Trip report: Dan Kennedy’s Mind-Hijacking Seminar
Last week I spent three days in Cleveland at Dan Kennedy’s Mind-Hijacking seminar, and as is typical with Dan’s mid-year events, I came home with more than I left with.
A lot more.
This was definitely an advanced Kennedy training that went very deep on psychology-based persuasion and sales influence.
And it was definitely not for the timid marketer.
Dan opened with the comment, “All of mind-hijacking is about removing or reducing choices to those that you want, and how to exercise control over people’s choices.”
During the first two days, Dan shared 62 “mind-hijacks” for connecting with people at a profound level, which can be summed up by a quote from the legendary Eugene Schwartz,
“… find those hidden desires that motivate people – often hidden from the prospects themselves. These may be things people are reluctant to talk about, but they come out in the subculture.”
As a 10+ year student of Dan, I can tell you this list and the training on those that were covered is very powerful when used with integrity in your business, and my own personal notes have several immediate action items for tweaks to my marketing and messaging. A few of the mind-hijacks which I found particularly relevant, include:
#1 – The Affinity/Empathy Bridge
#7 – Permission Slips
#16 – Optics (how things look and where Dan gave a shout-out to CopyDoodles)
#42 – Addiction & Optimistic Bias
#57 – Time Invested (this is one of the biggest takeaways)
The optional third day was on applying these persuasion techniques to copywriting, where Dan shared 21 copywriting tactics based off the previous two days training, including a look at several historical examples. While time did not allow a super-intense study, just the list, examples and attendee manual are worth their weight in gold. Plus the on-stage interview with former police officer and now copywriter, Dan Gallapoo was great.
Since 2006, I have attended about 50% of Dan’s mid-year events, either due to my schedule or my lack of understanding what the training was all about. In hindsight, there are a few that I missed that I should not have missed.
Mind-Hijacking was one of those “not to be missed” trainings, and for those that could not make it, I am sure it will eventually be turned into a home-study version which will be worthy of your review when available.
In typical Dan fashion, he gave a quick preview of next year’s training, which based on the topic alone made it a no-brainer to say yes too already. Not sure if that topic is public yet, but will be a new look at one of Dan’s most influential trainings ever.
Finally, one of the BIG BENEFITS of attending these mid-year trainings is who else is in the room. The attendees are literal “who’s who” of Dan’s most long-term and advanced marketing students, and seeing and reconnecting with these men and women is always good, including folks like:
Ron Sheetz (who snapped the photo above)
Great post, and good information. I’m a member of Doberman Dan and I have to say, he’s a genius like Gary Halbert when it comes to writing, so I’m sure you learned alot from him Mike. I’ll bet the next one will be a great event as well.