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  • Behind The Boardroom Episode 01

    Behind The Boardroom Episode 01

    This is a series I’m starting where I share the stories behind high stakes sales, negotiations, and presentations for major companies.

    The mission is giving you a peek behind the curtain at how big opportunities are won (and lost), so you can accomplish bigger dreams in less time.

    What follows below this intro is the time-stamped subtitle text if you prefer to read.

    TRANSCRIPT

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    @jonathan: Hello and welcome, I am Jonathan Pritchard, and this is a video in a series that I

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    @jonathan: am cautiously calling Behind the boardroom, because a lot of my work I deal

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    @jonathan: directly with C, E, Os and board members and the executive suite of very large

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    @jonathan: companies. So a lot of folks uh, want to know what high stakes business involves

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    @jonathan:: and what it looks like, So I want to share some of my stories that that uh, I’ve

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    @jonathan: got to well share. So, anyway, this story has a lot of moving pieces, a lot going

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    @jonathan: on, and multiple lessons that you can learn from it. So there’s a lot of context

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    @jonathan: to create, which is, I’ve been working with a marketing company for a couple of

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    @jonathan: years. They are absolutely phenomenal at what they do. They build websites, and

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    @jonathan: then well, they, They’ve been around for about fifteen years, started building

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    @jonathan: websites and then their clients after about two months will go. Hey, we love the

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    @jonathan: website. Where’s all the traffic though, And that’s how they got started into the

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    @jonathan: marketing side of things, Uh, paid advertising through Google and S. E O, and

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    @jonathan: social media and email? Basically any way that you could make money on the

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    @jonathan: Internet as a business? Well, they can help you get more eyeballs on what you’re

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    @jonathan: doing. So they, uh, they are fantastic to work with, and they’ve asked me to

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    @jonathan: basically architect their entire sales process from the conversation structure to

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    @jonathan: the scripting the presentation skills, kind of top to bottom, uh, reorganizing the

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    @jonathan: way that they land big opportunities. So there is one lead that I I worked with

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    @jonathan: directly personally to talk to Because they are a company that has theyve. they’ve

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    @jonathan: got some like eighty plus locations so they’ve got a lot of businesses all over,

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    @jonathan: kind of the Southet of America. So they had an outdated website and they have some

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    @jonathan: special considerations in that they wanted their website to be able to manage a

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    @jonathan: lot of what their business does and what it needs to do. And they’ve got two

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    @jonathan: brands that are pulling from the same

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    @jonathan: database of resources, so I, I kind of have to stay a little uh, vague in these

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    @jonathan: parts. Um, but y, you’ll get the idea, so they need their website to be able to do

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    @jonathan: everything that one of their customers would want to do with the company, And

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    @jonathan: whether it is brand A or brand Beep, doesn’t really matter because it’s all the

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    @jonathan: same resource pool as far as they’re concerned, So it a lot of moving pieces. A

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    @jonathan: lot of difficult, uh challenges, um,

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    @jonathan: design wise and technology wise, and it wound up being that there’s this super

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    @jonathan: superniche product and plug in for a website that allows our client to do what it

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    @jonathan: is that they wanted their website to do. So I, I landed the opportunity and they

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    @jonathan: said, Yep, we want you to build this thing And since I’m the relationship and

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    @jonathan: vision guy, Well as soon as they say yes, Well, let me get you in touch with the

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    @jonathan: the team who will actually do the work. I, I don’t actually implement anything.

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    @jonathan: Let let’s just talk vision, so hand it off And then, as far as I know, a couple of

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    @jonathan: months go by and it’s all good.

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    @jonathan: Great

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    @jonathan: About six months after,

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    @jonathan: actually

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    @jonathan: Sh. About nine months after I first started talking to them

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    @jonathan: and then we agreed to do work together, and then nine months from day one that

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    @jonathan: that we started talking. I get a call from

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    @jonathan: one of the owners of the company saying hey, Um,

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    @jonathan: you guys launched the website

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    @jonathan: and it tanked our business.

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    @jonathan: Um, I don’t know what’s going on, but I know for about the past month that the

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    @jonathan: phone used to be ringing a lot. and now it’s not at all maybe one tenth as much as

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    @jonathan: it used to. Um,

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    @jonathan: I have no clue. but you guys need to fix this.

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    @jonathan: Well. that’s not an easy phone call to get. And one. I’m going. Why, Why is he

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    @jonathan: calling me on the ideas guy? but, oh right, I’m I’m the guy that told him that

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    @jonathan: everything would be perfect. Well, okay,

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    @jonathan: now that lights a fire under my ass to figure out what in the world is going on,

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    @jonathan: So I use some tools. I don’t even talk to the the team that was doing the work.

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    @jonathan: yet I wa to go in with a little bit of context of of what I’d be walking into, so

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    @jonathan: use some tools to take a look at their their search rankings and how Google is

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    @jonathan: seeing them, and for years they’ve been getting about fourteen, fifteen thousand

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    @jonathan: visits per month. That translates to a lot of business to them,

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    @jonathan: And then

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    @jonathan: it’s basically the day the website launches their traffic tanks to fewer than a

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    @jonathan: hundred per day.

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    @jonathan: Almost overnight it goes from fifteen thousand

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    @jonathan: to a hundred a day,

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    @jonathan: which is

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    @jonathan: deeply unsettling That that’s a huge huge issue. Big problem. So I reach out to

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    @jonathan: the team and go. What in the world is going on? A Big Part of why they decided to

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    @jonathan: go with us is that we know what is needed for S. e O and making Google happy. So

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    @jonathan: what in the world did you guys do

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    @jonathan: that made Google so mad,

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    @jonathan: And then the team basically says we didn’t do it. It wasn’ us was say well, Okay,

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    @jonathan: that’s nice, but you guys ah, need to have a better answer than that

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    @jonathan: long story short.

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    @jonathan: Turns out that we did the design work of the website and then the plug in guys

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    @jonathan: locked us out of the website back end, so we didn’t even have hands on the website

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    @jonathan: for about three months, as the plug in guys were working with the end client.

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    @jonathan: And this relationship of us and the plug in team was very clear from the

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    @jonathan: beginning. It. it wasn’t a underhanded or sneaky kind of white label thing. The

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    @jonathan: Cim is very clear that this is a a separate team and this is the team that you

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    @jonathan: have picked in order to build out this functionality And we’re bring. we’re

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    @jonathan: building the framework and then they’re just gonna fit it in. Okay. Cool well,

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    @jonathan: turns out that we hadn’t even touched the website in three months, and the owner

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    @jonathan: that had called me was saying, And the the plug in guys say that it’s it has to do

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    @jonathan: with with something you guys did. And so I’m finding out Okay, So we’re getting

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    @jonathan: thrown under the bus by these plug in guys saying. Well, it was Jonathan’s team

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    @jonathan: that that

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    @jonathan: made this a dumpster fire. right, So

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    @jonathan: the challenge then is to not look like you’re going. Well, na, it, it’s them.

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    @jonathan: So part of the challenge was for me to help our client understand was like we’ve

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    @jonathan: been locked out of the site for three months, so when it launched we wouldn’t have

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    @jonathan: even been able to make those final checks. So this is when or these are the folks

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    @jonathan: that pushed it live. Was something seriously wrong and we can’t even log in to see

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    @jonathan: what that is, because

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    @jonathan: they’re the folks that that pushed it live. and you are entirely correct that

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    @jonathan: something here is very very wrong

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    @jonathan: In having said all of that, I’m on it. I,

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    @jonathan: I’m going to have some very strong conversations on your behalf. Let me go knock

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    @jonathan: some heads, and I will. I’ll be in touch

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    @jonathan: and this was about

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    @jonathan: about uh, twenty minutes before I had a a scheduled, uh lunch on the books with my

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    @jonathan: wife, because if if it’s not on the calendar, it’s not real, so schedule

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    @jonathan: everything guys. So I go to have lunch with my wife, and

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    @jonathan: and we’re literally in line to get barbecue, and it hits me I go. wait a minute.

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    @jonathan: It can’t be. it can’t be this. It can’t be the simple because

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    @jonathan: their website had tanked and it had stayed tanked for a month

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    @jonathan: before the owner of the company reached out to me to say Hey, what’s going on? and

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    @jonathan: from that fifteen thousand visits per day across the the website for two websites

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    @jonathan: and the amount of money that they’re doing this is over a million dollar problem,

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    @jonathan: and this is a million dollar problem with what I’m pretty sure might be a one

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    @jonathan: dollar fix

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    @jonathan: because part of my background was

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    @jonathan: about fifteen years ago. I built websites for entertainers. My educational

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    @jonathan: background is in traditional art and painting. So I’ve I’ve always loved visual

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    @jonathan: communication and

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    @jonathan: a lot of my friends are world class performers. but they don’t have good design.

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    @jonathan: Since they. they don’t know how to create visuals. So we would be at a conference

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    @jonathan: and I would see their promotional materials And it looks like somebody made it on

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    @jonathan: Microsoft Word. and I would ask them like, Who’s who’s your designer? Who made

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    @jonathan: this And they’re like, Oh, I did on Microsoft Word. I’m like Okay, it because it

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    @jonathan: looks like a you. You really need need some help. So I started building their

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    @jonathan: websites and then their show posters and their postcards and their D v d cases

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    @jonathan: back when D v Ds were a thing, so that they would have a unified branding. Well, I

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    @jonathan: had always used Word press, so I’m really really familiar with Word press, and I’m

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    @jonathan: in line with my wife, and and it clicks nego. I think I figured it out.

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    @jonathan: Let let me see.

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    @jonathan: So I send

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    @jonathan: the c. e o in email from my phone while I’m in line to order barbecue.

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    @jonathan: By the time lunch is done and I get back to

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    @jonathan: here.

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    @jonathan: He tells me

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    @jonathan: the problem was there and I fixed it. We’ll see what happens

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    @jonathan: and it turned out that there’s this option in word press. It’s a single check box.

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    @jonathan: That’s a, a single check box that says Discourage

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    @jonathan: we web crawlers from crawling the site or however, it’s worded, It’s basically a.

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    @jonathan: Do you want Google to be aware of this or do you want Google to ignore you?

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    @jonathan: And somehow

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    @jonathan: both of the websites had been launched with that little check box? Checked. That’s

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    @jonathan: it. That’s the. That was the whole. That was the whole issue.

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    @jonathan: So this company

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    @jonathan: had lost out on more than a million dollars of revenue,

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    @jonathan: and the fix was knowing which check box to uncheck,

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    @jonathan: and then

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    @jonathan: that was on Friday, like at one or two in the afternoon, and then Monday rolls

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    @jonathan: around, and their organic traffic had already started to to come back. So it was a

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    @jonathan: a literal example of that probably apocryphal story about the the guy getting

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    @jonathan: brought into the to the factory who hits a machine with a hammer and it starts

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    @jonathan: back up. And then when the owner asked them okay, what’s the charge? Goes ten

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    @jonathan: thousand dollars, Becausees ten thousand dollars, he goes absolutely one dollar

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    @jonathan: for the hammer, nine thousand, nine hundred, ninety nine dollars, to know where to

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    @jonathan: hit it, And that is literally what happened with this multi millionll dollar

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    @jonathan: company. So those tiny tiny details have huge impacts on the success or failure of

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    @jonathan: a company or relationship.

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    @jonathan: So the fact that the relationship guy

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    @jonathan: solved this problem

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    @jonathan: in line for lunch

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    @jonathan: was a clear demonstration that Okay, this team is the team that we need for long

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    @jonathan: term help. So from there

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    @jonathan: we we landed a opportunity to help them on the business stability side and making

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    @jonathan: sure that Um, their s e o is resilient and not just coasting from good practices,

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    @jonathan: but actively putting in energy to get even more eyeballs. So me being able to

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    @jonathan: solve that issue for them was a huge trust builder by demonstrating competence,

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    @jonathan: which gave them the confidence that we would be able to help them on the the

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    @jonathan: marketing and and lead flow side of things as well. So that’s just uh, an example

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    @jonathan: of kind of high stakes business. And how sometimes the answers are ridiculously

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    @jonathan: simple, but ▁ultra important. And if you don’t know those details well, then the

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    @jonathan: answer is a mystery to you, so kind of like from my background in magic and

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    @jonathan: mentalism, Oftentimes the way that it works. The method is very simple, but the

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    @jonathan: effect is

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    @jonathan: disproportionate to the amount of effort required. So it’s it’s kind of uh. There

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    @jonathan: was a magician. I think it was Marshall Brodine who used to say Magic is easy once

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    @jonathan: you know how if it wasn’t Marsha Brodine, Uh, well, I’ll look it up on Google

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    @jonathan: after this, but anyway, uh, the the idea of being that magic is easy Once you know

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    @jonathan: how well so is business. So is success. So is life, and as one of my mentors told

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    @jonathan: me, Uh, no better, do better. don’t beat yourself up if you didn’t know any

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    @jonathan: better, but now you do, so take care of it.

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    @jonathan: Yeah, so there’s a. There’s a lot packed into that story and, and it’s kind of a a

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    @jonathan: great case study for the very strange kinds of problems and situations that I

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    @jonathan: really really love helping my clients with. So if you’ve got a very strange

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    @jonathan: business challenge or opportunity that you would like another set of eyeballs on,

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    @jonathan: feel free to reach out. Um, you? you’re not going to weird me out. I dare you to

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    @jonathan: bring me a problem I haven’t seen before, So that’s that’s it for now. And uh,

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    @jonathan: yeah, I guess this will be the the first installation of the Behind the Boardroom

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    @jonathan: series. And if you have any kinds of topics or questions about sales negotiation

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    @jonathan: presentation skills, Um, anything like that, shoot me a message on Twitter through

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    @jonathan: email. ridiculously easy to get a hold of at. I can read Mines Dot com, So yeah,

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    @jonathan: that’s it for now, and I will see you in the next video.

  • Protected: A Mind Reader’s Complete Guide to Connecting With Successful People

    Protected: A Mind Reader’s Complete Guide to Connecting With Successful People

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  • Thank You James Randi

    Thank You James Randi

    My mentor and dear friend James Randi passed away last week.

    I haven’t known what to say, so I’ve said very little so far, but I wanted to simply express my deepest thanks to him for being such a big part of my life.

    Most of the world knows him as a fierce warrior against flimflam and tomfoolery.

    To me he was that and one of the kindest, most thoughtful, and considerate people I’ve ever had the honor of knowing for nearly 20 years.

    We spent untold days together talking about magic, showmanship, timing, comedy, being famous, life, and relationships in general.

    I plan on sharing as many of the stories I can remember so others can see him as the friend and mentor that he was to me.

    For now, if you’re unfamiliar with his work, know that the NYTimes wrote an obituary for him and there’s a whole documentary about his life on Netflix.

    Check those out and you’ll begin to understand what a giant of man he was.

    Thank you Randi for all your work.

  • 6 Ways to Make Huge Mistakes

    6 Ways to Make Huge Mistakes

    Cell phones are one of the most amazing devices ever created by human beings, and they don’t exist on accident. They’re the result of thousands of people making millions of decisions about every aspect of their function.
    Same goes for your life; its quality is the direct result of the choices you make every day, all day long.
    If you want better results, you have to make better choices.
    Fortunately for you I’ve made tons of really bad choices in my life. This gives me a certain expertise on what, exactly, a bad choice looks like.
    No matter what flavor bad choice I’ve made, they all seemed to have 6 things in common. I wanted to tell you what those are so you can run your next big idea by this checklist to see if you should give it the green light, or pull the plug.
    If you recognize that you’re doing these things in your own life, you’re screwing up, man.

    1. You’re Not Talking About It.

    When you surround yourself with amazing people who are incredibly talented, kind, caring, & smart you’d be doing yourself a disservice if you didn’t bounce your big idea off your brain trust.
    And you’re not.
    This should be a massive blip on your “I’m about to do something stupid” radar. You’re probably basing your choices of how you think things are instead of playing out all the possible outcomes.
    Your plan is only as good as the information it’s based on, so give yourself the freedom to game it out with other people.
    More communication is better than no communication. Keeping everything to yourself is a recipe for disaster.

    2. You’re Managing the Narrative.

    So maybe you do share your plans with the important people in your life; but you’re not giving them all the details.
    You’re leaving out key pieces of the puzzle, and maybe omitting things that would be less than flattering.
    There’s another term for a “managed narrative,” and that’s “lying.”
    If you’re lying to the most important people in your life, you’re making a huge mistake. You’re going to ruin any shred of trust you’ve established, your reputation will be ruined, and the whole truth will always come to light.

    3. You Know Better.

    This is a big one. It sounds too simple, but it’s not.
    Sometimes listening to that quiet voice inside telling you, “You shouldn’t be doing this” is the hardest thing to do.
    It’s easy for Shakespeare to say “To thine own self be true” but living it in real time takes monumental effort.
    You may not always be crystal clear about what you want, but when your intuition is whispering at you the sooner you start listening, the better things with be for you.
    I’ve made some bad choices because I knew that’s what was expected of me (but not what I actually wanted). I explained away my voice telling me not to go through with it as “everyone has doubts, right?” I ignored that voice for the next couple years until I hit the big red self destruct button. That voice had been slowly getting louder & louder until it was screaming at me.
    To thine own self be true. You know better. Don’t live the voice of society, your friends, or even your family; you absolutely must live your own truth.
    Not doing so is a massive mistake.

    4. You’re Worn Out.

    It takes energy maintaining a false reality. Whether you’re lying to yourself or others, it takes a lot of brain&willpower to pull off convincingly.
    Also, great choices tend to be a source of energy & excitement. They should get you fired up about what’s on the horizon.
    If, on the other hand, you’re constantly worn out, you’re probably making some bad choices along the way.

    5. You’re freaked out.

    Do a quick check in with your internal state. Are you anxious? Are you nervous? Are you angry?
    Intense negative emotions centered around a decision is usually a huge red flag that you’re not onboard with it. You might be trying to convince yourself it’s a good idea, but if the lizard part of your brain is on high alert, there’s probably a reason.
    Ignore it at your own peril and suffer the consequences of prolonged negative emotional states.

    6. You’re Rushing.

    If you’re totally freaked out, you’re probably going to start operating in “Fight or Flight” mode which is rarely good for making well-reasoned decisions.
    Moving too quickly is a sure-fire sign that you’re making a bad choice.
    This is different than having instant clarity about what you want; moving too fast is moving for the sake of movement which only serves to bleed out your energy, erode your emotional reserves, and lead to degraded willpower.
    If you’re rushing, it means you’re only making choices on your pre-existing decision making heuristics. This can only get you the results you’ve always gotten. If you want something different, you have to take the time to think of better options for yourself.

    Conclusion

    Any time I’m keeping things from my friends, I know I’m messing up. Any time I’m moving too quickly, I know I’m messing up. Any time I’m ignoring my truth, I know I’m messing up.
    Hopefully these 6 signs will help you identify less-than-great choices before you’ve made them, so you can take time to do things the right way.
    How ’bout you? What signals have you noticed around your bad choices? I’d love to hear them. Drop me a line on Twitter or at ~minder-folden/purgatory ; I’d love to hear your horror stories.

  • Most Interesting Man at 30,000 Feet

    Most Interesting Man at 30,000 Feet

    On any plane, at any networking event, or any cocktail party I’m usually the most interesting person in the room.

    I used to think it was because I travel the world, have great tour stories, worked on multiple TV projects, or have famous friends.

    Nope.

    Couldn’t be more wrong.

    Here’s how it happens. Someone asks me what I do for a living, so I say, “I’m a mind reader.”

    There’s a pause, and then 99% of the time the person says, “What am I thinking?!”

    And that’s the secret. It was staring me in the face for years before I understood it.

    They don’t care about my travels, they don’t care about my TV appearances, they don’t care about me. They care about what I can tell them. . . about THEM.

    There it is. There’s the secret to being the most interesting person in any room.

    I’ve spent 2 decades becoming an expert on their favorite subject: them.

    Their first reaction isn’t to ask about how genuine mind reading would have on the field of physics. Or how cognitive scientists are just now digging into why this stuff works. Or how mentalism is part of a millennia-old tradition starting before the Oracles of Delphi.

    No, it’s to demand I tell them about themselves.

    They want to be seen. They want to be told they’re special.

    We all do.

    When we find someone who actually listens to what we say. Who isn’t constantly distracted by their phone. Who cares, we feel it.

    That can be your superpower.

    By completely focusing on learning as much about the person right in front of you, you instantly become one of the most important people in that person’s life.

    That’s how I make indelible impressions on people who remember me for years after. It isn’t the trick. It isn’t the fact I can tell them what card they’re thinking about.

    It’s that I show them they’re important enough to warrant my full attention.

    So, for yourself, figure out how you can use your experience to dive into someone else’s experience, and you’ll finally have the secret to being the most interesting person in the room.

    Be their mirror and they’ll love everything they see.

  • Magic of Success

    Magic of Success

    Magicians are in the business of creating experiences that are absolutely mind blowing. No matter how impossible it seems, however, tricks work by making use of natural principles of nature.
    If you look at people who are massively successful, it can seem like it happened as if by magic. They started a company and *POOF* they’re incredibly successful.
    Success, no matter how incredible, is the result of effort applied in accordance to certain fundamental principles. I’m going to explain how magicians do what they do to help you understand what it takes to be successful in your own way.

    I’m not supposed to do this.

    I’ve consulted for Criss Angel. I’ve performed at the world-famous Magic Castle in LA. I’ve entertained United States troops stationed overseas.
    I’ve been in magic my whole life, and I know my way around the world of mystery.
    What I’m about to tell you is absolutely forbidden in the magical community; I’m going to reveal the secret to every single trick you’ve ever seen in your life.
    Not only that, once you’re in the know, I’m going to explain exactly how you can use that knowledge to conjure results in your personal & business life that will look like pure magic to outsiders.
    Anyone looking in won’t be able to comprehend how you can get incredible results, but you and I will both know there’s more to it than meets the eye.

    Here Goes

    Magic is boring.
    There, I said it.
    That’s the biggest secret in magic; just how simple it truly is.
    People want magic to be this exotic thing that lives in a secret dusty room holding arcane knowledge, rituals, spells, and even a hex or two. But when it comes right down to it, magic is actually elegant in its simplicity.
    Sure, there are magical masterpieces requiring feats of engineering and technology that are phenomenally complex to create, but no matter how complicated the machinery every single trick you’ve heard about is built on fundamental psychological principles that work across all cultures.
    Those principles reveal truths about how we, as people, navigate the world, make decisions, & think about ourselves.
    I’m going to dive into what it all means for business, relationships, and beyond.

    *pulls a book on the shelf which swings open to reveal a dusty room, and walks in*

    The Secret To Every Magic Trick Ever

     “The magician creates the context for logical assumptions that are later shown to not be true.” ~Jonathan Pritchard

    Forgive me for quoting myself, but I want to make sure the world knows I said it first.
    There’s a lot going on in the quote, so let me break it down piece by piece, and explain how it applies to other worlds outside magical performance.

    The Magician…

    This is the agent of action. This is the person who is making things happen. This is you.
    Since prehistory, magicians (shamans, spirit guides, etc) have fulfilled a very important role in societies as someone who understands the forces of nature, and uses that knowledge to bend reality to his/her will.
    They are considered to be in possession of knowledge that is beyond ordinary comprehension, and capable of creating miracles.
    I love that idea because it is so very close to reality. Everyone knows something that seems so obvious to them, but appears completely mystifying to anyone else. In this way, we are all magicians of our own lives. We understand the world in a unique way, and we can all use that power to create amazing results.

    …creates the context…

    Context means everything. Context is the reason a comedian can call someone a name and everyone in the room laughs, but if you try it at a bar you’ll get a lesson in manners outside in the parking lot.
    Context is the basis for relationships. Nothing exists in a vacuum. Everything exists in relationship to everything else in the universe. It’s the circumstances and facts around an idea or situation that helps shape its meaning.

    How context is built, and used, has far-reaching implications.

    A magician is on stage in a theater. People know that the magician is going to be performing tricks, and that it is a performance. These are all parts of the puzzle that come together to provide a context for the audience to enjoy the magical performance.
    The experience is further crafted through the performer’s words, actions, music, lights, and every other tool of stagecraft at his disposal. Every element in use helps create a context which creates a reality where magic lives.
    Just like the magician, you create the context in which other people perceive you. Everything you do, everything you say, everything you wear, etc. creates the context in which people can understand you.
    Once you realize you are in control of how you are presenting yourself to the world, you can start taking ownership for the results you are getting (or not).

    …for logical assumptions…

    “I am turned into a sort of machine for observing facts and grinding out conclusions.” ~Charles Darwin

    The magician shows a coin in his right hand, drops it in his left hand and closes his fingers around it into a fist. With the wave and snap of his fingers the coin vanishes.
    Magic!
    Your eyes saw the coin in his right hand, and watched the hand turn over above his left palm. You know the coin drops into the left palm because gravity is a fundamental force of nature. Logical.
    And that’s where the magician leads your mind astray.
    It’s logical to assume that if you turn your hand over, the coin will fall to the floor.
    What’s not logical is to think a person has spent 20 years learning how to hold a coin with the muscles of the hand in a way to make it look empty from above.
    The magician doesn’t announce, “Behold, my empty right hand!” He just behaves in a way (creating the context) that would make you think it’s empty (logical assumption).
    If he were to state “My right hand is empty” he knows you would immediately challenge him immediately. Instead, he behaves as if the hand is empty, your mind tells you it’s empty, and you believe it. After all, why would you lie to yourself?
    To help us navigate the world, our minds help build guidelines and general rules about how the world works (like gravity will make a coin fall from an open hand when turned over), and uses these as shortcuts to decision making.
    These assumptions operate at a level that precedes conscious thought. You aren’t even aware that your mind is doing that for you. If you want to discover what kind of assumptions you’re working with, look to the major points of conflict in your life. You’ll be sure to find beliefs and ideas about what is true about the world that is out of alignment with reality.
    The most powerful way to change your perception of the world is to challenge your beliefs and fundamental assumptions about reality. It can be uncomfortable, but if you want change in your life, you’re going to need to work on the assumptions that are dictating your reality.

    …that are later shown to not be true…

    In the example of the coin disappearing, your assumptions about coins dropping towards the floor creates a narrative in your mind that tells you that the coin is now in the magician’s left hand.
    The more you trust your own conclusions (based on “logical” assumptions) and the longer you hold those beliefs, the stronger the magical effect will be when it’s revealed that things aren’t how you thought they were.
    In the context of a magic show, this experience is fun. It makes people laugh, clap, and gasp with wonder.
    In the context of the real world, this experience can be devastating. You thought you had the contract and your client (seemingly) suddenly goes with another agency. You thought your partner was faithful, and you find out they’re not.
    The list can go on forever.
    And, it can be incredibly empowering.
    You thought you couldn’t depend on anyone else, but the whole community shows up to help you (The plot behind, “It’s a Wonderful Life”).
    Things aren’t always as they seem, and if you find yourself in a reality where things don’t match up with how you thought they are, then it’s your assumptions that need revising.

    Conclusion

    That’s the secret to magic and success.
    Context is everything, your assumptions dictate your perception of reality, and sometimes life isn’t what it seems (and that can be a great thing!).
    If you’ve found this article helpful, I’d sure appreciate you sharing it with your friends. Let’s help make the world a better place by promoting great material!
    If you have any questions, comments, or concerns feel free to leave a comment, or message me directly. I read everything that comes through the inbox.
    Let’s start a conversation.

  • 5 Mental Locks (& How to Pick Them)

    5 Mental Locks (& How to Pick Them)

    Standard Social Narratives

    Disney cartoons. Romantic comedies. Books. Family upbringing.
    They’re all selling you a story about how things should be; I call it the standard social narrative. It’s a collection of assumptions about how you should be, how others should treat you, and so on.
    It’s baked so deeply into our culture that it’s difficult to recognize which story we’re writing and which story we’re reading.
    Given long enough, if you wind up reading someone else’s story more than you write your own, these silent mental narratives can bind you more strongly than any physical chain.
    What you believe is stronger than what is real.

    Make the Invisible Visible

    “I need to find the one.”
    “My friends don’t actually like me; they just tolerate me hanging around.”
    “I need to get a real job.”
    These are just a couple examples of the mental narratives that we tell ourselves that can quickly constrict our way of thinking if we’re not careful. You’ve likely been thinking them so often that you don’t even realize they’re passing through.
    Even though your conscious mind might not register them, those thoughts still shape the way you think about life, make choices, and interact with others. In short, they affect everything.
    That makes them incredibly powerful, and without controlling them they can destroy you.
    And you can’t simply wish your way out; you have to address them directly and dismantle their hold on you.
    Every year you don’t deal with these silent narratives is another year you’re holding yourself back in business, relationships, money, and health.

    5 Most Common Mental Locks (and how to pick them)

    Over the years of studying the mind, working with clients, and reading as many books as I can by the best thinkers through time, I’ve uncovered 5 of the most common silent narratives that are keeping you trapped in your status quo.

    Lock 1: “I need to figure things out first.”

    Never before in the history of mankind have we had more information on hand, instantly. “Knowledge is power,” we say.
    Information, by itself, is one of the worst ways to make change in our lives. You already know what to do. You have the answers already.
    If “knowledge is power” were true, you’d already be the most powerful person in the world. You keep searching for the next detail. One more secret. And everything will change.
    But when everything stays the same, you make a shift.
    Instead of aggregating information, you now start looking for ways to apply it.
    This is what I like to call “tactical hell.” You now try anything under the sun without an overarching strategy to guide our efforts. Eventually this will completely demoralize you, drain your energy, and make you less likely to try anything else in the future.
    So what’s going on?

    Lockpick 1: Potential to Kinetic Energy

    Information overload, and paralysis by analysis keeps people from putting in effort by taking ACTION.
    Action means you’d actually have to try. You’d actually have to care.
    You might fail.
    Once we figure out strategies to get our needs met, we tend to stick to what works. Even if it’s not working all that well. We get comfortable.
    And the only thing that’s going to make a difference is action.
    When I was learning to drive, I drove my Dad crazy with questions. I wanted to know everything there was to know about driving. Eventually though, I realized I was, in a way, stalling.
    Instead, I had to take action.
    We went out to a parking lot & I learned more in 10 minutes of trying it than I did in weeks of talking.
    Since then, I’ve learned a way of thinking about opportunities I like to call Regret vs Disappointment.
    I’d rather be disappointed than live with a regret because that means I at least tried.
    Failure, disappointment, and making mistakes are an ESSENTIAL part of success and it’s the fear of all those that’s keeping you in the comfortable status quo.
    Information is out there free and it’s worth exactly what you paid for it.
    Action is priceless.

    Lock 2: “I don’t have good ideas.”

    Guttenberg screwed everything up.
    Before him, humans were essential for everything. But that bastard put thousands of scribes out of work with his printing press. From that moment forward, we’ve been moving faster and faster towards a future where automation will eat every kind of manufacturing job that humans used to do.
    With the development of the internet, it’s moving forward at light speed.
    As we move out of an economy of labor, all our job security is leaving too. The only way to have control in the middle of the chaos is to start your own side business. It’s the fastest, most cost-effective strategy to drastically improve your income.
    One of the biggest mental locks I see clients run into is the story, “Starting a business is hard.”
    The belief is a dangerous shape-shifter that can take many forms.

    • I don’t know what people would pay me for.
    • I have so many ideas that I don’t know where to start! I don’t know how to start making money off ‘em.
    • I haven’t had one original idea. Seems like someone’s already doing anything I dream up.
    • I get distracted too easily. I never see a project through to the finish. I’ll start something, and then start something else.

    Lots of people have versions of these beliefs rattling around in their head. So if you recognize one of those in yourself, you’ve got good company.
    So how do we pick this lock?

    Lockpick 2: Two Factor Authentication

    My whole life is online. Keeping that information private is incredibly important to me. That’s why I’ve enabled 2 step verification on all my profiles online.
    Not only do I need to remember my username & password (step 1), I also require a physical token or single-use number code texted to me (step 2). This way, I’m the only person who would feasibly have both pieces of information.
    This keeps private things private, and drastically reduces the number of unwanted eyes on my information as low as possible.
    Success is the same way.
    It’s like success has its own 2 step verification, and if you don’t know the two questions to ask, you won’t have access to all the money, freedom, and control waiting on the other side of your efforts. Fortunately, I’m going to give them to you.
    See, starting a business can be difficult. There are a bunch of skills you don’t have, questions you don’t have answers to, and your inner critic is yammering away nonstop. The cool part is, you don’t have to come up with a million good ideas; you just need a single profitable idea. One.
    Usually, that idea is something you already know so well that you can’t imagine other people not being able to do it. Often you’re too close to it, and you don’t realize how valuable what you know already actually is.
    Think about what you’re good at, what your friends & family ask your help with all the time, and what you enjoy doing already. If there’s a significant overlap of those areas you’re off to a good start.
    Once you have an inkling of what your business idea is, here’s the 2 step verification to run on the idea to see if it will unlock success.
    Think about your ideal customer you’re planning on selling to and ask these two questions:

    1. Do they have money to spend?
    2. Are they willing to spend that money?

    If your idea doesn’t get a “yes” from both questions, it’s not a good business.
    I’m not going to spend a majority of my time going after clients who want services, but don’t have money to spend on them.
    I volunteer a couple hours a month at a professional development coalition for people who want coaching but don’t have the budget for it. It’s a great place to connect with motivated people who want to learn, but aren’t able to pay for it. Since most of the people who attend those free workshops don’t pass the first question, they’re not my ideal potential client.
    I focus on working with companies and corporations because 1) they have a budget and 2) they recognize they need to spend money to make money. I focus on working with entrepreneurs who are already making money, but want to figure out how to free up more of their time with new ways of thinking about creating value.
    So whatever idea you have, make sure it passes the 2 factor authentication process before moving forward.

    Lock 3: “I want passive income.”

    Ah, yes. The siren song. Money while you sleep!
    Sounds good, right? Get paid while you do nothing! I know why it’s so attractive, too. It’s because you’re already super busy with your normal 9-5 job, and it’s stressful as hell. You’re barely maintaining as it is, and the idea of throwing a second job on top of that will only serve to push you over the edge.
    So you look for the easy button. You look for the guy telling you, “I made six figures this year on auto-pilot!”
    What they don’t tell you is how they made it. They made money telling you how they made you buy their product about how they made you buy it. It’s no different than a multi-level marketing scheme.
    But your back is against the wall. What are you supposed to do? You understand that you can’t go on living the way you’re living, so something has to change.

    Lockpick 3: Make what you’re already doing more profitable.

    I know a lot of successful people. One of my favorite people in the world (who I learned a lot of this stuff from) makes a ton of money, and you’d never know it. He doesn’t have a flashy house. He doesn’t live in a high rise apartment. If you saw him, you’d think he’s just like any other guy.
    But he’s not.
    He has multiple ways of making money, and a lot of those qualify as “passive income.” He’s written books and created courses that sell at a steady rate without much attention needed from him. He put in the time up front, and then that effort pays off again & again.
    But he doesn’t spend his days sitting back and watching the sales click in.
    He’s one of the hardest working people I’ve ever seen in my life. He is constantly working to optimize his systems, training his crew, and constantly finding ways to push how much he can achieve in one day.
    He is about as far from passive as you can get. He’s active plus some.
    If you want to be successful like him, you’re not going to get there by doing nothing. You don’t need to focus on your passive income, you need to learn how to make your active efforts more lucrative!
    That means you’ll have to stop looking for that magic bullet. The short answer. You have the answer you’re already looking for; the job you already have.
    Improve your active income.
    Work on building skills that are rare and valuable in your industry. Find solutions for leadership. Find ways of doing things in a way that’s better than anyone else at your company.
    Once you’ve demonstrated your value to the company (by showing how much money you’ve made & saved them), renegotiate your salary. Then, take the skills you’re already selling to the company you work for, and then start a small freelancing business on the side.
    You’ll be able to make more per hour as a freelancer because a company’s whole goal is to sell your work to the client for more than they pay you. You might not be able to sell as many of your hours to your own clients, but the clients you do land will pay better than your job does.
    This usually takes the wind out of people’s’ sails. They want the success pill. They want the easy way.
    Building your pre-existing skills, working on being a more productive employee, and freelancing mean they actually have to put in some effort. It’s not the “sip coconut rum on the beach” dream they have.
    That’s the bad news. The good news is most people aren’t going to do it. Which means you stand a much better chance of making it farther with less effort because you have fewer competitors.

    Lock 4: “I can’t get a raise.”

    There’s a part of Lockpick 3 that usually trips people up: negotiating a better salary. The main reason is they believe the silent narrative that the economy is garbage, and they should be thankful they have a job in the first place.
    I get it. The news is on a 24/7 cycle explaining why we’re headed for global financial ruin, and your manager is constantly talking about how tight the budget is. You’re happy for the 3% raise you got this year, so you should probably not stick your neck out by asking for more money.
    If you believe that, you’re right; you don’t deserve the raise.

    Lockpick 3: Cost/Benefit Thinking

    Once upon a time I worked at Disney. I was hired as part of the college internship program, and a part of the agreement was getting to attend Disney University.
    Disney. University.
    I took as many courses as I could in the 9 months I was there. I recognized there would be no better opportunity to see the inner workings of how one of the most recognized brands in the world operates.
    One of the classes I took that did the most good was “The business of marketing you.”
    The instructor explained how to negotiate your salary during the hiring process, and explained it’s exactly the same way after you’ve been hired, too. Since that time I’ve been on both sides of the hiring process, and can tell you first-hand it works.
    Hiring someone is a costly process. There’s so much time that goes into it that a company wants it over as quickly as possible. It’s not an unreasonable number to expect a company to spend between $5,000 to $10,000 searching for the right candidate.
    Now that you know how expensive it is for them to hire someone new, you have. . . leverage.
    When you go into your negotiation ready to explain the ways you’ve made the company money & saved the company money every week you’ve been there (you’re keeping track of that in an ongoing Google Slideshow, right?), you also know that it makes better financial sense to give you the $5,000 to $10,000 raise instead of gambling on the prospect of firing you and looking for someone new.
    Your institutional knowledge, proven benefit to the corporate, etc are just too valuable to squabble over a couple thousand dollars.
    It’s barely noticeable to them, but makes a huge difference to you.

    Lock 5: “Yeah, well, negotiating might work when I’m getting hired, but my company won’t let me renegotiate.”

    During my time as a traveling entertainer, I had the opportunity to travel to Istanbul, Turkey for a television thing. Fortunately (because I’m a hell of a networker) I had a friend who lived there, and could show me around. We met when I worked at Universal Studios (yeah, I worked both sides of the fence. Disney AND Universal. Don’t tell ‘em.)
    When I had a free afternoon she took me to a couple bazaars and I shopped around for some trinkets to bring home. She was my personal negotiator. She was from there, so she knew how to haggle like a pro.
    At a hookah shop we talked about how different it is in Turkey vs America. Americans don’t really negotiate for anything other than cars, and even then there’s a booming business for people who dread that whole process (carmax.com).
    We don’t want to come across as cheap, needing charity, or rude. You might think you haven’t been working at your job long enough to re-negotiate your salary. There’s any number of reasons why you’re leaving money on the table. I get it.
    But the thing is, everything is negotiable.
    You can’t let your mind trap keep you locked out of making more out of your time.

    Lockpick 5: Think like someone who has earned it.

    The easiest way to think like someone who earned it is to be a person who has earned it! Exchange value for value. It’s the only way the world works. Otherwise someone is stealing from the other person in the exchange.
    A top level lockpick knows that negotiating can actually make you more attractive to a company. When you do it the right way, you’ll make your boss eager to give you a raise.
    Caveat. If you’re someone who complains all the time. If you’re someone who gossips all the time. If you’re someone who leaves at 4:58 everyday without saying bye to anyone. I’m not talking to you.
    The cool part is, I know that’s not you. (They never get this far into the article. They’re looking for the easy path, and that leads to the lowest level. You’re a top level player!)
    I don’t care how wrecked the economy is because no matter how bad it is, it just means the valuable people who know how to thrive (no matter what) are worth that much more. Your company (if it’s smart) will want to do everything in their power to keep you happy.
    That’s why the first step of picking this lock is understanding the way an elite level performer thinks, and then align your thinking to match.
    Before reading this you probably had an unspoken narrative that you should kiss the ground simply for having a job. You don’t want to cause any ripples and wind up getting fired.
    Now, though, you understand you always have options. If you don’t have options, dammit, you’re going to create them.
    Everyone benefits by negotiating. It’s a win-win approach to look for solutions that make everybody happy.

    Congratulations!

    You made it to the end!
    *high five*
    I know it’s a lot of information to digest all at once, and I think you’ll agree it was worth wading through. I hope you use everything in here to unlock your mind from those limiting beliefs, and then negotiate yourself into a better position in life.
    Do that and you’ll be making powerful change.
    If you think you know anyone else who could benefit from this article, please do you, me, & them a solid by sharing it with them.
    If you want to learn more about how to approach life with the mindset of a mentalist, then you can send me an email to say hi. I read everything that comes my way. hello at myname dot me.