After I posted on Secret Therapy Stories, Louis Burns of The NLP Marketing Blog asked me:
Martin – can you share more details on which of your identities got what kind of response? That’s a fascinating experience.
Of course.
The traveling musician got people to open up very, very quickly. I found that guitar playing was a gimmick that created a rapport zone, making it incredibly easy to connect with others — eventually, I discarded it to increase the challenge level, but it’s worth noting. Apparently, a space in people’s psyche opens up to buskers, magicians, illusionists, jugglers and other street performers. I’d venture to suggest some sort of archetype that the character taps into but won’t allow myself to dabble into that sort of content (lack of NLP rigor).
The Latin American mystic, needless to say, shot people in trances with very little effort. I hallucinated that the word “mystic” in and of itself was a powerful anchor, inducing a trance by its mere mention. I can’t help but laugh when thinking back at those experiences because I’d move my language into a very, very trancy zone, saying phrases such as: “Pause for a second and start noticing the space where you are at one with this leaf. Can you get there? Of course and it becomes easier just by noticing it, right?”
I had a harder time reaching my therapeutic goals as the California businessman. I could see people closing up a bit when I started entering the “personal issues” zone. After about 10 experiments, I dropped him out of my roster.
The French poet didn’t derive much useful response potential neither. He only did when I blended a bit of a mystical state into the persona.
Many variables are at play here, so I wouldn’t dare to derive any conclusions on which personas had the best effect. The way I postured myself, the clothing I used, the tone of my voice and my overall “sympathy” state all had an effect on the responses each character elicited. Unfortunately, I didn’t conduct as systematic an experiment as I could have.
Power Zones
The most important lesson I learned from my experiments was that I didn’t mattered. My personal history and my skill level weren’t nearly as important as I imagined them to be. The truly important factor was the environment I created and entered as a character to interact with another human being.
Stop for a second and think about this. Want to become an angel today? Go out into town and find a beggar on a street corner. Take a $20 bill (or higher — $100 would have a bigger bang), walk to the beggar, look at him in the eye and simply say: “The Great One has sent me down to give you help. (Hand him the money) And He asked me to tell you that within the next seven days, you will have to find a way to contribute to 7 people who are in more need than you. I’ll be watching…” And then walk away.
Try it for yourself. Try it a few times. Notice the interaction “twilight zone” you’re able to create with each new encounter.
These are the change zones you must learn to create to powerfully influence others and assist them in moving to the next level in their life.
To others, you can literally be whomever you want. And it matters a lot more to them than to you.