Dr. Joe Vitale at Zero

In order to write one of my next books (Buying Trances: A New Psychology of Sales and Marketing, to be published in 2007), I read hundreds of books on sales, marketing, psychology, and persuasion. Many of them you already know. Some you don’t. Here’s one I bet you probably never heard of but should go get today:

Secrets of Libertarian Persuasion: Discover the keys to opening people’s hearts and minds to liberty by Michael Cloud.

This is from The Advocates for Self-Government Bill of Rights Press. Whatever you think of politics, I think you should get this book. It shares persuasion methods I’ve never heard of before, but are heart-felt and powerful. For example:

The “Would You Push the Button?” technique seems incredibly revealing for helping people see for themselves their own thinking process. As Cloud points out in his brief but readable book, people aren’t convinced of anything unless they convince themselves of it. So, you play into that human trait. You ask the button question to find out what people really think.

In some cases, they will talk themselves out of their own position once they hear their own views spoken out loud.

In other cases, they give you something to work with to deepen the discussion.

The way it works is this:

Simply ask, “If there were a button in front of you, and by pushing that button you could completely remove/repeal/end (fill in the blank), would you push the button?”

After they respond, you can ask why questions to further explore their reasoning.

Cloud also suggests asking follow-up questions such as, “What would be the best benefits?” and “How would things be dramatically different?”

Cloud’s examples are in the world of politics, of course, but what if we borrowed the method (which he says he learned from Leonard Read) and use it in self-growth or selling situations?

An example might be:

“If there were a button in front of you, and by pushing that button you would never be unhappy about anything ever again, would you push that button?”

Or another example might be:

“If there were a button in front of you, and by pushing that button you could remove all your objections to buying this book right now, would you push that button?”

Secrets of Libertarian Persuasion contains many other short but powerful methods of persuasion. It’s also written well, is breezy reading, and makes you think.

It also contains wonderful stories. One of my favorites is about IBM founder Thomas Watson telling a struggling writer the secret to success. Watson says -

“Double your failure rate.”

I suggest you get this book.

See www.billofrightspress.com

Ao Akua,

Joe
www.mrfire.com

PS — Scott York and I will be hosting a free teleconference call on Wednesday, August 30th, at 8 pm Central to explain www.yourbusinessbody.com and the $150,000 challenge. We’ll also answer your questions. Call will last about 30 minutes. Mark down the following:
When: Wednesday, August 30th, 2006.
Time: 8:00 p.m. Central (9:00 p.m. Eastern)
Phone Number: (641) 297-7200 code 383547
Note - All you pay is long distance phone charges. The call is limited to the first 100 people.

Continuing my reading of books on non-duality led me to Burt Jurgens’ trilogy, including Aren’t You Just THIS?

It’s in this book that I stumbled across a thought about money that jarred me into an awakening.

Someone writes Jurgen, asking him to “Show me the money!”

Jurgen wrestles with the subject and says -

“Well, what is money? Isn’t money quite similiar to ego? Or isn’t it at least (or perhaps at most) a tool of the ego? A way to exert ego’s power through time and space?”

I found that very interesting. I’m well aware that money is a tool. But I hadn’t snapped to it being a tool of the ego “through time and space”.

Jurgen goes on to say –

“For the most part, money only has actual power at the moment it is spent.”

That made me stop and reflect, as well. I began to reconfirm my belief that money is meaningless in and of itself. We want it so we can use it at some future point.

I kept reading and came to this:

“So isn’t a desire for money really a desire to change WHAT IS? No, not even that. It is a desire to change WHAT MAY BE.”

Ooooooo. That’s good. Money is our hope to escape this moment.

More than that, we’re in this moment worrying about future moments.

Yet the great irony is, you can never escape this moment or totally control the future ones.

This is it.

The author doesn’t spend much more time on the subject, but his sword cut through the illusion long enough for me to see the ego wants money for some future use. In short, we’re not happy right now and we want it to escape future moments like right now.

The thing is, all we have is right now.

Once we — that’s you and me — appreciate this moment and even wallow in it, we get what we need in the next moments. They come out of this moment. And when they get here, it will be this moment, too.

Don’t pursue money.

Pursue happiness.

That’s what you want money for, anyway.

And from a non-duality view of life, look at what is behind the pursuing.

What’s that watching?

Ao Akua,

Joe
www.mrfire.com

PS — If you don’t understand any of the above, look at what is trying to understand and then look at what is behind it. What is behind it is you. Remember my favorite T-shirt: “Meditation is not what you think.”

PPS - Don’t worry. I’ll get back to the “real world” in my next post. Indulge me a little for now. Thank you.

What do people think of the new monthly DVDs where you can watch me train in my gym under the guidance of Scott York while he keeps pounding me with marketing questions?

Here’s what one subscriber says –

I just finished watching the first two DVD’s of ‘Your Business Body’ and they are awesome! I love the candid view of Joe’s life and his thoughts! The way you torture (aka, train) him in his gym and grill him with marketing and business questions all at once is seriously priceless!

Zach Even - Esh
www.REALManFitness.com

Thank you, Zach. I never thought of myself as “tough,” but your objective view makes me rethink my own perspective.

Thank you.

All others take note: You can get the DVDs over at www.YourBusinessBody.com

Ao Akua,

Joe
www.mrfire.com

PS - The September ‘06 issue of Joe Vitale’s News You Can Use is now online. You can see the current and all past newsletters (7 years worth) by going to www.mrfire.com and clicking on the “Past Newsletters” link on the left. Enjoy.

PPS - If you’re serious about making a living from information, you can’t do any better than get to this site. It describes a famous event I’ll be speaking at in November. But I’m the minor character in this line-up of greats. It’s all designed to help you succeed in business using only words. See www.earlytorise.com/Mr.Fire/ Let me know if you plan to attend so we can meet up.

PPPS - We leave for a much needed vacation on Saturday. I’m ready now.

I’ve been reading some unusual books recently. These are the kind that turn my brain inside out and hang my thoughts out to dry.

It’s quite liberating, really.

Here’s an example:

I just completed reading Awakening to the Dream: The Gift of Lucid Living by Leo Hartong.

Please note that the sub-title says lucid living, not lucid dreaming. I mistyped it when I first wrote it here because it’s so easy to jump to an assumption about what the book is about. The book is about being awake. It’s a brief but eloquent book about Advaita, which is the philosophy of non-duality.

Let me give you a small head spinning taste from the book:

“If you watch your mind, you will see that thoughts arise of their own accord. Please, do not simply accept or reject this. When you honestly observe and investigate, it will become clear that you are not the thinker of your thoughts.”

Later in this book he says this:

“…ask yourself what your next thought will be and see if you can know it in advance.”

I don’t know about you, but I have no idea what my next thought will be.

Not ever.

I mean, never.

They just appear.

Once they pop into my awareness, of course, I can judge them, act on them, dismiss them, argue with them, wait for a better one, and so forth. The thoughts become the chatter in my awareness. They’re entertaining sometimes. Other times, not.

With mental toughness, I can choose the thoughts that best serve me. (I feel sorry for the people who don’t know mental toughness or haven’t read my book, The Attractor Factor. They must be at the mercy of their thoughts, which drive them to do — or not do — all sorts of things.)

But even as I watch and choose my thoughts after they appear, new thoughts — which I can’t predict — keep coming.

So my question is this:

Where are they coming from?

You can say thoughts come from your unconscious, subconscious, self-image, mind, or something else, but aren’t all of those labels just more thoughts?

From what I understand after reading this marvelous little book, thoughts are simply and magically part of the unfolding of the divine play called Life.

In order to find peace, we want to be the observer of the thoughts.

Not the judge of the thoughts; just the observer of them.

Judging the thoughts is yet another thought.

This is why my favorite T-shirt says, “Meditation is not what you think.”

Think about it.

Better yet, don’t.

Ao Akua,

Joe
www.mrfire.com

PS - Wait till I tell you what non-duality has to say about money! Stay tuned.

PPS - Now you know why I call this blog Beyond Marketing.

A friend just asked me what I’ve been up to lately. As I jotted down some of my activities, I thought you might want to know of them, too. Here are some bulleted points, in no particular order:

* New book “Meet and Grow Rich,” the definitive guide to masterminds, with Bill Hibbler, is an Amazon bestseller this week www.meetandgrowrich.com

* Next book “The Successful Coach” with Terri Levine and Larina Kase comes out in September (it’s in stores now)

* “Zero Limits” book with Dr. Len on ho’oponopono is being written now. See excerpt at www.mrfire.com/article-archives/new-articles/worlds-most-unusual-therapist.html

* Paperback version of “The Attractor Factor” hits in December. It’s being translated into numerous languages, such as Indonesian, Italian, Spanish, Brazilian.

* “Life’s Missing Instruction Manual” picked up by Wal-Mart and featured in Bottom Line Secrets newsletter.

* Audio versions of “Life’s Missing Instruction Manual” and”The Attractor Factor” will be out early 2007.

* “Hypnotic Writing” comes out in Dec as a hardcover published book.

* Just completed “Buying Trances: A New Psychology of Sales and Marketing” for 2007 release. Early reviewers are calling it “genius” and “a masterpiece.”

* Next “Beyond Manifestation” workshop will be Nov 11-12 in Austin. Audios from past one at www.beyondmanifestation.com

* “The Secret of Money” one day event with Mindy Audlin at Unity in Wimberley October 21. http://www.unityathome.org/events.htm

* I’ll be speaking at Pat O’Bryan’s next “Portable Empire” event end of Sept. www.marketerschoice.com/app/?Clk=1554504

* Started my own business-and-fitness contest with Scott York at www.YourBusinessBody.com

* Working on nutritional formulas with Dr. Marc Gitterle and Jeff Sargent such as cholesterol lowering one www.cardiosecret.com and a bodybuilding, muscle building, fitness one described at www.bodybuildingformula.com

* Just became a life-time member of the Society of American Magicians, the group Houdini started in the early 1900s

* About to come out with DVD series showing “Inside the Mind of a Marketer” with Nerissa filming me meeting people, working, doing odd or human or whatever “life” things; Joe’s realty TV show.

* Will be speaking in Poland in December; New Zealand, and Australia in early 2007.

* Will soon be releasing a DVD called “Art of the Humbug: The Story of the Great Powerball Lotto Hoax“

* Just completed “The Canine Concert” DVD and it will soon be at www.canineconcert.com

* My appearance in the movie “The Secret” continues to make me a minor celebrity www.whatisthesecret.tv

* Completing my fifth fitness contest next week, then getting on a plane for some long awaited R & R.

There’s more but that’s all I can recall for now. Best way to keep up with me is to sign up for updates at www.mrfire.com

And what are you doing these days?

Ao Akua,

Joe
www.mrfire.com

PS - Take note: For the first time in his legendary career, Robert Ringer - the “mentor to mentors” -, will share his personal-power techniques with you in a breakthrough, step-by-step teleseminar series. For more information about how you can get on the Path to Power, click on the link below or copy and paste it into your browser http://m301.infusionsoft.com/go/p2pjv/JV/ Go for it.

Jim Edwards and I released our e-book, How to Write and Publish Your Own E-book - in only 7 days, five years ago today.

We have sold tens of thousands of copies of it.

The book was a #1 bestseller for about two years straight.

Hundreds of people used it to write their own ebooks.

Many people told me they didn’t write their ebook in seven days, but that the system Jim and I revealed helped them get it written, period.

The ebook continues to sell and Jim and I continue to celebrate.

So today, let’s toast the book that built an empire and helped many people taste the sweet nectar of e-gold.

See www.7dayebook.com

Ao Akua,

Joe
www.mrfire.com

PS - My new book hits the streets today. It’s Meet and Grow Rich, written by Bill Hibbler and me. It reveals how to create your own mastermind group. This is the definitive book on masterminds. Get it today and get a ton of freebies. See www.meetandgrowrich.com

PPS - Nerissa posted a new short video of me and Mark J. Ryan talking in the car about trust and letting go. See http://drjoevitale.blogspot.com/ Enjoy.

A wonderful woman by the name of Debra Anne Nagy interviewed me during the recent hypnosis convention.

Debbie is the author of a book titled Inner Metamorphosis and she’s a real sweetheart. I easily agreed to the interview but had no idea of the transformation about to occur.

We sat in a gazebo with cool air and tall green trees around us. There were also several people quietly and intently listening. I enjoyed the questions, but one of them really blew the lid off my brain.

If you take this one question to heart, it can lift you out of any mental blocks and limits you’ve ever experienced before. Debrah’s question was:

“What would be the one thing so big, that if you ever accomplished and/or achieved it, it would knock your socks off and make the world stand up and say, ‘holy shit!’”

When I heard her question, I lit up, exclaimed it was a mind bender, and found myself having trouble answering it.

It’s easy to come up with quick answers….like I’d like to be on Oprah…or sell millions of books…or star in my own TV show…or develop a cure for some global problem…but consider her question:

“What would be the one thing so big, that if you ever accomplished and/or achieved it, it would knock your socks off and make the world stand up and say, ‘holy shit!’”

That question requires a bigger, bolder, truly “dare something worthy” answer.

After a few minutes I remembered that I wrote in my book, The Attractor Factor, that I wanted to be the world’s first trillionaire.

Well, that would be something, wouldn’t it?

I invite you to play with Debrah’s question. You don’t need to know how you will accomplish the answer, you just need to know the answer.

From there, the magic begins.

Ao Akua,

Joe
www.mrfire.com

PS — Reminders: I’ll be speaking at Pat O’Bryan’s next “Portable Empire” event in Austin, Texas in late September. The last one took newbies to netreprenuer level. This next one will rock with a delightful twist. It’s not been done before. If you want to know the proven system to make it online, then get to Pat’s un-seminar. But only 33 can attend. Details are at www.marketerschoice.com/app/?Clk=1554504 Also, the next Manifestation Weekend will be Nov 11 - 12 in Austin, Texas. Price is just like the original one: $1,000. If you’re interested, send an email to my assistant Suzanne at suzanneburns@austin.rr.com Hope to see you at these events.

Yesterday I told you about buying a gold plated cigar lighter for $612. I asked you to note how it made you feel. Now I’ll tell you why I made that request.

The night I bought the David Off luxury lighter, Nerissa, Mark and I went out for dinner. The conversation was deep and entrancing. Whenever anyone said anything wise, insightful, or positive, I flipped open the lighter to anchor the moment with a “ping.”

Sometimes they noticed what I was doing, but often they did not. The “ping” was becoming a tool for sealing beautiful moments into our minds. Milton Erickson would have loved it. So would Pavlov and his dogs.

The next day I had breakfast with Brian Dean, a remarkable cruise ship stage hypnotist. Brian told me he used my Hypnotic Selling Secrets package to take his site, which was making $600 a month, to a site making $53,000 a month.

He also told me he had no emotional attachment to money. He said it was just a tool. Since very few people have this mindset towards money, I wanted to know more.

“Let me test you,” I said.

I then told him about buying the lighter for six hundred dollars.

I asked him what he thought.

“I know exactly why you bought that lighter,” he said.

“Tell me,” I encouraged.

“You bought it to anchor in the emotions of success and deservingness. Whenever you touch that lighter, you’ll recall being here and all the success you’ve had. I think it’s a brilliant investment. It’s worth far more than the six hundred dollars. I applaud you.”

Later that same day, I was sitting in a gazebo, being interviewed by friends. I asked a couple there what they thought of my buying a lighter for hundreds of dollars.

“That’s stupid!” one gent exclaimed.

“Tell me what you really feel,” I said.

“You can light a cigar with a match,” he continued. “You don’t need a lighter, let alone one for six hundred dollars! That’s just stupid!”

Brian dean was there, and he explained his view. As the discussion grew, my gold lighter with the special “ping” became a tool for self-awareness. It revealed where people were in their prosperity consciousness.

In fact, Brian suggested he and I write a book about the whole mindset of money as a tool, which meant my lighter was becoming a money-making new project.

“Let me tell you what I think,” I began. “I have a belief in my head that says the more money I spend, the more money I receive. So when I spend six hundred dollars, I start looking for the six thousand dollars coming around the corner.”

“But you can use that money for other things, like feeding people,” the skeptic said.

“That’s a comment from a scarcity mind,” I said. “I believe you can help feed people and spend six hundred dollars on a lighter. The only limits are self-created ones.”

By now you can see why I asked you how it felt to hear about my lighter. It was simply a way to hold up a mirror to your own beliefs. That shiny gold lighter reflects your money IQ.

If you like your beliefs, keep them.

If you don’t, consider taking on new ones.

If you want to investigate all of this more deeply, the next Manifestation Weekend will be Nov. 11 - 12 in Austin, Texas. Price is just like the original one (just a little more than a gold lighter): $1,000. If you’re interested in attending, send an email to my assistant Suzanne at suzanneburns@austin.rr.com

If you want to know what the first manifestation weekend was like, see www.BeyondManifestation.com

“Ping”

Ao Akua,

Joe
www.mrfire.com

PS — I received my Zager guitar. It’s beautiful, sounds lyrical, and somehow seems to make me a better guitar player. Their service is off the charts wonderful, too. I wrote to them complaining that I expected a guitar case but only got a t-shirt with the guitar. They instantly wrote back, said it wasn’t their policy to send cases, but they would send me one for free because they didn’t want a disappointed customer. Now that is service to model. I’m very pleased.

One night after the recent hypnosis convention, my dear friend Mark Ryan drove Nerissa and me out and away from the hypnotic buzz of a few thousand passionate hypnotists all talking at once.

We needed the break. Between the traveling and the socializing, the groupies and the interviews, the buying and the selling, there was not much time to sleep, let alone just relax. My talks were sold-out hits and my booth sold-out of all product by the second day. We were the only table with nothing on it but our elbows and a white cloth.

To celebrate, we went for a drive.

Nerissa and Mark wanted coffee, so we stopped at a Starbucks. I think we passed seven of them during one block in rural Massachusetts. One day, Starbucks will rule the earth.

I wasn’t interested in calorie-rich coffees or in sugar-infested desserts, but I was interested in finding a good cigar store.

Mark asked the spacey coffee maker at Starbucks if there were any cigar stores near by. After staring into space for thirty minutes, or so it seemed, he mumbled some directions that seemed to mean there was a cigar store someplace in New England, which gave us six states to cover.

Anyway, we went for a wonderful, relaxing ride, enjoying the tall green trees, the lack of billboards along the highway, the beautiful lakes here and there, and more. It was very relaxing.

After a while, I spotted an actual dedicated cigar store.

Mark turned around and pulled into it.

I’m new to cigar smoking and have never been inside a huge store of cigars and pipes. There were hundreds if not a thousand or more cigars to look at. We asked the manager for some guidance. Turns out the manager, Ernie, was personable and informative.

He told us the truth: All cigars are pretty much the same except for marketing.

The difference between a $50 cigar and a $5 cigar is really $45.

He went on to explain that some companies market themselves as the luxury, never-make-a-bad-cigar brand, such as David Off.

Other companies only make a limited amount of a good cigar, and then advertise the scarcity of their item.

It was all pretty fascinating.

I told Ernie I needed a lighter.

But I added that I didn’t want just any lighter.

“Pretend Donald Trump walked in,” I said. “What kind of lighter would you show him or any other tycoon?”

Ernie went over to a glass display case and pointed at several lighters inside it. They were all gold and silver. They looked stunning and luxurious. I was pretty sure they would cost $50 or more, at least.

The gold one caught my eye.

“Tell me about that one,” I said, pointing to it.

“Ah, the David Off gold plated lighter,” he said, savoring the words as he spoke them. “You don’t get much better than that.”

He pulled it from the display case and flicked the flint. Double blue flames appeared. It was a hypnotic dance of fire.

“It looks like two flames,” I noted.

“It is,” he said. “This is to light all sides of your cigar at one time.”

He then added something interesting.

“What this lighter is known for is something else, though.”

He then paused, closed the lighter, and popped it open again.

“You hear that ping?” he asked.

He opened and closed the lighter a few more times.

There was a clear crystal like “ping” that appeared in the air as he flipped the lighter open.

“People who know the brand of David Off can recognize that ping from across the room.”

I asked to hold the lighter.

It was heavy, like solid metal should be. It looked like something a King or Queen would have. It felt comfortable in my hand. And when I opened that lid, the “ping” seemed entrancing.

I opened and closed it a few more times, letting Nerissa and Mark hear the “ping.”

Mark dug it, smiling every time he heard it. Nerissa didn’t say anything one way or the other. She was looking at humidors and imagining them as jewelry boxes.

“How much is it?” I asked Ernie.

By now Ernie was helping someone else. He raised his hand to ask me to wait. While he did that, Mark looked in the display case and saw the price of another lighter.

“Looks like it’s over four hundred bucks, Joe.”

“No, that’s not the price,” Ernie interrupted.

He then reached into the case and pulled out the box for the gold plated lighter.

I read the price tag.

It said $612.

Six hundred and twleve dollars.

Six hundred and twelve dollars for a lighter.

I thought about it for maybe one minute, and then said I wanted it.

I bought it, too.

Now let me ask you this:

What do you think of my spending $612 on a lighter?

You don’t have to tell me, but you do need to tell yourself.

How do you feel about it?

Stay tuned to Part Two, where we will go deeper into this story and Your Money Test.

Ao Akua,

Joe
www.mrfire.com

PS — I’ll be speaking at Pat O’Bryan’s next Portable Empire event. The last one took newbies to netrepreneur level. This next one will rock the house with a delightful twist. It’s never been done before. Leave it to Pat to take his own innovative program to a whole new level. All the details are at www.marketerschoice.com/app/?Clk=1554504 Show up and I’ll let you hear my lighter go “ping.”

PPS — UPI (United Press International) picked up my “Happiness Burns More Calories” news release that I told you about last week. UPI is one of the wire services that feeds news to all media. This means the entire world may eventually learn of my news release. This is very, very good. It also demonstrates the power of publicity. You need to be doing this, too. See www.upi.com/ConsumerHealthDaily/view.php?StoryID=20060809-032401-4800r

Nerissa and I headed to the airport early last Thursday morning, oblivious to the just implemented orange alert at all the airports.

We were surprised to learn we couldn’t take water or lotions on the plane. I rely on water to stay healthy. I take gel-like nutritional packs with me so I don’t eat the airline food. All of that had to be trashed.

No one explained why to us, or to anyone else.

When security stopped me and went through my carry-on bag, the gent examining my stuff was kind enough to tell me about the potential terroritst attacks and the new level of high security. Knowing what was happening helped a lot in reducing our anxiety and confusion.

After we got through security, we saw the television sets in the airport blasting the news out to the world. As I listened, they sure made the airport experience sound worse than what it really was. If I were planning to go to the airport, the media warnings might have talked me out of it. But I was in the airport, and everything was totally fine.

Nerissa and I got on two flights that day, and two more yesterday.

We never had a problem.

We didn’t encoutner long lines.

We didn’t hear any unhappy travelers.

And every flight was sold out.

Life was pretty much going on as usual, simply minus some water and lotions.

Again, the media focuses on the negative and distorts reality. A front-page close-up photo of a guard at an airport holding a machine gun makes you think some negative thoughts. But the truth is, I never saw a guard carrying any weapon at all.

I’m glad we are being protected.

But don’t let the media rule your experiences.

Ao Akua,

Joe
www.mrfire.com

PS - I have much to report about the hypnosis convention. It was a whirlwind adventure with non-stop magic and miracles. Stay tuned.