The biggest concept in the book is what Hill calls "drifting."

The devil's number one tool is getting people to become drifters. He says there are two types of people: drifters and non-drifters. The devil controls 98% of the world — people he's convinced to drift. Only 2% have a definite purpose. They're driven. They're non-drifters.

Drifters don't think for themselves. They believe everything on the news. They don't do their own research. They let other people control their minds.

The devil uses what Hill calls "hypnotic rhythm" — patterns that keep you stuck. Think about grabbing your phone and swiping endlessly. You're in a hypnotic rhythm. You're drifting.

When I read this, I started looking at myself. I'm pretty driven in business. But in my health? I was completely drifting. Spirituality? Drifting in some areas. Family? Good here, not there.

It's not about classifying yourself as the 2%. It's about asking: Where am I driven? Where am I drifting?

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### Repair vs. Improvement vs. New Opportunity

Dan Kennedy taught me about three types of offers. This changed everything for how I position products.

**Repair** is the first level. Way back in the late 1800s and early 1900s, most entrepreneurs were in repair. Your car is broken? I'll fix it. Your dishwasher doesn't work? I'll repair it. That was the business model.

**Improvement** came next. This is what they teach in business school: Find a mousetrap and build a better mousetrap. Anytime you explain your offer with an "er" word — faster, better, smarter, cheaper — that's an improvement offer. Most businesses today are improvement offers.

**New Opportunity** is the third and best type. Instead of fixing what's broken or making something better, you change the entire paradigm.

Here's the difference using a car analogy:
- Repair: Your car is broken, I'll fix it
- Improvement: Your car is okay, but I have a better car
- New Opportunity: We don't drive anymore — I'm going to show you how to fly

When I launched ClickFunnels, I could have said: It's like Mailchimp but better. It's like Infusionsoft but faster. It's like LeadPages but with more features.

That would have been an improvement offer. I would have been stuck competing in an existing category with everyone else.

Instead, I created a new opportunity. Nobody was talking about "funnels" at the time. Yes, ClickFunnels has a CRM. A page builder. Email marketing. An affiliate platform. Better versions of all those things.

But we focused on the new opportunity: the sales funnel.

That's the thing we introduced to the world. Not a better way to grow a business — a completely new category.

Steve Jobs was the master of this. The iPod wasn't positioned as "you can fit 50 songs instead of 10." It was: CDs are dead. Here's a thousand songs in your pocket.

The iPhone wasn't a better phone. Everyone else does phone calls. We have the iPhone. New category.

When you create a new opportunity, you become a category of one. And a new opportunity will outconvert any improvement offer all day long.

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### The Value Ladder

Here's how the value ladder works.

On the left side is price. On the right side is value. As price goes up, value increases.

The thing you most want to sell — your most expensive, highest-value offer — is at the top. That's the dream thing. But you can't lead with it.

If I walked up to you on the street and said: "Hi, I'm Russell. I know I look like I'm 11 years old, but give me a million dollars and 20% of sales, and I'll build you a funnel" — you'd think I was crazy.

You haven't received any value from me yet. There's no trust.

So instead, you start at the bottom. Give people some value. If they enjoy it, they naturally want the next level. If they get value there, they want to move up again. Until eventually, that big offer at the top seems like a great opportunity.

It's the same in dating. When I met my wife, if I'd walked up and said "You're gorgeous, let's get married and have kids" — she would have run.

Instead, we go on a date. If she has a good time, she says yes to a second date. It progresses naturally. By the time I'm proposing, she's saying "Of course" — because I've provided value at every step.

That's the value ladder.

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### Showmanship in Business

There's an old book from 1936 called Showmanship in Business. It has a four-part framework that every successful business follows.

**Step 1: Attract.** You have to grab attention. I think about it like this: If I stood up on a chair in a food court full of 400 people and yelled something, would they stop and look? Would they be intrigued? Or would they ignore me and keep eating?

In the book, they share an example of a movie theater with candy that wasn't selling. They took a spotlight and shined it on that candy. Just a light. And suddenly everyone was curious — why are they highlighting this? That candy became the bestseller.

**Step 2: Emphasize.** After you get their attention, you have to make it memorable. Sear it into their brain.

Walter Chrysler brought elephants to step on top of his cars. If you see elephants standing on a car, you're never going to forget that. The message is burned in.

Billy Mays was the best at this with infomercials. He'd take a white shirt, drag it through grass and mud, then drop it in OxyClean. Five seconds later — perfectly white. That demonstration is unforgettable.

**Step 3: Emotionalize.** People don't buy facts. They buy feelings. You can share all the logical reasons to buy, but what gets people to move is emotion.

There are different ways to create emotion — sadness, fear, pain, anger, inspiration. I tend to cast a vision and show people what's possible. Other speakers use anger effectively. Find your style, but you must create emotional experience.

**Step 4: Action.** All of this means nothing without a call to action. Tell them what to do. If you don't, everything was for nothing.

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### Corey Rudl: The Pioneer Nobody Knows

If you don't know who Corey Rudl is, it's because he died in a tragic racing accident shortly after turning 32. He'd done over $40 million in sales before his 32nd birthday.

He was the person we all looked up to. The trendsetter. The one who pioneered everything in internet marketing.

I bought his course in 2002 when I was 22. The internet was brand new. Most people thought it would be about branding — put your brand out there, hope for the best.

Corey met Dan Kennedy and took a completely different approach. He said: I'm going to take direct response principles and use them on the internet.

Direct response means you never put anything out just for branding. You track a direct response for everything. Every dollar must be accountable.

The big secret Corey taught — which came from Dan Kennedy — is this: The goal isn't to immediately make your money back. The goal is to build an email list.

That's it. That's the holy grail.

He drew it out simply. If you have 10,000 people on a list and you sell a $50 product and 10% buy — that's $50,000 from one email. Build a bigger list, make bigger money. Do it every day.

When I heard that, everything clicked. If I can figure out how to build an email list, it changes everything.

Someone told me the magic number: $1 per month per subscriber. If you have 1,000 people on your list, you should make $1,000 per month. Get to 30,000 subscribers, and you're financially free — that's $30,000 per month.

I created my first product called Zip Brander. I had a pop-up collecting emails. First month: 217 people joined. I followed the process — emailed the list, made offers, provided value. First month I made about $300.

I kept focusing on building the list. Hit 1,000 subscribers — made over $1,000 that month. Hit 5,000 — made over $5,000.

I couldn't believe it was working.

Eventually, I hit 30,000. Then 50,000. Then 100,000. Then a million.

That's the game. Build the list. Everything else is just a tactic.

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### The Ego Problem

I was interviewing Dan Kennedy, and I asked him about something I struggle with. I want to be humble, but I also need confidence to lead. There's this weird tension between ego and humility.

Dan shared a quote from Andrew Carnegie — at the time, the richest man in the world. Carnegie said: "No man achieves any great things in life unless in his private thoughts he believes he is superior to all other men."

That hit me hard.

The most successful people are humble outwardly. They treat people well. But in their private thoughts, they believe they're superior. They have to. Otherwise, why would anyone follow them?

Think about business. You're stepping onto a stage where thousands of competitors are fighting for your audience's attention. Why should they listen to you?

If you don't have that internal belief — that egotism most people won't talk about — it's really difficult to create a movement.

But here's the tension. The first time someone has success, they often start believing their own bio. Drinking their own Kool-Aid. They think they're the reason for all of it.

That's when things go wrong.

I learned this the hard way. My first company was growing. Everything was working. I started thinking I was a genius. Then it all collapsed. I had to fire almost 100 people in one day.

A mentor later told me something that reframed everything. He asked: "Have you ever cycled?"

"Cycled?"

"Yeah — failed and come back."

I told him about my first cycle, and that I was in the middle of another painful one right now.

He said: "Good. I'll never work with an entrepreneur who hasn't cycled at least once."

Before someone cycles, they still believe their own bio. They think they're the sole reason for their success. After they cycle, they realize there's the market, the team, timing, a million other factors. Yes, they grabbed the opportunity — but it wasn't just them.

Cycling. That word sounded so much better than "failure." Everyone cycles. All great entrepreneurs do.

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### The Balance: Humility and Ego

When I started building ClickFunnels, I thought carefully about the lessons from my first cycle.

**First lesson:** God will have a humble people. Either you humble yourself, or He will humble you. I don't want to be humbled again. So I remind myself constantly — give credit where it's due, acknowledge the team, acknowledge that it's not just me making this happen.

**Second lesson:** When you succeed, give credit to your team. When you fail, take the blame yourself. That's how you build a team that will go to war with you.

**Third lesson:** In my private thoughts, I still have to believe I can do this better than anyone. I have to believe I'm capable, or I won't push through the obstacles.

It's a dichotomy. Humble outwardly, confident internally. Hard to balance, but essential.

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### Sell the Sizzle, Not the Steak

Elmer Wheeler invented the concept "sell the sizzle, not the steak." He wrote a book called Sizzlemanship that breaks down the sentences we use in selling.

Here are the key principles:

**People buy through emotion, not logic.** When someone buys something, their spouse asks: "Why did you buy that?" They try to justify it logically, but the decision was emotional.

At Grant Cardone's 10X event, I knew that after people bought from me, they'd go home and their spouse would say: "You bought what? For how much? What's a funnel?"

So we included a letter addressed to the spouse. It explained logically why this was a good purchase, with bullet points and a link to my presentation. It helped them justify the emotional decision.

**Sell the destination, not the process.** If you're selling a trip to Hawaii, talk about the palm trees, the beach, the luau. Don't talk about the cramped airplane seats, customs lines, and baggage claim. That's the process. Nobody wants to buy the process.

Steak isn't that exciting. But when you hear it sizzle, when you see the butter popping — that's what sells.

**Use simple language.** Third or fourth grade level. Most people want to sound smart, so they use big words. But when your audience hears complex words, they feel dumb. And people don't buy from people who make them feel dumb.

During the Trump vs. Hillary campaign, I analyzed their speeches. Hillary spoke at an eighth-grade level. Trump spoke at a third-grade level. The simpler language won.

**Use "kind of like" bridges.** When you have to introduce a complex concept, immediately follow it with "it's kind of like..." and relate it to something they understand.

I wrote a video sales letter for a product that gets people into ketosis. "Ketosis" is a confusing word. So I said: "Ketones are kind of like a million little motivational speakers running through your body giving you energy."

People don't understand ketones. They understand what it would feel like to have a million motivational speakers in their body.

**Engage the senses and imagination.** The best salespeople help you see a vivid vision of life after you have the product.

I remember Robert Allen doing an hour-long presentation where he walked people through their dream life. What does your house smell like? When you walk through the door, what happens? Do your kids run to greet you? Is there a dog? What does dinner taste like?

He was creating a vision so real you could feel it. That's what moves people.

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### Your Subconscious Mind and Creativity

There's a book that talks about using your subconscious mind for creativity.

Have you ever tried to solve a problem in meetings, reading books, brainstorming — and you can't crack it? Then you're in the shower, not thinking about it, and suddenly the idea just appears?

That's your subconscious mind at work.

Your conscious mind can only find answers through your five senses — what you can see, taste, touch, smell, hear. If the answer isn't available through those channels, you won't find it consciously.

But when you disengage — take a walk, read a book, daydream — your subconscious mind brings ideas to the surface.

The book recommends a six-hour workday. Work consciously for six hours, then spend the last two hours disengaged — reading, walking, talking to coworkers. That's when creativity happens.

Henry Ford never sat at his desk. He walked back and forth. That's how he came up with his best ideas.

A month ago, I detached both biceps at a wrestling tournament. God basically put me on the sidelines. I couldn't type. I couldn't work the way I normally do.

During that four-week period, with my arms in casts, I couldn't do my normal 10-hour workdays. I could barely do one or two hours. The rest of the time, I just thought.

And that's when all these ideas started showing up.

One day, my business partner Todd brought a major problem to our team. We spent two hours trying to solve it. No one had answers. We left the meeting uneasy.

That night, I sat on the couch. I couldn't work. I just thought.

Within 15 minutes, the solution popped into my head. I looked at it from every angle — it solved the problem.

It came when I disconnected from working.

Your subconscious beliefs also act like a thermostat. If your internal thermostat is set at 72 degrees, you might get a little above or below, but it snaps back. Your subconscious has a "set point" for where you belong.

You might consciously want to reach 100 degrees — but your subconscious says "nope" and pulls you back down.

That's why people feel stuck. Their conscious desires are fighting their subconscious beliefs.

To break through, you have to reset the thermostat. Change the underlying belief. That's how you move to the next level.

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### Final Thoughts

Everything I've learned from Bernays, Napoleon Hill, Dan Kennedy, Corey Rudl, Elmer Wheeler — it all comes back to a few core truths:

People buy emotionally, not logically. Attach your product to an identity. Unify people against a common enemy. Create new opportunities instead of competing on improvements. Build your list. Use showmanship to attract, emphasize, emotionalize, and drive action. Keep your language simple. Engage the imagination.

And remember: You'll cycle. Everyone does. The winners are the ones who keep going.