Tag: hypnotic story

I’ve been writing about hypnotic stories since the 1990s.

My first e-book, Hypnotic Writing, described them.

I created Hypnotic Writing out of two passions of mine in the 1980s and 1990s: literature and copywriting.

Jack London, Mark Twain, William Saroyan and other great story telling authors fascinated me.

But so did great copywriters like Robert Collier, Bruce Barton, and John Caples.

After speculating on how each wrote their stories, I developed Hypnotic Writing as a way to explain it and teach it.

In short, I combined both styles of writing to create a third style.

I’ve written about this in many of my other early marketing books, including Buying Trances.

Of course, my book on P.T. Barnum, There’s A Customer Born Every Minute, is packed with hypnotic stories.

But I just discovered even more proof that hypnotic stories increase sales, influence, and more.

Let me explain:

I came across a project called Significant Objects.

The idea behind Significant Objects was to create a scientific study to see whether creative stories about mediocre objects could persuade people to buy near worthless stuff.

In other words, the authors would take a simple object that you might find at a garage sale for one dollar.

Then they would write a fictional story about it.

And then they would list the item, with the story, on eBay.

Surprisingly (or not), the item sold for many times its original price.

They did this for 100 objects.

The results were astonishing.

Objects that originally sold for around one dollar, were each placed on eBay with an accompanying made-up story.

The story triggered sales.

Those meaningless objects, now given meaning, sold for thousands of dollars in total.

For example, a Missouri shot glass, which looked like trash to me and originally sold for $1, had a fictional story written about it.

The story and photo were put on eBay.

That shot glass then sold for $76.

That’s a $75 profit from a hypnotic story.

That’s the power of a story.

The point being, the stories did the selling.

Of course, I’m not at all advising you to write fictional stories about your product or service.

But you have stories.

True stories.

They are from you (how you began your business or why) or from your customers (testimonials from satisfied people).

It’s those hypnotic stories that can increase your sales and influence.

In my book, The Seven Lost Secrets of Success, I advised revealing “the business nobody knows.”

In other words, tell the story behind you, your product, your service, and/or employee.

Your hypnotic stories will bring your business to life.

There’s a site you can visit http://significantobjects.com/ that fully describes the Significant Objects study, and their stories. It’s worth a look.

Their site opens saying, “Significant Objects, a literary and anthropological experiment devised by Rob Walker and Joshua Glenn, demonstrated that the effect of narrative on any given object’s subjective value can be measured objectively.”

Meanwhile, what’s your hypnotic story?

Ao Akua,

Joe

PS – My newest book is out this week: Dr. Joe Vitale’s “Greatest Law of Attraction Quotes.” You can find the printed and Kindle versions at Amazon. Open the book anywhere and see what “hypnotic story” begins for you. 🙂

The young woman awakened early, stirred by the flutter of a bird.

She went to her window and saw a bluejay sitting there.

“Good morning,” she said.

The bluejay seemed to wink.

She went to her mirror.

To her confusion, she saw nothing there.

She gasped.

“Why-Why…” she stammered, not sure what to say at her empty mirror.

“Have no fear,” a voice said from outside the window.

She spun around and looked at the window.

The bird was still there.

“Have no fear,” the bird repeated.

This was almost too much for the young woman.

No reflection in her mirror?

A bird that talks?

“Have no fear,” again said the bluejay.

“But I-I don’t understand!”

“Have no fear.”

“But I can’t see myself!” she exclaimed, getting panicky. “And you’re TALKING!”

“The nothingness you see in the mirror is the mirror of the real you,” said the bird.

“I am nothing?!”

“You are everything.”

“But I see nothing in the mirror!”

“Look again,” suggested the bird.

The young woman took a breath, calmed down a bit, and looked into her mirror.

Suddenly she realized all she saw in it was all she felt in her.

The mirror was her.

The mirror reflected all within and appeared without.

She slowly smiled.

“I think I understand,” she said, half to herself.

The bird smiled.

“But what about this business of a bluejay speaking?” she asked.

“Ah, but within the dream, all is possible.”

“All?”

“Whatever you can imagine, and can believe, can be achieved.”

“You sound like Napoleon Hill,” the woman said, smiling.

“I can read, too,” said the bird.

“All things really are possible,” mused the woman.

“And now you may awaken,” said the bird.

Thus the bluejay ended the lesson for the day.

Ao Akua,

Joe

PS – You know what this means.

Still a bestseller!

Member BBB 2003 - 2016

“What do you see?”

He was in an eyeglass store, trying on new glasses.

“I see you, but not very clearly.”

“Good,” the clerk said, smiling, handing him another pair. “Try these on.”

He did.

“What do you see now?”

“I see you, but you are fuzzy.”

The clerk handed him another pair of glasses.

“And now?”

“And now you are tinted.”

Yet another pair of glasses were handed over.

“And now?”

“There you are! I can see clearly now!”

“Good,” said the clerk. “We have discovered that when you have the right pair of glasses to see through, the world is clear and in focus.”

“Like life?”

“Yes,” giggled the clerk. “Glasses are filters, just like the perceptions of your mind.”

“You are very wise, for an eyeglass store clerk.”

“Oh, thank you, but I had to see through the right glasses, too.”

“I’m glad I found the right pair to look through.”

“They were waiting for you all along.”

Ao Akua,

Joe

PS – You know what this means.

My Dad for President!