Module 2 Bonus:

The Direction of Influence: The Football Field for Communication

Tony Robbins:

When I worked with Jim Rohn as a speaker, I was 17 years old. I didn't have a lot of skill, but
had a lot of passion. You know, I went to his seminar when I was 17, this three- and-a-half-hour
seminar. And at that point, I was trying to read a book a day. I took a speed reading course, and I
was reading everything in the personal development area, you know, from Man's Search for
Meaning, to Emerson's Essays, to Think and Grow Rich. You know; you name it, I was absorbing it.

And so when I went to the seminar with Jim Rohn. He'd get up and say things, and I
knew those principles. I've read them in a book, and I was like this little kid. I was shouting
answers back out to him and so forth. I was having a great time.

So, eventually, I go to work for Jim. And the job that I get is: I'm supposed to fill his
seminars for him. It's a knowledge broker. I didn't have that term back then. And he had a huge
team of people. I think at that time, he had, like, five offices in California, and there were like 30, 35
people in each office. And you know, to qualify to go to work for him, you had to buy all these
products which were, like, $1,200. And, you know, I was sleeping in my 1968 Volkswagen Baja Bug
that cost me less than $1,100.

And so, I'm wearing a suit I got at the thrift store, and I'd pull up to these meetings I'm
supposed to give a speech to enroll people so they'll go hear Jim Rohn about success, and I'd turn
off my car and have this explosion, you know, the backfire to it. So, I'd park down the street, walk in
with my thrift store suit, my fake gold chain and, you know; eventually got myself a tie. But I
learned… My passion got me going, but I learned how to influence people.

And by the way, that's the number one skill that makes you a leader. Leadership is not
everybody follows you. Leadership is you're able to get yourself to live by a standard, that you can
get yourself to follow through, do what's necessary.And if you can get yourself to do more, get
more, be more, share more, then you're going to find you'll be able to do with other people too if you
follow this principle of to influence other people, I got them to learn in… already influences them.

I'll give a quick example. I don't know if you have children but, if you have more than one
child, my bet is that you have maybe not a favorite child but you have an easier child. Maybe you
don't have children. I'm sure you know people who do. They always have an easier child. Who's the
easier child? The ones who are more like you because we're all good at influencing people that are
like us. The kid like us; you told them to clean the room the way it worked for you and they cleaned
it. The other one rolls their eyes, right? So you want to be able to influence anybody. And that's why
you’ve got to be able to enter their world and see what influences them.

So, when I was with Jim Rohn, Jim gave me all kinds of insights and ideas. But one of those
was how to think about how to influence someone from the front of the room. He was really good
at that. He's a great storyteller, and he had great, you know, rhythm to his voice. Everything he did
was practiced. He dropped the chalk into his hand the exact same way. He turned it the same… I
mean, every talk was identical, and it was perfect, but that wasn't my style.

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 Module 2 Bonus:
The Direction of Influence: The Football Field for Communication

I was more of a free shooter. I wanted it to be raw and real. I talked more rapidly, and I
didn't try to become Jim Rohn. But what I tried to do is to study the way he was able to
communicate.

And the first thing I noticed was he was really good at connecting with people even though
you know, he was in his 50s and he had gray hair. He was able to get young people to respond to
him and older people to respond to him. And I started to notice that in the very beginning of his
seminar, the first part seemed all about getting people to saying "me too" instead of "so what." He
would, what I learned when I started speaking in Europe and especially in England, is they call it
taking the mick. Instead of building yourself up, it's like being self-effacing a little bit. And I noticed
that there was this process that he started going through. And so as I studied with him; I learned
this process. And I wat to show it to you.

And I call it the football field of communication or influence. If you're going to design a
mastermind, you design a talk, you're going to design a teaching session, what's your goal? Your
goal is not just to teach. Your goal is get them to follow through, right?

Knowledge by itself is interesting. But when people say knowledge is power, it's just not
true. Execution is power. Execution trumps knowledge every day of the week. So we need the
knowledge, but we need to learn in a way that moves us to action. And so you’ve got to say, "What
gets in the way of people taking action?"

Well, the first thing that gets in the way is they don't relate to you. You know, you… if you
come out… like even today in my life, if you come to one of my events, I tease about myself. I make
fun of myself. I say, when you're sitting here right now, you guys being so wonderful, I know what
you're thinking or you stand there going, "Wow, this is amazing content," or, "Man, the guy has
gigantic teeth," you know. And I'll do something. I take a little mick. I'm a little playful. And then I tell
the stories, not of my great successes. I tell where I started. I tell the difficult times because what I
want to do first is get them on the same field with me. Does that make sense? I want them to say,
"me too," not, "so what." And if I'm going to show you now a little diagram.

It's a simple process. And this is how you can design any talk that you really want to give. And
so it's a mixed metaphor. It's a football field with a hundred yards. Here's the touchdown down here
we want to get to. But it also is kind of a funnel, mixed metaphor. And my goal is I want to get them
on the field with me, and I want to march them down the field to where, at the end, they take some
form of action where we influence them to do something to make their life better. Does that make
sense? Whether you do this in business, whether you're doing this with your kids, whether you're
doing this with yourself, this the process I go through.

So the first 40 yards of a hundred-yard football field, I call identification. Identification is

getting people early in your conversation to go "me too," and not "so what." If I get up and go, "Oh,
I've got 54 companies and we do $6 billion in business and, you know, I do this and that. I'm so
great," you know, well, at some point, I'll drop in that social proof because it's accurate. But if I start
out with that stuff- It's all… yeah, so what? So you did that, so what? And also at this stage of my
life because, you know, I've been doing this for 42, coming up on 43, years, I'm almost 60 years old,
some people just see me and, "Oh, of course, he can do that stuff." So you’ve got to get them to
see, "Hey, Tony's like me." And so what I do is: I introduce things. I read people's minds. I do things
so they go, "Oh, he gets it. I understand it."

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 Module 2 Bonus:
The Direction of Influence: The Football Field for Communication

I'll give you an example in a moment, with a… Gosh, one of the first NBA teams I ever
worked with was the San Antonio Spurs. And I did this back in… it was in '94, '95, something like
that when David Robinson was there and, you know, they had Avery Johnson, if you remember
those days, if you've been around long enough. David Robinson became a Hall of Famer later on.
And Dennis Rodman was, you know, part of the team. He left the Bulls and came there. So it was
quite a crowd. And they had been, going near the playoffs or to the playoffs and then, quite frankly
by their own coach's description, co-chair, are choking this time. And so I have to go in. I’ve got to
get them to say "me, too."

Now, you can imagine, I get somebody to say "me, too" when this tall, white guy walks in
who doesn't play basketball and it's even worse than that because I'm going to show you what I put
them through in this process.There was a rule in the NBA in those days; I don’t know if it's still
there. It's a union rule where if you're on the road for, I don't know what it was, nine out of 10 days,
that if the coach calls a meeting, the longest meeting can be, after so many days on the road,
whatever the real number was, was an hour.

And so I… coach called me up and said, "Listen, we really want you to come work with the
team. You know, every year we get to the playoffs but, you know, we have these challenges. We
kind of choke, and we think you could make a difference. We've seen what you've done with all
these other athletes and teams."

And Pat Riley is a good friend of mine. And Pat Riley was the coach. You know, he was a
player on the Lakers, coach of the Lakers, and the coach of the Knicks and, of course, then he went
to Miami and became an owner there as well as a coach. And he's got, you know, more World
Championship rings than most people alive. I think at the time, he had five or six. And I called Pat, I
said, "They want me to come do this."

And he goes, "Tony, you know what you get yourself into, man. I believe in you, dude, but,
like, it's a different world now in these sports. These guys, like, you know, they… some of them
complain how they want to fly on their own jet.Why should they go with a team's jet? It's a different
world than when I started playing basketball." And he goes, "I… you know, these guys are great guys
but, they're not going to listen to you, you know." I said, "You know, Pat, I really appreciate your vote
of confidence." He laughed.

He said, "do what you can." So I'm thinking: how do I get on there? How am I going to do
this? How am I going to have an impact? And I lay out this three-and-a-half-hour format based on
what I'm going to show you visually in a moment. And it's a process to take them from "who the hell
are you" to following through and really changing the quality of their performance, influencing
them. And I lay all three-and-a-half hours out.

And I tell you this background before I'll show the graphic because what happens is, I come
to the game the night before. And I watched the team play and it was a mixed game. They didn’t do
so terribly well. And it was the first game at home after like, I said, nine days on the road,
something like that. Then the coach comes up to me afterwards, he goes, "Oh, we really need you
tomorrow, man. I'm really looking forward to this session." I said, "I am, too."

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 Module 2 Bonus:
The Direction of Influence: The Football Field for Communication

And he goes, "Oh, we just have one problem." And I- I said, "What's that?" And by the way, my
throat was strained. I could barely talk. It was one of the worst times in my throat. And he said, "Uh,
well, tomorrow, I didn't realize, you know, we've been on the road all these days. There's this union
rule, and you can only… they can only… I can hold them for an hour." I said, "An hour?" I said, "I… if I'm
going to do this, you know, you told me I have three, three-and-a-half hours, that's a minimum I
need to really make a difference here." And he goes, "Well, Tony, you're so good. You'll hold them and
like they can, on their own, decide to stay but we can't require them to stay." I'm like, "Oh, my God,
okay."

So I go to sleep that night, my throat is so sore, I get up the next morning, I'm designing
how am I going to get on their… on their, you know… get them to say "me too" and connect with me
as that first stage, and then what I'm going to do to influence them to show them what we're going
to do to promise them. How am I going to challenge them and how am I get through their
objections and how am I get them moving to a solution as I'm going to walk you through this.

And the next morning, and he goes… Uh, we moved the location from the locker room to
this room where there's a, you know, a basketball court in it but it's like a lot… much larger room.
And he said, "The owner said as long as we've got you here, he wants to bring in all the people from
management in here." Like I'm talking about the ticket sellers and the people in the home office, a
bunch of white people basically and, uh, who don't play basketball.

And I'm like, "What? I was supposed to be working with the team." He goes, "Yeah, yeah,"
and then he wants to film it. And so he puts like 50 or 60 people in the back and then, instead of
being just the, you know, dozen players roughly, NBA, you know, players that are extraordinary, I’ve
got all these ticket takers in the back and I'm like, "Oh my God.”

I walked in the room, the cameras are rolling, and then he comes up and, you know, they…
you know, Bob Hill was the coach at that time. And he says, "Tony," he said, "the owner really wants
to give you this jacket." And it was the official Spurs jacket, and not like something you buy, like for
the players with “Robbins” on the back, you know. It was really beautiful. I said, "Well, gosh, this is
really gorgeous, but I haven't really earned it yet." He goes, "He wants you to wear it for the filming."
I'm thinking, if I stand in front of these guys wearing this jacket that I didn't earn, some white guy,
where is this going to go?

So I'm telling you this because I want to give you, like what do you do with the worst case
scenarios, like can you really influence people when you're in a terrible environment, how the
system really works? So I've done my BEND WIMP. I've interviewed the coach about: what are their
beliefs about how they're doing in the playoffs. And a bunch of them, you know, are mad at each
other. And they think they're choked, and how they're going to evaluate me.

Well, I know that. They're going to go, "This tall, white guy, who doesn’t play basketball,
what the hell is he doing here?" And then also going to evaluate, "He's taken up a day of my life." And
what do they really need? Well, you know, their… David Robinson, their star player, unbelievable
player is missing free throws like crazy during the game. We need to show them how to change
their performance by changing their state. I know the tools.

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 Module 2 Bonus:
The Direction of Influence: The Football Field for Communication

And what do they want? They want to win. And what are their wounds? Their wound is they
keep getting too close and not getting there? And, you know, what are their interests? And you
know, who are the role models? And, you know, what are they proud of? I’ve got all this stuff in my
head. I'm doing this design. Now, they want me to wear this jacket.

I mean, I said, "I don't feel comfortable." Then he goes, "It… the man, the owner said please
put this on." So I put on the frickin' jacket. And then the coach says, "You know, the guys are kind of
antsy today. You’ve got an hour but I know you'll get them." And he goes, "I'm going to have Avery
Johnson," who's one of the players, "I'm going to have him introduce you. I think they'll respond
better if a player introduces you." And Avery Johnson's a beautiful man. And he's actually, at the
time, was studying to be a minister while he's still in school… still playing NBA, and beautiful guy,
amazing player. And so I say, "Okay."

So I'm wearing this frickin' jacket. Avery Johnson walks up to the front. He goes, um… he's
very kinesthetic. He goes, "Tony Robbins is- I met him last night. He's a good man, helped a lot of
people. Tony." That was my introduction. I walk up and all the people in the back, they're clapping
and not a single guy there. Ah, I left out one of the details.

I gave them this pad of paper for notes, and I had this one questionnaire. There were four
questions on it. We're going to answer before, and then after the training to show what's changed.
And when I… before I even got up to speak, David Robertson, uh, Dennis Rodman, rather, comes in.
He has… I think he had green hair at that time or red hair. I can't remember what it was that day.
And he looks around and sees all these ticket takers in here, right, and just… you can see the
disgust in his face. And he sits down and sees this notebook. And he looks over at me and sees me
standing in the room in the corner, and he takes the notebook… I'll never forget, takes it, rips it,
rips into four pieces, throws it on the ground, puts on his glasses, sits back like this and looks like
this.

Now, what the hell are you going to do with this audience? Good question, right? I'll show
you what we're going to do with this audience. Let me show you the structure. And then I'll tell you
the story.

So here's the structure. I started telling you the first 40 yards of influencing somebody is
getting in your funnel and on the same page and moving forward. How do we do that? We’ve got to
find a way to get rapport. We’ve got to get… find a way for them to have respect for you, for them to
feel like you're there to serve them, for them to say "me too" not "so what." If you can do that, that's
40 yards of you influencing somebody.

But then once we get that ID (Identification) frame, identification, now, what we’ve got to
do is 10 yards, just 10 yards, of what I call Logic and Reason. Logic and Reason is the promise. This
is what we're going to do. Here's how it's going to work.

And if we do this, you know, this is the kind of impact that's going to happen. It's the logic.
It's them going, "Okay, you know, that makes sense to me." But they don't give a damn what you're
talking about if they don't identify with. And you're going to have to talk to audiences that don't
identify with you. So we’ve got to get good at ID, and then good at really making our promises or
our challenges of what we're going to get done. Then you're at the halfway mark of a football field,
50-yard line.

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The next 25 yards, almost half the rest of the distance, I call Attack and Confess. Attack and
Confess means attack what's getting in their way. If you're doing a talk to influence, I want to attack
whatever their objections are. Whatever they think it will keep them from following through or it
won't work, I want to mindread them. Mind Reading is: you don't wait for someone to object to
something. You know what the objections are.

I remember when I was first learning time management. My objection was, "Oh, my God, I
don't have time for a time management course." What an idiot I was, right? So once I learned the
value of that, if I wanted to get someone to do a time management course on my staff or
something, I would do the same thing. I'd say, "You know, I've struggled for so long. I've tried so
many different programs. You know, I buy these programs in those days, these books you'd carry
around before we had, you know, phones and, and apps. And I trialed these apps or these phones or
these formats. And, you know, I tried them for a while, but nothing ever works. You know, I've always
got more to do than I have time for." What do most people do? " Me, too. Me, too. I don't have time
either."

You follow me? And I got so frustrated, so I'm getting them… most people identifying their
heads are going up and down multiple times. And then, you know, it made logical sense that I
should just figure out how to solve this. And there's got to be a way. There's got to be a system to
do it. But you know what? You know, I kept saying to myself, 'I don’t have time for a time
management course.' I was like, what a dumb ass I was. Can you see how stupid I was?" And I would
ask them, "You see how stupid I was?"

And I would attack the objection by confessing that I've been guilty. If you tell me, I'm not
doing this for some reason, and I say, "No, you still do it," then you and I are fighting. But if I can
anticipate whatever is going to get in the way of you following through in your mastermind, in your
course, and everything like that, then there's only a few things people object to. It's usually time
and money. I don't have money. I don't have the time to do something. If I can handle that in
advance before you bring it up, and I'm not attacking you, I'm attacking the problem. Does that
make sense?

And so what I'm really good at is get them to see and agree and identify with me, see we're
not so different as they think, I make a logical sense of the challenge that we could solve, excuse
me, and then I want to figure out the objection, and I want to attack it before they bring it up. And I
want to destroy it. And I'm going to do it by either confessing that I've been guilty of this dumb stuff
before and get them to agree, "Ain't that dumb?" Because once you say… um, I say to them
something like, "I was such an idiot," and say, "I don't have time for a time management course. I
mean, how am I ever going to get better. It’s the stupidest thing you imagine, isn't it?" And once you
say, "Yeah, it is," as a group, as an individual, and you're nodding, you're not going to come back and
say "I don't have time for that course." Does that make sense?

But if I say, "I don’t have time for it," now I'm attacking you. So I can confess I've been guilty
or I can confess for someone else. "You know, I was working with this friend of mine, John and, for
five years, I tried to show him how he could run his business better with RPM™, the system I
developed. And he'd seen me building my companies. I went from one to two to five to 10
companies now at that time, and he's like, 'How do you do it?'

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 Module 2 Bonus:
The Direction of Influence: The Football Field for Communication

I tell him and he just said, 'Yeah, but I just don't have time to do this.' And it's like, finally,
finally, I got him to go for it." And that goes to the next step, by the way.

That's 75 yards down the field of influence. So what do we do? We get a "me, too" versus
"so what." We get them to identify that we understand what they need. We- we're in their corner.
We make this Logic and Reason, what we're going to do and how we're going to solve, and why it
makes sense. That’s the logicThat's only 10 yards. A big part of influencing them is figuring the
objections and getting rhythm and dance.

Now the next 24, maybe 24-and-a-half yards, think of Attack and Confess as the “hell if
you don't do this.” And the next 24 and a half yards is the Solution. This is the “heaven if you do.”

And then I go, "You know, I got John to do it. And finally, after five years, he goes to the
program. He just spends, you know, one-and-a-half days, and he told me afterwards, 'Tony, this is
the greatest gift of my life. I have time for my children now. You know, now, I run two businesses
now, and it's only been six months.'" And I tell the story, or "I finally did this. I finally stopped being
an idiot. I went to the program. I learned new skills. And guess what, now here's where my life is,
now. Now, I run 54 companies. Now, we do $6 billion in business." You know, and I tell the story of
how, by getting through my objections, my problems and my limiting beliefs, now, I have this great
solution, the “heaven if I do.”

And then the last step, the last half yard or yard, is you have to Ask for the Action. You have
to call them to do something, get them to do it because, if you get somebody in your funnel out
here, they're not part of you know, not identify with you. They're moving down the field with you. "I
get it. Me, too. That makes sense. Oh, yeah, I used all that. Oh, these objections, yeah, stop me. Oh,
my God, here's the solution." If at any stage, you let them out, if you don't call them to action at the
end, the whole thing starts all over again. Does that make some sense?

So I design my talks this way, whatever talk I'm going to do. It's like, who are they, what do
they believe, what are they value, what do they need, what do they desire, what are their wounds,
you know, what are their interests, who their role models, you know, what are they proud of, so I
can find ways to get them to see I understand them. I'm here to serve them. It's sincere, it's real. It's
not fake or phony.

I've done my homework. It's not some, you know, canned presentation. Even if I have certain
fundamentals that go across letting them work, it's customized and then they feel it. And I know
what is going to be my logic and reason why they’ve got to pay attention, what does this going to
mean, what we're going to deliver, so they're excited about it. But then I have to get rid of the
objections and I’ve got to show them the solution plan. I have to call them to action. And many
times, I take them through this more than once in a presentation.

But I just… I'm sitting down with the team saying I think people need just an idea of how to
think about building a presentation because most people don't know where you're going to start.
So let me finish the story and I think it'll come together for you.

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 Module 2 Bonus:
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So I'm in my jacket; Robbins in the back, San Antonio Spurs. I’ve got, you know, the coach
not introducing me because the team's like, you know, frustrated. It's their day off and they're
looking at their watches going, "only one hour." I’ve got all the ticket takers guys, all overly
enthusiastic, you know. And these guys are slouching in their chairs in the front looking like this
and you know, looking down. And Dennis Rodman has torn his papers, throwing them down, put on
his glasses, looking like this. Avery says, "Tony's good guy. You know, helped a lot of people, Tony
Robbins." And then walked out. And the ticket takers are going like this is. There's not one player
clapping. And so I’ve got to get rapport.

How do you get rapport when someone doesn't do it? How do you get respect? You read
their minds. You say what you know they're thinking that most people have the guts to say. So I
walked out and, you know, ticker takers finally calmed down. And I looked at the players and I say,
"look, it was not my design to have all the ticket people join us. Thank you for being here. I guess
the owner wanted that." I said, "I'm really here to serve you guys."

And I said, "You're probably wondering right now what is this white guy doing here that
doesn't play NBA basketball taking one day I had offin whenever, it's been nine out of 10 days, you
guys were on the road? I mean, that's got to be a question, that has to be happening in your mind
right now." And when I say that, what starts to happen and they start to go… I remember Rodman
tipped his glasses down, looked up at me like this is, like, "Hmm, yeah, that is what I want to know,
right?" So what is it? Immediately, it's identification like, "Oh, he knows he's maybe wasting my time.
Oh. he's reading my mind here. There's a connection." Do you follow? There's a rapport. There's an
identification.

And I say, "And the other thing I'm doing is the owner gave me this jacket." I took it out. I
said, "I can't wear this thing." I took it off. "I'm really grateful. But I haven't earned this jacket. You
guys have earned it." So I took it off. I walked down the aisle. I had it over to Avery Johnson. I said,
"Avery, you and the team, if after I'm done, I've added so much value to you guys, you got so much
out of this, that you say, 'Hey, Tony's one of us,' then you give me that jacket. Otherwise, I haven't
earned it."

And now I go to the front. Now, Rodman tips his glasses again. His arms are so close, but
you can see him looking at me like a different thing like, "Okay. All right, let's see what you’ve got.
You want to prove it to me? Prove it to me." You could just feel the change in the room in seconds,
right, just by doing that. And then I got up and said, "So let me answer the question. You guys
busted your tail. You're one of the best teams in the league." But, see, most people think of
rapport as only like white Anglo-Saxon rapport; I like you, you like me. Street rapport is different.
Like I remember as a kid, when I moved to this new school, the first day and this kid and I got in
this massive fight. We fought, felt like, to the death. You know, you exaggerate in your mind when
you're a kid, and we became best friends after that because there was this rapport, this respect.

So I said to them, "You're probably wondering why." And I said, "You know, I- I don't play
basketball in fact but," I said, "Here's who I've helped," then I gave them all these extraordinary
teams and players I've helped. And so they've said, and I said, I talked to Pat Riley last night and he
sends his regards. He's a competitor but has great respect for you but the real reason I'm here is
you guys choke every time you get to the playoffs.

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And then, all of a sudden, there's a different lean in,right? Like "What'd he just say?" but
also, it's true. And the truth cuts through things. And then I laughed and said, "Easy for me to say. I
haven't accomplished shit in the NBA. But you know, it's true. And so I don't have all the answers.
But I’ve got a few here that have worked for some of the greatest athletes in the world.

"And here's what I know. You guys only have one hour that you're required to be here. And I'm
so sorry that was on your day off. But I really want to serve you, and I’ve got some skills that can do it
but you judge for yourself whether they're not but what I need you to do is work with me for this hour
and if you want to go, you can go. But if you want to stay, I'll go deeper with you and we'll make a
measurable difference."

And I said, "So rather than talk a good game. Let me just show you how we go about this." And
I show them how teams create momentum because they've lost momentum several times. And I
taught them this little tool. And I said, "Now, let me show you how this works." And I had a
demonstration. I gave them an experience, right?

And think about what I've done here. I've identified logic and reason. I've attacked a certain
amount. And then this time, I kind of attacked their own performance, confessed I don't have all the
answers, but some of them. I'm painting a solution for them, and I'm asking them to give me their
attention, their time for an hour. I better run through this in one way through, where you get a
sense of this.

So what do I do? I won't tell you the whole damn story. But I bring on… you know, David
Robinson is now Hall of Famer, and they call them the Admiral. He's this giant guy. I'm a big guy.
He's even bigger than I am, and he's got a V like this. And I said, "How about we start with you,
David?" He comes up there, right? And the guys are just kind of laughing a little bit, and then I said,
"David." I said, "How are you doing on your free throws?" Now what have I done? I've gone straight
for a wound. You follow me?

And the guys started laughing. And I said, "I'm not trying to be harsh but…" I said, "Uh,
understand there's some challenges to that." And he goes, "Oh yeah, a little bit." Then some of the
guys started teasing him, you know. And so I got rapport with the team. I kind of teased him a little
bit too, not harshly, appropriately, still respectfully. And I'm now going to demonstrate, you know,
that we can make a change with him.

And so without telling you all the details, you know, I had him do what he normally does, and
I understand him where he stands. And you could see when a guy has failed. The shoulders come
down. His breathing comes down. I said, "Show me the guy that misses these things, right?" They
all kind of giggled, "Yeah, we know that guy."

I said, "Now, show me the Admiral," because I knew that was his nickname because I've
done my homework. BEND WIMP, right? And I knew that was the nickname when he was in college
at his very best. And when he's performing as high, they call him the Admiral.

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 Module 2 Bonus:
The Direction of Influence: The Football Field for Communication

And when I said, "Show me the Admiral," his whole body changed. I think, he's towering
above me, this V body, shoulders back, this look in his eye of a competitor that could crush
anything. And I said, "Now, that man," and I created a trigger. Again, I don't need to tell you all the
details of it but I created a trigger to bring him back to that several times. Then I had to make
shots of the Admiral and try him in this other state where he couldn't. And now, I’ve got everybody's
attention because I've demonstrated the results. So I have the long story short. I won't bore you
with the whole thing.

End of an hour, I’ve got these guys rocking. They're going, everything else. Looking at my
watch, I said, "The hour's up." So I said, "First of all, ticket takers, it's been really nice having you
guys. All of you, administration people, thank you for being here. But now, it's just me and the boys.
You're excused." And they looked up at Popovich who's now the coach and, in those days was the
general manager, and he nodded, and they all left. So I looked at these, you know, dozen guys, right,
giant guys, best in the world at what they do. I said, "Look, guys, you guys have been really good
with me. I mean, you played full out. You've really listened and performed. And I think you found
some value." And I said, "But I'm far from done."

I said, "So you have the right to leave now. So here's what I'm going to ask. You leave and go
take a 10-minute break, stretch your legs. If you're going to let go, go ahead and go. But if you come
back to this gym in 10 minutes, I will deliver for you because there's some conflicts you guys have
with each other. I've- I've done my homework. And we need to get those out of the way because
unified as a team, you're not going to perform at the highest level even though you have the skill
and you know it."

I said, "But when you come back in, you've been really good with me, but I haven't pushed
you. I came back. Here's what I'm asking. I say jump, you say how high, not me telling you what to
do. But we’ve got a short period of time to make changes and I need you, you're going to come play
full out with me completely out ,I'll do it with you and make this thing happen. And I don't pretend to
have all the answers but you can see I've got some that already work. So take you 10 minutes,
decide what to do back here in 10 minutes." And I'm really intense and boom, they burst out of the
room.

So I'm thinking, you know, the- they're all going to come back. They saw this. This is
awesome. 10 minutes go by and not one person walks back in the room. I'm like, "Well, they're still
having some coffee. They're having… 15 minutes go by, nobody walks in the room. 20 minutes go
by, I thought Avery Johnson, David Robinson. They're going to come into the room and make so
much change for them. I mean, come on, right? Finally, they all walk in the room and they're
laughing and giggling and just screwing with me. "We thought we would just screw with you a little
bit." I said, "Get your asses in here." And we went.

The last part of the fun story was, at the very end, I wanted to anchor them in a peak state.
So you think about your design, you want to end with a peak. You want to end with an experience. I
always tell people belief is a poor substitute for an experience. You can tell me what you believe
about China but, if you go to China, you have direct experience. It's different from your belief. So I
want to give them experience of the power of these breakthroughs. And so, for decades, you know,
I've used all kinds of metaphors, skydiving, fire-walking kind of breakthroughs.

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 Module 2 Bonus:
The Direction of Influence: The Football Field for Communication

But early on, I learned martial arts, and I found a guy that was a black belt. Now, everybody's
copied it all over the world. But, you know, they used to be two, three years before you could, you
know, break wood. And I went to this guy and said I want to learn to do it in a day. He goes, "That's
impossible." And so all I did was mirror him. I mirrored his body, mirror what he did, and I broke
wood. So then I started teaching kids to do this, and we made these little mini seminars out of it.
So I thought, "Wouldn't be great, you know, the wood seemed solid, it's like all the limitations we've
had. Let's do a breakthrough."

So I passed out all this wood, and I showed people how we're going to do this. I bring David
Robinson up. This guy is so giant. I mean, I'm big but he's huge. And I'm holding the wood. And I
said, "Here's how we're going to do it." I demonstrate it. I break several pieces of wood. Boom,
boom, boom. “All of you can do this. This is going to be a metaphor for the breakthrough of what's
going to happen in the playoffs. Here's how we're going to go.” And I got deeper.

I'm setting up there and all of a sudden, I hear Popovich go, "No, no." He's the general
manager. "No!" And, boom, David burst through his hand comes this close to my face and the guys
go crazy. And I said, "Now, all of you line up. All you have to…" Popovich was like, "No, no, stop, stop!"
And guys are lining up, pop, pop, pop, pop. They're starting… He goes, "Stop, stop, stop!" He makes
them stop. He goes, "No. Somebody's going to get injured." I said, "Well, you know, the way I'm doing
this, it's highly unlikely. Of course, you get injured crossing the street." But I said, "This is designed
to break." He goes, "No, I'm not going to let everybody else do this."

This is the peak of the experience. I've taken them through three and a half hours. We
developed this great rapport. The guys have been fantastic. They pushed themselves. They have a
whole different mindset. I want this peak. He's going to take away the peak, right? Take away the
end crescendo we want to make it at.

Sure enough, I think it was Rodman goes, "Make Popovich do it then. If we're not let
Popovich…" and they start going, "Popovich! Popovich! Popovich!" It was like a movie. They all
circled around and, "Popovich!" And he got all intense, you know. He's such a great guy, such a
brilliant coach now. He goes… "Fine!" "You know, all I do is pretend it's Rodman's face." These guys
were getting so intense with each other.

So, I lined him up right, and he got there. You know, he's so tense that the secret breaking
wood is not size. It's not forced. It's speed and release at the right time. And so he goes and he hits
it, he smacks. It doesn't work. He hit, smacks it, doesn’t work. The guys are laughing. I go, "Let me
show you what to do. All right, guys." Popovich lined them up and, boom, he exploded through the
wood. And all of a sudden, all the guys are jumping around and high fiving and everything else and
like, "All right, guys, we're out of here, whatever."

So it's an example of what looked like an impossible task. Everything going against
me.How am I going to influence these guys? I'm taking away their time, right? They're frustrated.
They're frustrated with each other, a lot of things I didn't walk you through, that they were able to
communicate in the session with them. But I was able to manage it all because I did my homework
up front. I knew what was already influencing them so I could influence them. I read their minds
and that built respect. I challenged them. I challenged them respectfully, interestingly, playfully. I
changed my approach a bunch of times.

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 Module 2 Bonus:
The Direction of Influence: The Football Field for Communication

I also took them through the football field. I got them to say, "Me, too. He knows
what he's doing. Wow. I identify with him. Okay, this is cool." Even the challenge. He's challenging.
He's showing us something. I destroyed the objections they had. I'd build a compelling future for
heaven if they do. I called them to action, and I took it out as a peak.

So I thought this might just be an interesting way for you to think about things. Again, it
might be more complex than you want. You know, what if you just did BEND WIMP and you just did
some homework in advance? What if before your mastermind, you had a little question here with a
half dozen questions on it that would help you understand what people believe, what they're
already proud of, what the challenges they're facing, so you know more and customize it to their
needs?

What if you just think about it upfront? It's not about performing. It's not about telling them
how great you are. It's about connecting. It's about the "me too." It's sharing the challenges you've
been through and then showing that, "Hey, maybe you've solved some of them." You- you're not
going to be doing a talk or a mastermind unless it's something you're passionate about that you
have some value in or it's somebody else that's good at it and you can teach them through that
person. Take them through the ID frame, get them to say "me too," give them that logic and reason
with a real pointed challenge and opportunity that makes sense to them. Attack, the problems or
the challenges that are going to get their way. Confess you've been guilty or confess for somebody
else. Then paint the hell- hell if you don't. Paint the heaven if they do. Paint the solution. Paint how
great it's going to be so it's so compelling and then call them to action.

It's just one of many formats you can use, but I think you might find it really helpful. I hope
the story helped you to understand how the process works. I'll be on another talk with you. This is
kind of thinking about how you might want to structure your presentation if you want to be
effective in influencing.

Thanks for your time, guys. I look forward to seeing you in the next session.

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