Here’s a simple “law” about lying. People don’t know what their behavior is when they lie. During a normal conversation, John might look in all directions, take relaxed breaths, make some facial expressions. The context of a normal conversation is just that – normal conversation.

But, when John is lying, the context changes to abnormal conversation. Here are a few of the differences:

His eyes will focus into a narrow range of movement – if they move at all. A year or so ago, Idaho Senator Larry Craig was interviewed on TV in an attempt to persuade people of his innocence. It didn’t work because his behavior during the interview was so practiced and forced.

His breathing will speed up, as though he’s jogging. That’s because he’s getting excited. He’s found himself trapped in a corner. His fight/flight bell is ringing off the wall.

His facial expressions will become stiff and his eyes are likely to get wide.

That’s for most people – most honest people. We just don’t have lying skills. But, a lot of people do. They are masters at lying and manipulating. If you have to deal with someone like that, don’t worry about catching them in a lie. They’re probably too practiced to make stupid mistakes. So, your strategy would be to avoid pathological liars, or get away from them when you discover their need to lie. Dealing with a liar is a no-win situation for you. This is true if we’re talking about your boyfriend, wife, co-worker or boss. You will always get burned if you deal with liars.

– Michael

I’ve been teaching people for years that one of the fastest ways to build your likeability is to match the facial expressions of the person in front of you. Some of those faces indicate that the person is moving from one mind set to another. But, there is a different kind of face that people make. It displays that person’s level of emotional health.

Within the course of a one-minute chat, you should be able to determine someone’s personality type configuration (in order), his weaknesses or insecurities, the extent to which he focuses on building rapport, communication style, level of negativity – and that’s only part of it.
Let’s turn the table on you. After a typical one-minute chat with a stranger, how much information do you know? Is it enough? Or, would you like to be more effective at reading people? I can promise you, if you get better at it, you will raise your level of success!

– Michael Lovas

Question:

Can the specific words you use in your marketing really make that much difference? Absolutely! When you purposefully choose the right words, and deliver them in just the right way, you give your marketing its best chance of success. The specific words can easily mean the difference between success and failure.

We’ve been analyzing marketing psychology for more than 20 years, and I can tell you from experience, it is almost always done wrong. The psychology is the exact point where most people screw up in their marketing.

The biggest mistake is mindlessly simple: they think their information alone is strong enough to inspire people to respond. That is just knuckle-headed thinking. However, in their defense, it’s all they know. They just did not learn the right way to approach marketing (and selling).

Logically, your goal should be to inspire people to buy from you – again and again. So, what picture do you need to place in your target market’s mind that will inspire them to take action? Most people seem to think that picture is a customer blissfully reading a contract or the user manual. Again – knuckle-headed.

So, what do you think the right answer is?

– Michael Lovas