(upbeat music)
- Examples of types of characters, okay?
First one is what I call reluctant hero.
What was it?
- Reluctant hero. - Reluctant hero.
Second one is the exceptional man/woman
who overcomes challenges.
The exceptional man/woman who overcomes challenges.
Third one is us versus them.
Us versus them.
There are more than three, but with the time restricted,
there are probably 10 or 12,
but I just want to give you three to focus on.
So let's talk about the reluctant hero.
What's the storyline?
You are just a regular person
and the spotlight is not your comfort zone,
you just kind of stumble into this,
but the truth is you have flaws just like anyone else
and you're really just trying
to make a difference in your industry.
Reluctant hero, okay?
Let me show you how I can apply this.
How many have heard of Spider-Man?
Okay, so Spider-Man, he was just a regular teenager, right?
Into girls, and household from a regular family, right?
And then what happened?
Shh owww!
What happened?
(audience member speaking faintly)
So, a special spider bite him
and then suddenly he has?
- [Audience] Super powers.
- And he could?
Fly, right?
Swing around, very, very sensitive power, speed.
So, with great power comes great responsibility.
Now, you follow the Spider-Man storyline.
At first, he was reluctant to do this, right?
- [Audience Member] Yes.
- He wasn't sure, oh now I've got all this power,
it's kind of cool, but I'm not thinking
about fighting crimes.
So what got him to fight crime?
(audience answering)
His uncle was murdered, so that was his journey,
I need to find out who.
That was it, I want to find out who the killer is.
And through the journey, it was like wow,
there are so many people out there,
so many crimes out there.
I need to fight.
And my uncle said to me,
"With great power comes great responsibility."
So, from now on, I took it on as my mission
that I could go out there and do this.
Sound familiar?
- [Audience] Yes.
- Now, how can you do this in your business?
Lord of the Rings, same thing.
Frodo, regular dude, no special power.
Found this crazy, stupid ring.
Got sucked into this crazy journey, right, right?
One of the most successful trilogies, think about it.
On his journey, has he met some crazy people?
- [Audience] Yeah.
Some interesting characters, right?
Still no special power, just this ring and on this journey.
Are there a lot of ups and downs?
- [Audience] Yes.
- Are there a lot of drama?
- [Audience] Oh, yeah.
- Obstacles, ups and downs.
And at the end becomes the reluctant hero.
Sound familiar?
It's the same story line.
Hollywood uses the same shit.
Because it's proven to work.
It's proven to work.
And then, the exceptional man/woman
who overcomes huge challenges.
Here's the second storyline you could use.
People intrigued by characters who are good
at what they do.
So the exceptional man and woman
who overcomes huge challenges.
People love underdogs.
People love what?
- Underdogs. - Underdogs.
Characters who try against all odds, handicaps,
the skepticism of others.
Let me give you an example.
How many have read Life Without Limits?
Nick, very famous motivational speaker
with no arms and no legs.
And he's talking about motivation and he's happy.
He's not depressed and he goes out there
and inspires millions and millions
and millions of people.
So, he is an exceptional man who overcomes.
Is it a challenge?
- [Audience] Yeah.
- Every day, imagine, you wake up, just for us,
just a simple task like brushing our teeth, no problem.
For him, it's a huge challenge.
We love, we are inspired by character like that.
Look, inspiration for a ridiculously good life.
And you can search him online, super inspirational.
And if you actually study his message,
most of his philosophies are Christian-based,
Christian principles.
So, he narrowed it down to exactly
who he wants to communicate with.
One of the highest paid motivational speakers
in the world.
Just so you know, okay.
Tony Robbins, very good example.
What's Tony's story?
Fat, overweight, broke,
in a one bedroom condo, right?
Finally got sick and tired of it.
Went to the beach, running along the beach.
Finally, wrote down in his private journal, no more!
I will not settle for who I could become.
So, I worked on myself, my psychology,
I want to inspire others.
Started doing seminars, personal power,
teaching people how to master the psychology, yes?
And then now where he is now.
Sound familiar?
Same storyline.
Us versus them.
Us versus them works well
because it's based entirely on the fact
that we as human beings create our own belief systems
often based on complete irrational things.
Let me give you an example.
Usually, we like to blame,
most human beings like to blame our problems on others.
So, us versus them.
So when you meet someone
you don't have anything in common with
but we have a common enemy, then instantly there's what?
- [Audience] Bond.
- Yeah, it bonds.
We have the same enemy.
An example would be, hypothetically,
let's say I don't like Donald Trump,
and you don't like Donald Trump, and we talk.
Look at Donald Trump, the election and everything.
We instantly have an enemy.
We can talk about a lot of things.
Look at his hair, look at his stuff, right,
we can talk, yes?
Us versus them.
That's an idea.
Right?
By the way, Donald, I like you.
Just an example.
(speaker laughs)
So as an example, let me give you a more practical example.
Let's say I'm selling natural herb supplements online.
I could easily talk about, ya know what,
in the past, I'm always not very healthy,
I'm sick and overweight
and I take all these western medicines,
they didn't quite work for me.
Then somehow I stumble upon Chinese medicine
or something like that on my journey and then I tried them.
Amazing.
And I have this mission I want to share with you.
So I put together these products and I set up this company.
Now, I have this.
I'm fighting against these pharmaceutical companies
who actually don't want you to get well
because if you get well,
you won't buy their medicine anymore.
But I want to focus more on prevention,
so these supplements, that's what they do.
Does that make sense?
So, I start chemo in 30 seconds, right?
- [Audience Member] Is that what cults do?
- Not necessarily.
But, yes, cults sometimes they use some of these principles.
The leader, the reluctant hero story, more so.
Cults usually at the end of the mission is very negative
and it's very self-serving for the leader.
(audience member speaking faintly)
Yeah, it could be that, it could be that.
There's a formula.
How many can see there's a formula, yes?
- [Audience] Yes.
- Yeah, when you use us versus them storyline
so basically you discover a secret,
you stumble upon a secret.
The secret proves the market's problem, whatever it is,
is the fault of the market,
so in this case natural organic supplement,
the fault is all those pharmaceutical companies, yes?
Out there selling their drugs and teaching the doctors.
Yeah, prescription, write prescription.
You vow to fight against them, the market,
and united together on your mission to solve the problem.
He emphasized that by buying your product
your client's gonna become one of us,
the good guys, right?
So, if you don't buy my supplement,
you support those evil pharmaceutical companies.
Shame on you.
Or, you buy my supplements,
you're one of the good guys who fight against evil.
Does that make sense?
How many can see this stuff is pretty powerful?
- Oh, yeah. - Very powerful.
Use them with caution.
Okay, use them with caution.
One of the things I do, you can see,
One of my YouTube videos I talk about
why most internet marketing gurus suck.
So, it's us versus them.
That I talk about a lot of these other people,
so called gurus or whatever who are selling information,
who are doing whatever they do but a lot of time
they haven't been there and done that.
So, it's us versus them.
So, there's an example of what I do in my business, right.
Let's talk about character crafting real quick.
To make a character compelling and irresistible,
you've got to have some flaws.
Nobody likes a perfect character.
Nobody likes a what?
- Perfect character. - If you're too,
how many have met those people
that are just too fucking perfect?
- [Audience] Yes.
- Yeah, it's like, ya know, the perfect family,
the perfect kids, the perfect home.
People don't like that.
They want to see a bit of flaws.
Yes, Julia?
(audience member speaking faintly)
Yeah, they want to see the more human side.
They want you to be transparent.
Real people have flaws.
Do we all have flaws, yes?
- [Audience] Yes.
- Anyone don't have flaws?
(audience member speaking faintly)
(speaker laughs) - I like that.
So, we are all works in progress.
We are all works in progress, yes?
- Yes. - Yeah.
So, you sustain your tribe's interest over time
to the degree and extent
that you are willing to be transparent.
If you want to have, if you want to be a strong character,
you have to be transparent.
If you want to have a powerful personal brand,
you have to be transparent.
So, look at Superman as an example.
Superman is almost perfect, right?
Almost perfect.
What is his weakness?
- [Audience] Kryptonite.
- Yes.
So, if you take away that weakness,
just think about it, it's not that fun to watch the guy.
You can't kill him, he doesn't get hurt,
he just dominates everything.
What so fun watching that?
You want to see the guy,
this amazing alien who flies, who has this power
but he could also get hurt, the blood coming out.
I can't wait to see Superman vs. Batman, that's awesome.
How many are waiting for that?
Yes.
Only the guys? (audience laughs)
My goodness, my goodness.
Come on.
Fascinating, fascinating.
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