Imagine your friend weighs 350 pounds. They are a heart attack waiting to happen. Their life expectancy is microscopic.

Do you believe that, “they’re happy so leave them be?”

If so, you have started reading the wrong article for you.

Now, imagine that you turned some keys in their mind and it’s two years later. Your friend has lost 150 pounds and now weighs in at 200 pounds.

They are no longer embarrassed to get on a plane. They can sit at a booth in a restaurant. They don’t walk into little kids they don’t see at the shopping mall. They now have a life expectancy closer to normal and have energy to be alive.

Key Point: One of the most efficient ways to have a control panel in someone’s brain is to place it there.

Access the Control Panel

Here’s a secret:

The people you spend your time with already have real estate in your mind and inside of that piece of real estate is a control panel.

Your friends and family don’t just text you, they push buttons that direct your behavior and life decisions.

They might not have a clue what they are doing. They might simply wish you were more like them.

Last week in Coffee, you learned:

• People often decide instantly what they believe about something real or imagined, and they have a clear cut sense of how important that feeling is to them.
• Simply hearing or reading a statement that a political figure from their own political party  has stated a point of view can, and often will, determine what that person believes about that issue.
• If they identify with the candidate, they are likely to instantly agree, often strongly, with the candidate.
• If they don’t identify with the candidate or leader, they are far more likely to disagree with the stated view point on an issue.
• This was found to be true whether the view was about something that was real or imagined.

You probably find it impossible that someone could have a belief about something that doesn’t exist or of which they have absolutely no knowledge about.

In order to learn how to intentionally design your own control panel in someone else’s mind, you have to know how to make it so it helps the person decide not to be 300 pounds.

That begins with knowing how people can have beliefs or memories (two very related concepts) that are useful in making better decisions.

How Do People Come to These Instant Beliefs and Ready Made Memories?

Dr. Eugene Hartley did a study about prejudice before World War II that revealed that prejudice (beliefs and or instant beliefs) didn’t simply occur because people had negative experiences with people of other races.

In the study, he asked about people of 35 different races and nationalities.

Then Hartley reached into thin air and created three groups of people. He made up the names Danireans, Wollonians, and Pireneans.

Legend Point: He found that 3/4 of people who were prejudiced against African Americans and Jews were also prejudiced against one or all of his made up groups of people.

And of the three groups of non-existent people he assigned names to, people really didn’t like the Wollonians.

Some of those who didn’t like people from these races/nationalities, suggested they be expelled from the United States!

Half of those surveyed by Hartley in the eight cities in 1938 suggested they wanted to avoid contact with any of these people.

This study is important in understanding Instant Beliefs.

One second before being asked, “what is the closest relationship you’d be OK with having with Pireneans?” of course the respondents had never even heard of this fictitious “group” of people that Hartley had made up.

What is Influencing These Individuals?

Key Point: Their Instant Belief had nothing to do with stereotypes of various races but We/They Thinking.

In today’s language, you and I can refer to this as Identification or Polarization.

Hartley, by the way, experienced so much prejudice, he changed his name from Horowitz … to Hartley in 1942.

The issues of prejudice are beyond the scope of this already big article. Today, we are first interested in beliefs people have about things, ideas, and people that don’t exist.

Can People Form Beliefs About Things That Don’t Exist?

Over the last 70 years, there have been hundreds of questions asked for the purpose of getting attitudes about all kinds of things that don’t exist. And the questions have been posed to everyone from the elderly to little kids.

Quite often, people don’t respond to certain kinds of questions about which they have no knowledge.

And quite often, they respond strongly to questions about which they have no knowledge.

Key to Forming Instant Beliefs

There is a definite factor about how these Instant Beliefs can be created based upon HOW the question is ASKED and HOW the question is TO BE ANSWERED.

The Forced Choice Response

For example, open-ended answers get far fewer Instant Beliefs on average than those with “forced choice responses.”

Forced choice responses might include phrasing like, “do you agree or disagree?”

Forced choice responses can also include scaled responses like “strongly agree, agree a little, uncertain, disagree a little, strongly disagree.”

Watch the Order of the Response

And, of course, we now know that the ORDER in which responses are requested (is “Strongly Agree” listed first vs. “Strongly Disagree”) can also change how people will respond and what belief is created.

Legend Point: For you and I, that means that how we frame the question and how we frame the answer is going to have a BIG impact on whether an Instant Belief is formed, and, how intense that new belief will be!

Tweak Responses With an Out

Scientists for years have phrased answers in forced choice questions to either gain more responses or to gain only informed responses.

What we have learned is that if you give people an out like, “I haven’t thought about that much,” it gets a different response rate than, “I don’t know.” After all, “KNOW” is a big word. It’s a lot easier to agree with, “I haven’t thought much about it.”

NOW you and I should be asking, “Wait just a second, is the response about BELIEFS or PRESSURE to not admit you don’t know something?”

And THAT is a very good question. Notice it is also an EITHER/OR question. There are THOUSANDS of possible answers to, “just what the heck are we learning here?” but only two answers to the question I posed to you and I.

And that should shatter the thinking of both you and me!

The fact is I’m not concerned about whether it’s an internal pressure to admit I don’t know or not. That’s not important in this context.

What matters is that as soon as someone selects an answer, THEY BELIEVE IT.

Real Life Example About Belief Forming

I’ve been handicapping football games since I was a little kid. That means I’ve spent a lifetime trying to predict who is going to win a football game and by how many points.

I recently came into a number of letters I wrote as a child which include my NFL predictions to my grandparents who were Dallas Cowboy fans.

Biases in Decision Making

Early on I recognized a bias I had.

First, I loved the Chicago Bears … because I was from Chicago.

I recognized I predicted they would win more often than I did a lot of other teams that were better than the Bears.

And I recognized that when I read newspaper articles about football teams I believed I had a piece of inside information on the game that was more valuable than it really was. Whether it was a player that had been injured or reading about a receiver that had a great game last week, I was influenced in my thinking to accept what I was reading and then tried to find further information to support the belief that, say, The Packers would win or lose.

But more importantly, I recognized that when I was in the process of decided who would win or lose, I adopted a “be objective mentality” which lasted right up until I made my prediction.

Once I made my predictions I’d look at them as if they were CORRECT. Once I compared notes with friends and shared my actual picks, my confidence level in those picks was just short of certain. I became so sure of my pick after it had been made.

At the same time, researchers in Universities were studying (unbeknownst to me) this very same phenomenon.

It turned out that I wasn’t the only person affected by FALSE BELIEFS.

Key Point: People in general are quite uncertain, until they make a choice, at which time they INSTANTLY know they are right. Beliefs form in that INSTANT.

Since then you and I have seen study after study such as our BELIEF that a coffee cup is worth more once we have actually held it. We believe an item on EBay is worth more once we have bid on it.

We also know that when anyone states something in public, they tend to stick by that statement, often in the light of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. I coined the phrase The Law of Consistency in my book, The Psychology of Persuasion: How To Persuade Others To Your Way Of Thinking, to help quantify this phenomenon.

As you know I’m not a little kid anymore.

I just act like one on YouTube.

I now play in a bigger sandbox. For the fourth year in a row I am a contestant in the world’s most prestigious handicapping contest that begins with the opening week of the NFL this season.

Each of the last three years, I had very modest winning records against a line that makes all games essentially even.

One year I had bloggers mentioning my picks for several weeks when I hit a “lucky streak” or what I prefer to think of as “I had time to do a better job.” The truth is, we’ll never know.

How do you make predictions when your hard earned cash is on the line as in the season long, Supercontest at the Westgate Hotel in Las Vegas?

First, I can’t read ANYTHING about the games that will be played until I have mathematically made objective predictions based on no reasoning, just the absolute strength of The Patriots vs. The Seahawks. Then when I have circled the games where the math gives the best advantage to me against the Las Vegas Line (aka the crowd) I then seek out information to support and attack the math.

I am absolutely biased by my own equations because I believe they are accurate or I wouldn’t place my money where my beliefs are.

The fact is that beliefs are formed INSTANTLY. It is a function of human survival.

Overcoming the Phenomena

That means that you must capture as much objective information as possible and avoid everything from headlines to opinions from other people, until you have made objective assessments.

Unfortunately, I’m human and I develop beliefs about my forecasts, just as quickly as any other human.

What happens once you have a belief formed is what determines winners from losers in all aspects of life.

Smart people try to find evidence to support and shred a belief.

The crowd follows itself and the crowd is wrong more often than it’s right.

Therefore, when you go to create a belief in someone else, you must not only frame a question correctly but frame the answer in such a way that a CHOICE is made.

Once a choice is made, a belief will be formed, that like Super Glue, will typically stick.

Next: Bringing them to that pre-determined outcome.

Determining Outcomes

So how do you bring people to a choice, an answer that you have predetermined?

There are numerous methods, but one that I haven’t discussed much in public outside of Influence Boot Camp is the use of QUESTIONS and the weaving together of SUGGESTED MEMORIES with ACTUAL MEMORIES.

People trust their memories.

They trust their beliefs.

Thus, as soon as someone “thinks something” is true or right, they are quite certain they are correct.

I’m putting the finishing touches on a novel called Glimpse, which has a character that is an expert in implanting false memory in people.

False memory, of course, creates beliefs which can be useful or not to an individual. False memory for years was something people argued about and debated. Did it truly exist? Was it even possible to implant false memories?

Today, the debates are more about the ethics of implanting false memories on purpose.

Here’s the fact of the matter. False memories are created in you and me, EVERY DAY in MANY contexts. It is normal human experience.

It is going to happen, so you might as well make it valuable to the individual if possible.

What is the Downside of False Memories?

There are tons.

False memories are quite simple to generate. In seconds, you can create a memory for a person.

In minutes, you can convince someone they committed an assault. In a few conversations, if you know how, you can convince almost anyone that they have committed an assault with a weapon.

Here’s where I have ethical problems.

One Method That Works

There is an abundance of false memory that goes hand in hand with interrogation.

There exists case after case of innocent people having been interrogated, confessed to a crime they knew nothing about and had nothing to do with. Convicted, sentenced, imprisoned.

Sometimes 10 or 15 years later, herculean efforts often shows the person (DNA evidence) didn’t do it. They lost everything because of a false confession.

The worst cases are those where the person confessed to murdering someone … but didn’t.

The interrogation process is loaded with false memory implantation technique.

“What is your name?”
“What is your address?”
“What is your phone number?”
“What is your husband’s name?”
“How did you know Bill Johnson?”
“Why did you kill him?”
“How well did you know Bill Johnson?”
“How far was he standing away from you when you shot him?”
“Where did you go after leaving work on January 2?”
“Then what did you do?”
“Then you went to the bakery?”
“What did you do there?”
“And then you pulled out a gun?”

I haven’t read of any cases where someone confessed to a felony they didn’t commit in the first 30 minutes of questioning. It just takes a little more time.

Research just published this year shows that just three 40 minute conversations like this with someone will trigger agreement that the person did indeed commit a crime, when no such thing ever happened.

5%?
10%?
20%?
Nope.

71% is the correct percentage of people that agreed they did commit the crime.

That’s 7 out of 10 …

That research was done in laboratory conditions where ethical procedures were folled by psychologists.

What is the “Trick”?

The blending of facts (name, age, address, leaving work, visit to the bakery) with proposed fictitious story elements about what happened weaves together a new “memory” in the brain.

And it’s not going away.

Memories don’t just shatter because you find out it didn’t really happen.

Key Point: People believe their false memories whether or not they discover evidence to the contrary.

55% of those who were gently interviewed agreed to committing an assault with a weapon!

The lead researcher in this specific study was Dr. Julia Shaw of the University of Bedfordshire.

In a press release she said the following about the descriptions of events that never actually took place.

“Our findings show that false memories of committing crime with police contact can be surprisingly easy to generate, and can have all the same kinds of complex details as real memories.”

“Understanding that these complex false memories exist, and that ‘normal’ individuals can be led to generate them quite easily, is the first step in preventing them from happening,” says Shaw.

Changing Memory

Another brilliant piece of research done recently used similar interviewing techniques to convince overweight individuals that in the past they had successfully lost a great deal of weight.

The assertion wasn’t true, but blending facts with suggested memory fragments caused individuals to believe they had indeed done it before and then they were able to do it in the present with the new access to the false memory!

I won’t go into greater detail here, but at Influence: Boot Camp 2016, I’ll explain the complete step by step process that was used to gain agreement that individuals committed a theft, an assault, and so on. I will explain in great detail how and why it works.

How “Instant” is Instant?

Meanwhile, let’s return to just how fast people form opinions of non-existent stuff and one key to creating a choice that will stick.

In 1995, The Washington Post performed a brilliant experiment. They asked readers:

“Some people say the 1975 Public Affairs Act should be repealed. Do you agree or disagree with this idea?”

1/3 of respondents offered an opinion on this non-existent law.

Another 11% offered up an opinion when they were prodded with, “which comes closest to how you feel?”

That’s a total 43% of all people forming an instant opinion on something that wasn’t real.

But, then they asked two other question frames:

“President Clinton says the 1975 Public Affairs Act should be repealed. Do you agree or disagree with this idea?”

55% responded to this question!

Then, they asked:

“Republicans in Congress say the 1975 Public Affairs Act should be repealed. Do you agree or disagree with this idea?”

49% responded to this question!

Remember the ANSWER FRAME is very important to whether the person will offer an opinion (make a response) or not.

Key Point: Just as importantly, remember that once a person offers a response, a belief is formed.

Beliefs and Identification

Finally, people are more likely to respond when someone they identify with or are polarized to is suggested as having been the source of the opinion/question at hand.

Going forward, you have now got a new basket of ideas as to how you can be more persuasive in your communication with others. You also can see the devastating effects of misuse of these potent communication strategies.

And you know that the next time you read a poll, that before you decide to agree or disagree with respondents, find out what the precise question and possible answers were, because it makes all the difference in the world as to how public opinion is shaped …!

For Coffee with Kevin Hogan readers only

Internet Marketing
and Web Wealth
9+ Week E-Course
with Kevin Hogan, Psy.D.

Next Course begins October 17, 2019- Use your discount and save!

“Will YOU be the next person to do ‘six figures’ annually on the Internet?”

Create the Lifestyle You Want with Internet Marketing

Scott lives in California but has recorded most of his online video training material in Hawaii. He does it on his own time, in his own way. Probably because it’s his best possible personal lifestyle. Perhaps I’m wrong. Perhaps he’d be doing better somewhere else.

You can do the same thing as Scott and the dozens of other participants who have been using the longest ongoing Internet Marketing Course to help launch profitable projects for people across all industries and fields of work.

Using the same strategies and techniques we’ve used to make a ZERO investment turn into *seven* digits … I’m thinking, you can do it.

I’m not suggesting you’ll do EIGHT digits annually … or even seven. THAT requires a significant amount of work, and maybe even some luck. So let’s stick with more attainable outcomes, at least for now.

Making Money Online

When you want to make money online … you either:

a) pay a lot of money to get people to hear about you, or

b) you cause people to come to you without cost.

I prefer that latter and that is one of the most important variables to your success.

Online marketing is how you make money in life in 2015. People who don’t market online have very little chance of achieving any kind of financial success going forward. When you search for any phrase there are a few people/sites that the search engines consider the most important for you to see. You’re going to learn to be one of those people who end up in the search results.

And that is simply the beginning…

“But I can I really do it?”

Using the same strategies and techniques we’ve used to make a ZERO investment turn into *seven* digits … I’m thinking, you can do the same or at least half or a third or a quarter of that …

Do You Want A Systematic Approach?

This E-Course includes a detailed step by step systematic approach to results, so you can SEE HOW to do what you need to do. The delivery of this course is entirely online and all at your convenience.

It’s very different from any online course you’ve heard of and I direct it much differently than anything you’ve ever considered.

There are also comprehensive documents that reveal an almost endless array of what works, why, and how to implement. Perhaps most important is that for all marketing questions you will have, you get complete access to me for mentoring and coaching for 9 weeks.

Because Online Marketing of a new or existing “business” is evolving rapidly, we have JUST FINISHED dramatically updating and upgrading the course for you.

What helps most is that unlike a barrage of home study programs, with our team, you can ask questions that are important to you and your efforts 24/7 for two solid months as we progress step by step, day by day.

You’ll be right along side of people who have had an online business for several years.

Would You Like An Experienced Expert Mentor?

You have a MENTOR. (Actually a few this go ’round!) You get to ask someone who has those seven digits instead of the guy who works for the guy who would like to earn five digits. The difference is critical as should be obvious.

You have me at your email pleasure for as many hours as I’m awake. That’s most hours … I will answer EVERY question in copious detail so you have 100% understanding.

Question: What is the value of a 9+ week course if it brings in $100,000 in say 2015?

Half?

$30,000?

$20,000?

Well, I’ll tell you what it’s worth to me.

The answer is $10,000.

It’s like a finders fee.

When your website(s) NET revenues total $100,000, that’s when you pay 2/3 of the course tuition. Less than 1/3 of your tuition is paid in advance.

Perhaps you have paid for numerous big Internet Marketing packages.

That’s cool but will you REALLY do IT???!?!?! And even if you did, who would you have someone to communicate with every single day when you need help?

There’s no one there and the research says NO, you won’t use the program. Research says … the probability approaches zero.

You won’t fail because you won’t start.

The System you are going to learn is unlike anything you’ve seen or heard of before.

Is it Time for A Different Approach?

Building wealth on the web requires doing a number of simple things right. It requires doing a few more complicated things fairly well and it requires being able to master ONE of about 20 different marketing tools. That’s it … one.

ONE!

Most Internet Marketers will tell you WHAT you need to know. I will show you HOW to do it and WHY so you can replicate results in the future.

Everything you learn in this experience is 100% for your business.

Your total knowledge of the web/internet/media today doesn’t have to even hit the radar. We walk you through everything, step by step.

For example: If I tell you that you are going to use video on your website … I’ll SHOW YOU HOW TO DO IT in such a way that it works FAST and EASY. I won’t just say, “Oh, video on the website is really helpful …”

I’ll show you how to get video on a website for the world to see. (It’s not 1/10 as hard as you think it might be.)

I’ve learned to do things quickly, effectively and efficiently mostly because I am not tech savvy. I want to simply share with you what works and how to grow a successful online marketing Coffee Table Business.

100 Reasons To Do This Specific Course

Here are just some of the 100 key points reflecting what you will learn:

Note: There is no mandatory schedule you need to follow – you create your own schedule with Kevin to follow for the duration of the course. You WILL have Kevin for the asking via email 24-7.

1) How to get a web name in 2 minutes. (like kevinhogan.net)

2) How to start a website and have it UP in 55 minutes.

3) How to post the website to the Internet in 10 minutes.

4) How to get people to come to the website within 4 HOURS.

5) How to get the biggest search engines to direct people to you instead of your competitor, for free.

6) Exactly WHAT you need on your website to make your website popular. (Within days.)

7) How to engender love from search engines and develop a “long term relationship” with search engines, so you get more and more traffic your way quickly and for a long, long time.

8) Specific things you can do that will cause search engines to know your site is important enough to push you onto the first page.

9) How to KNOW what to sell on your website(s). Whether to start a Coffee Table Business or use the Internet to make your current business thrive.

10) Choosing products and services to sell.

11) How to make a relatively nice income stream, without having to create a product or service yourself!

12) How to get other people to help you build your empire as quickly as possible. And not just how, but your team will indeed do this with you as you will help them do the same thing.

13) How to create a sales force of people, without cost, to tell the world about you…Try doing that in the brick and mortar world.

14) How to WRITE the copy (advertisements) that will sell the products and services you will earn money from.

15) How to know what to write.

16) Learn all the wrong ways to write that will cause any site to go broke.

17) Learn the EXACT WORDS and PHRASES that the pros use to bring in big numbers every year.

18) How to appeal to a very specific audience so your message doesn’t have to be wasted on people not interested in what you are selling.

19) Learn the art and science of writing copy.

20) Find out what sizes of print and what FONTS and COLORS of type make the most money the fastest.

21) Learn how to test, in just a few DAYS, what is working for YOU and change QUICKLY so there are NO WASTED DAYS in building your business.

22) Learn to do the things that sound complicated that can be SUPER EASY….like picking the right keywords for your website and the products you decide you want people to own.

23) How to let the search engines how you want your stuff to be promoted and referenced.

24) How to gain the trust of the search engines in a changing environment.

25) Search engines are getting smarter but they still don’t read like people. If I want to promote myself as a body language expert, my metatags and keywords might have to read “EXPERT BODY LANGUAGE” and not, “BODY LANGUAGE EXPERT.” I’ll show you how to figure this out in SECONDS.

26) Find out how to get other people to help you build your business…even your competitors. (REALLY) So all that you do every day…it’s all done so you are in total control of your own income.

27) How to get people to buy products you release today….today…yes…you make it, produce it and release it today…and it sells TODAY and it sells A LOT.

28) How to write an ad for that product that will actually work. (If you have written an ad before and discovered it failed miserably you know that almost ALL ads fail.)

29) How to develop LOYAL customers.

30) There is NOTHING more important in web marketing than using email or better, an “E-zine.” I’ll show you how to write your own Coffee with Kevin Hogan and have people caffeine CRAVING IT every week.

31) I’ll share with you the biggest risk I ever took in Internet Marketing. It has to do with Coffee with Kevin Hogan and it paid off like the lottery. NO ONE ELSE does this who has an e-zine. I’ll show you what it is and how I did it.

32) You’ll see specifically and in a step by step fashion, just how to get your e-zine DELIVERED into the email boxes around the world so it isn’t filtered as spam.

33) I’ll show you step by step how to develop LOYAL readers where everyone else just has their e-zine read rarely and often by accident.

34) You’ll learn whether or not you should promote specific products and services through your e-zine when you are approached.

35) People talk about their “lists” of one million people. Let me tell you that number means diddly. If you are on a LIST you are NEXT IN LINE at the hotel. I have READERS. People who want to read Coffee as much as they want to read Cosmo, Maxim or The Wall Street Journal. The difference between a LIST and YOUR READERS is ENORMOUS. I’ll show you EXACTLY how to have people KNOW they are important to you.

36) I’ll show you how to develop a relationship with your readers, no matter how many your have…so that when you take a week off and your E-zine doesn’t show up in their mailbox, they are screaming at you and telling you they miss you!!!

37) You’ll learn EXACTLY the formula I have discovered for success using an E-zine in conjunction with your work.

38) I’ll show you how to get articles for your E-zine if you can’t write them all yourself. (Free articles that are surprisingly good.)

39) I’ll show you how to get the biggest names in your field to contribute articles to your fledgling E-zine.

40) FACT: The E-zine is the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT PIECE of the Web Wealth puzzle. I’ll show you why and how to make sure nothing ever goes wrong.

41) I ‘ll show you EVERY secret I have learned about E-zines that will make you a LOT of money.

42) I will walk you through STEP BY STEP how I write Coffee with Kevin Hogan every week. Not so it’s the fastest, or easiest but so it’s the BEST.

43) How many OTHER E-zines do you read other than Coffee with Kevin Hogan? I get hundreds in my mail box every week. I read 7. That’s it. I’ll show you those seven and why I like them and why they are as profitable or MORE PROFITABLE than Coffee. Almost all E-zines are TERRIBLE. 99% is not a big enough number. People do NOT GET WHAT AN E-ZINE NEEDS TO DO. You will.

44) You will find out how to decide whether you should have a full color e-zine or a simple text e-zine. There is an EASY ANSWER for YOU and there are only THREE VARIABLES. But if you make the wrong decision, you go broke.

45) I’ll show you how to write a SUBJECT LINE. NOTHING IN YOUR ENTIRE BUSINESS IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE SUBJECT LINE OF YOUR E-ZINE each week. Not your product quality, not your website, not YOU, NOTHING. I will show you successful subject lines and then I’ll grab subject lines from my email box and show you what other people are doing that is wasting their time and their life.

46) I’ll show you how to make extra money once per month in your e-zine with an idea very few have ever thought of.

47) I’ll show you how to get your first 5,000 READERS as quickly as possible and compare them with the first 100,000 people on anyones list and show you why YOU WILL MAKE FAR MORE MONEY being valuable to your 5,000.

48) I’ll show you REAL SECRETS that will help you use your E-ZINE to boost web traffic to your website that NO ONE ELSE IS DOING RIGHT NOW. (They will be after they take the course.)

49) I’ll show you what NOT TO PUT IN YOUR E-ZINE so you save yourself legal problems.

50) I’ll show you what is necessary to make your e-zine 100% deliverable.

50 More Reasons To Do This Course…