Episode 101 - Video That President Trump Shared With Chairman Kim, Wow

Date: 2018-06-12 | Duration: 18:08

Topics

Topics: Credit to the video authors…this video is amazing! Review of the persuasion concepts employed by the video History doesn’t repeat, history evolves This is same message Kanye and Candice are sharing with us Great example of President Trump using ego as a tool Has there EVER been a better diplomatic move?

Transcript

[0:04]

I’m back. I already Periscoped once this morning, but that was before I played the video—that is the video that President Trump shared with Chairman Kim. I don’t know how many of you have seen that video, but let me tell you: you have to watch it. I might play it here just to take you through some of the good points. I’m going to be talking about the video that President Trump shared with Chairman Kim, and let me give you my first reaction. I just watched it; it’s fresh in my mind. It might be the best thing that anybody ever did in a negotiation, period. It might be, in the history of the world, the best thing.

[1:04]

It is so good; it hits every note perfectly. I’ll run you through it a little bit. We’ve got a couple thousand people on here. Let me see if you can hear it at all. It’s coming. [Music] “Of those alive today, only a small number would leave a lasting impact.” It’s starting off as kind of a movie model. I assume that we’ve done our research and we know that Chairman Kim might like American-style movies, or just movies. If he is the type of person who likes that kind of thing—movies in—

[2:05]

—American culture, that might be effective. But there, it starts right off saying that this is a rare opportunity with two special people. The incentive to be aspirational and to become the person of this movie is very high. It starts out perfectly. It’s a great tone; it’s serious. The music and everything is big. It’s like world—did you catch that? History doesn’t have to—

[3:06]

—repeat. History is always evolving. What is the biggest issue that everybody has with things happening in North Korea right now? The problem is we’re stuck in our mental prison of history. We’re stuck assuming that the past repeats. This is saying right from the start: history evolves. History doesn’t repeat; history evolves. Where did you hear that before? Kanye. Candace. You’ve heard these things before domestically, and you know that these messages play pretty well domestically. They’re strong messages and perfectly on point for this situation.

[4:18]

Lots of good images. “What if?” The question “what if” is far more powerful than saying, “here’s what’s going to happen.” Persuasion-wise, if you say to somebody, “here’s what’s going to happen,” people will immediately, reflexively go into, “Well, no, there’s a reason that can’t happen.” As soon as you affirmatively say, “this will happen,” whoever you’re talking to reflexively says six reasons why it can’t happen. Whoever made this video—and it’s brilliant—didn’t let anybody get into that head. Instead, they said “what if,” because nobody resists “what if,” especially if the “what if” is such a positive thing. “What if” is brilliant. It’s brilliant.

[5:28]

Curiosity—it’s good stuff. “Curiosity Pictures presents…” Notice that the video, which is made by the United States, elevates Chairman Kim and President Trump to—at least in this context—the two most important people in the world. There’s no distinction made between whether one of them is more important or one of them is not as important. No. Remember, I told you that ego is a tool. Ego is not who you are. If you imagine that your ego is who you are, you’re in the loser mode. You’re just going to be protecting this image of who you are. If you treat ego as a tool, you can manipulate it up or down depending on what you want to accomplish. Here you see that the President, who has obviously—

[6:29]

—approved this and showed it to Chairman Kim. The President has allowed himself—and approved it, probably was behind it—to be shown as an exact equal with Chairman Kim. That’s a choice. That’s somebody using ego as a tool. What did I always tell you that the President does? He uses ego as a tool. That’s not who he is. “Special moment in time… one chance.” This is good persuasion and also completely true right now. We don’t know that it’s the only chance ever, but it feels like it could be; it’s true enough for practical purposes. When you tell somebody there’s only one chance, they’re far more motivated than if you say, “Well, another chance might come along; maybe the next one’s better.” You say “one chance,” and that’s pretty close to—

[7:30]

—the real situation. So far, I don’t think there’s any hyperbole going on, even though the form of it is sort of an important dramatic presentation. But it’s not going too far; there’s nothing here you’ll see that is unrealistic, even a little bit. You just saw an image of an NBA player dunking. We know that Dennis Rodman… we know Kim likes basketball. They’ve seeded this video with things which they know will be compatible with things that he likes, things that he would like to have more of. Imagine being a big NBA fan and having the possibility of not only making everything good in your country, but you can attend a game. These are really strong images.

[8:36]

Now, here’s the contrast. You see pictures of destruction. I had a mixed feeling about this at first: “Why not just keep it all on the positive?” But in terms of persuasion—I talk about this a lot—you want to set the contrast. If we’re not friends, way over here, it’s the worst thing in the world—literally the worst thing in the world: war. But over here, it’s so good. Watch how this video clearly establishes the contrast. You have this one chance—at least it feels like one chance—to pick the right choice. And the right choice is amazing. It’s not just good; it’s amazing. This is in black and white, then moving back. I don’t know if you—

[9:36]

—caught it, but there was a satellite picture that went by fairly quickly of the Korean Peninsula. It would show that South Korea has all the lights on and North Korea has the lights off. Remember that, because there’s going to be a callback to that a little bit later. It’s like an amazing moment coming.

[11:05]

[Music] “We shake the hand of peace and enjoy prosperity like he has never seen. A great life, or more isolation? Which path will be chosen? Featuring President Donald Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un.” This is sort of movie talk. [Music] “The future remains to be written.” Ladies and gentlemen, it went by fairly quickly. I didn’t have a chance to stop it, but there was a point when they were doing the “what if” stuff and things will be great in the future. They shared that same picture of the satellite where originally the lights were only on in the south, and there was this little musical score, and it goes “boom,” and all the lights came on—

[12:06]

—in the North. They’re fake lights, but in movie terms, it just turned on the lights of the North. It was the coolest thing. When I saw that, I just thought, “the visual there is amazing.” Remember that I’ve been telling you we may be entering this Golden Age and we may be just looking at the world in a different way. You’ve seen with not only Kanye and Candace—and I’ve talked about it as well. I’m actually going to be talking to Michael Malice this morning in a couple hours. I think that’s live. I’ll tell you more about that in a bit. You’re seeing that there is an explicit understanding now that we’re not trapped in a mental box of—

[13:07]

—the past. This is so important because so many of our problems, I’ve said, are mental—meaning that North Korea and the rest of the world… well, they did at one point have a reason, but at the moment, they don’t have a reason to be at war. The U.S. has no reason to be at war with North Korea. They have no reason to be belligerent with us. None. We’re only stuck in that old mindset where it used to make sense, or we thought it made sense back then. Both Kim and the President have said in explicit words, “We’re not going to be trapped in the past anymore.” You saw in this video, it said in indirect language: history doesn’t repeat; it evolves. I think it’s my new favorite saying: History doesn’t repeat; it evolves. President Trump—I’m—

[14:10]

—not sure who wrote that, but it’s certainly a message from the White House. That was just amazing. It’s so fun to see your government do something that right. Aren’t you sort of used to watching your government do things and you say, “Well, I like some of that, but I’ve got some reservations; they could have done this a little differently”? We’re pretty cynical, and we’re used to criticizing anything the government does automatically. It’s part of the American experience. But when you see this video, this was so right. This was right from beginning to end—everything about that. Credit whoever made that. I’m not sure we’ll ever know the author or authors of the video, but wow.

[15:12]

Good stuff. Where do you find the video? On YouTube; I saw it on Townhall.com. I’m sure it’s all over the internet by now, but that’s the one I was playing. Having seen that, my opinion of how things are going to go actually changed. I think everybody is coming into this with the right amount of skepticism. I think we all got—or at least some of us, I’m guilty of it—got ahead of ourselves in the “hey, this thing will be perfect right away” kind of mindset, because we were feeling pretty optimistic. Then, when—

[16:13]

—the signed agreement was sort of general. It was all the right things, but it was sort of general. I thought to myself, “I’m going to accept this as real progress,” but so much more would need to be done to make it real. But when I see this video, and I see how persuasive this is, I feel far more optimistic than I did before I watched it. If this is the approach that we’re putting forward, if this is the face of American diplomacy, I like it. I would go so far as to say that, as a diplomatic move, show me a better one. Show me a better one, ever. This might be one of the best diplomatic plays of all time. People ask me, “What’s the difference between persuading and manipulating?” and I always say it’s intention. If you’re manipulating—

[17:16]

—somebody to do something that’s bad for them but good for you, then you’re a manipulator. You could be using exactly the same tools as someone who’s just trying to persuade toward a win-win scenario. In this case, the persuasion technique in the video is plain; it’s out there. There’s no question to anybody watching it; they know that it was made to persuade. Kim knows it was made to persuade; his people know it was made to persuade. But it’s persuading in a positive direction. That’s the persuasion you want to go along with. That’s the frame you want to get into. Everybody comes out ahead there. That’s all I have to say for this. I might be back for some more snippets on individual topics as things develop, but that’s all for now.