Ryan Hypnotized?

Just got back from Dan Kennedy's Superconference late Sunday night.

The most embarrassing part?

I'll tell you.

Scott Lewis was doing his stage hypnosis show (which he normally does in Vegas) on Thursday night. He asked for volunteers and I decided, why not?

I ran on-stage with 19 other volunteers. We took our seats and Scott went to work hypnotizing us.

Now, hypnosis, in my opinion, is simply a relaxed state in which you're more open to suggestion. It does not mean somebody else has control over you, although that's what everyone tends to believe.

After Scott completed the hypnosis, he had us do silly things: act like we were playing an "air instrument" at a concert, pretend we were prizefighters training for a boxing match, etc.

Well, when he got to "Now you're a porn star"... I was done.

I've worked with junior high kids before and I've done plenty of silly things on-stage, without being hypnotized. But there was no way I was going to behave like that, much less in a room full of my colleagues.

Scott asked us to return to our stage seats where he proceeded to put us back to "sleep." (He puts his hand on your head and pushes it down and says "sleep.")

He was working his way down the line saying, "Sleep, sleep, sleep, sleep..." When he got to me, he said, "You can return to your seat."

That was it.

I stood up and walked off-stage.

I was a little bit embarrassed about it, but felt much better as an audience member. :-)

The highlight of the weekend (for me) was seeing Joel Bauer speak. That guy is simply amazing. I've never seen such an effective closer. I guarantee he sold more people from the stage than any other speaker all weekend.

Not only that, he also did a bonus "Pajama Party" session and spoke until 2:30 on Sunday morning! He had a crowd of over 100 people all hanging out in the hall listening to his stories and information on how to get free publicity.

If you ever have the chance to hear Joel speak, I highly suggest you take the opportunity.

And get this.

While I was there, I also met a fellow copywriter who writes for Rodale and some other big mailers. Nobody you've ever heard of. And yet he was just talking casually about it all, as if writing for the big mailers was no big deal.

If I can convince this guy to let me do an interview on a teleseminar, I'll be the first to let you know.

Comments

[John A. Manley]

I remember seeing one of thos hypnotist shows.

He got everybody on stage and had them driving down the country is race cars.

Then he had them all look out the window, to see a field of cows.

"Mooooo! the cows," said the hypnotist.

Three of the people on stage, stuck their head out their imaginary window and went "Moooooooo!"

The other three stood up, turned around, bent over and pulled down their pants... effectively "mooning" the cows.

Great stuff Ryan, thanks for sharing. I'll make it to a Dan Kennedy conference one year I'm sure.

John
www.realitycopywriting.com