I paid $12,500 for this book about mind control...it was worth it

This is a first edition copy of the book

called Propaganda by Edward Bernay. I

spent $12,500 for this copy because it's

a first edition and it's got the

original slip cover which dramatically

increases the value and it's the first

book ever written on like mass

persuasion for marketers and for

salespeople and it is amazing. I bought

this one because there's a documentary

on Netflix called Propaganda telling the

story about Edward Bernay and then

there's also another documentary on

Netflix called Century of Self and I

watched both of those and I was so

fascinated about the story of the author

and then what he actually did how he

developed propaganda and how he used it

to sway wars use it to like shift and

move markets. It's just I wanted to

learn from the guy who actually did. And

obviously you can go buy the book on

Amazon for probably 10 bucks. But I

don't know something different when you

spend a lot of money for a book. You

value it differently and you're more

likely to read it. At least for me. The

story behind this book and why it's

still relevant today. If you go back in

time, it was actually a lot of you guys

know who Sigman Freud is. And Sigman

Freud was the psychologist who

discovered our subconscious mind or he

called our unconscious mind. And he was

the one who first was like using these

concepts in psychology to help people

and to change lives, right? No one ever

thought to use this stuff for business

or for marketing. And then his nephew,

his name's Edward Bernay. Edward's

sitting there and he's listening to

Freud talk about all this stuff. And

Freud's using it for like a psychology

like here's how you help patients and

you know how how to fix their the things

that are holding them back in life. And

he was like, I could use these things to

create mass movements to get people in

mass to move and to change everything.

So he took all of Freud's concepts he

was teaching. And then he came to

America and he started using them. And

it was funny cuz Freud was actually

super mad about it. Like he's like, "You

shouldn't be using these things for

marketing and sales." But Bernay's like,

he saw the vision. And so the first

campaign he actually used was World War

I. Nobody wanted to be in the war. And

normally people when they would sell

concept, they would sell like here's the

features and the benefits, right? Here's

the features of the war. Like it's going

to be really good. We're going to win

this, you know, like logically they try

to sell things. And Bren's like no,

people don't choose things logically.

They do emotionally. And so he started

creating stories to emotionally get

people to buy into the war. And within a

year or so, he had everybody like

America as a whole was like bought into

the war. They believed in it. And it was

all because he influenced their

feelings. prior to this, especially look

at America back, you know, a long time

ago when they would buy products, people

bought what they needed, right? I need

to go get a new shovel. My toilet broke.

I'm going to buy that thing. And what he

came in say, no, if we play off people's

desires, we can create wants and then

get people to buy what they actually

want. Putting these desires in people's

hearts, they wanted something and then

he could get them to move to buy things

or to whatever thing might be. And so,

it's super applicable today because if

you look at like when I'm selling from

stage or at a webinar or during a

challenge, I am not going off of what

people need. Like, they don't need a

funnel. they don't need whatever, right?

And I create that desire and then that

desire is the thing that actually sells

them, right? It's tapping into their

subconscious beliefs and desires and

that's how you get people to move. Like

we have a whole event, the whole premise

of the event is called subconscious

selling. It's all based on these same

principles that Bernay's figured out and

how to use them. Again, Freud used them

for clinical psychology. Bernay's used

them for mass control to get people to

to move and we're using now for

challenges, events, webinars, video

sales letters, all the stuff we do in

online marketing today. One of the

principles that Bernay teaches in this

book talks about people are normally

trying to sell products. He's like

people don't necessarily going to buy

products, they buy identity. You take a

product over here and you're going to

attach it to an identity and that's the

key. So a practical example when we

built Clickfunnels, Click Funnels is a

product, right? It's software. People

aren't passionate about software

typically, right? And so I was like,

okay, I can't just sell a product. I

need to attach it to an identity. So I

was like, what's the identity of the

person who will be using this software,

right? So we started thinking about

that. And so for us it was like okay

we're going to create an identity called

the funnel hacker and this is what

funnel hackers do and what they believe

and how they show up and how they serve

and these aren't people who are trying

to get rich quick. These are people who

are trying to change the world right and

we create this identity and then we

attach the identity to the product.

Right? Bernese has a really cool case

study in propaganda where he did the

same thing in the smoking industry. He

said that it was after the war happened

and then um I can't remember who it was

whatever the smoking company at the time

was they hired him to like we saw what

you did getting everyone excited about

World War I. Can you do that for

smoking? They said right now men smoke

but women do not smoke. It's not a thing

that they do. And so he went back to

Freud like, "Hey, what would Freud do

over here?" And he developed a campaign.

And what he did is he took the the

product, a cigarette, right? And he had

to create a new identity. And so he

figured for the female audience who

weren't smoking now, what's the

identity? What does that look like? And

he crafted this whole campaign for

women. And then he organized like this

dramatic demonstration where news

cameras and TV and everything happening.

And he had all these beautiful women

come out all smoking cigarettes. They

said it was like this torch of for women

to show like they were independent and

all this kind of thing. And it used the

identity of that is what got people to

move, not the cigarette, right? Because

they couldn't get women to smoke. They

tried changing the colors. They tried

everything. They couldn't get them. And

then when they he created an identity

that other women would want and he

attached it to the smoking, then people

moved in the masses. Attaching identity

product just one like such a simple such

a powerful concept. It's been huge for

us inside the Click Funnels world. And

that initial concept came from Bernay. I

had a chance to speak at Grant Cardone's

10X event. And there were 9,000 people

in the room. Most of them had never

heard of me before. Like I was not the

famous guy in the I was a guy coming in

to sell. And so I got on stage, first 10

minutes of my presentation, I was like,

I have to create an identity. I have to

create something like that. And so I did

this whole thing at the very beginning.

In fact, we handed out to everybody in

the audience, all 9,000 people. We had

this packet in the audience and it had a

big sticker said, "Don't open till

Russell Brunson comes on stage." So I

came on stage. I'm like, "Grab the

packet, open it up and pulled out and

there was a pen and an order form and

some notes and stuff like that." But

there was a sticker that said funnel

hacker on it. And I explained to

everyone what a funnel hacker was. I'm

like, "This what a funnel hacker is.

This is how it works." I basically told

them what it was. I was like, "How many

guys sound like you? does it sound like

you? And they're all like, "Yes, yes,

yes." I'm like, "Okay, you guys are all

officially now funnel hackers. Welcome

to our community. We're so glad to have

you." We had this like literally like a

sticker they could put on their laptop

or on their their their iPhone case or

whatever that that showed that they were

funnel hackers. There's the speaker on

the stage and there's the rest of the

audience, right? And you're trying to

build rapport very very quickly. But not

only am I trying to build rapport, I'm

trying to create an identity they can

attach to very very quickly. And so I

did it by showing case studies of other

funnel hackers who they related to, who

they wanted to be. They saw those people

in themselves. And then I'm like, "Okay,

how many you guys want to be a funnel

hacker? Here's like the identity like

here's the sticker. If you look at what

we've done in the Click Funnels

community when somebody comes in, we

give them a funnel hacker t-shirt. Man,

we've been giving out t-shirts for 10

years to say funnel hacker. I've seen

them all around the world, people

wearing them. I remember showing this to

Caitlin Poland and she did the same

thing for the lady boss movement. She

gave people shirts that say I'm a lady

boss. But was fascinating. She said when

people put it on, she's like, "It's like

putting on their superhero cape." And

when they said that, I was like, "Oh my

gosh, it's like it's like taking this

identity of like I'm a lady boss or I'm

a funnel hacker." And they're putting on

this this superhero cape where all of a

sudden like they become something

different. They have a new identity. no

longer Russell Brunson like the guy on

the side of the street like I'm Russell

Brunson. I'm a funnel hacker. Like they

identify with this thing which brings

them together. And so that's just like

one simple way to do that from a stage

presentation but also as you are

building a movement of people is like

giving them an identity and literally

having them wear their new identity on

their shirt like a superhero cape. The

more you start studying these different

principles the more and you start using

them. Like for me I initially would use

them you know again in an audience but

then they become part of your language

and you start using them in all parts of

your life. Another principle that

Bernice talks about, it's fascinating

because he wrote the book called

propaganda. But then over time, like

just that name propaganda started

getting a bad rep because everyone's

like, you know, oh, this is propaganda.

Like it became negative. And so he's

like, how do I change this? I don't want

this to be a negative thing. So he

literally changed the the concept of

what he was doing and like what he was

creating. He changed it from propaganda

to public relations. Like he created he

literally invented PR and all PR is is

just propaganda. Like like it's

literally the same playbook. And so it's

funny cuz like you took something that's

that's um by one name and then just

change the name and all it's like it's a

different thing, you know? Like I

remember there's a I can't remember a

cartoon or a joke about someone's like,

"Can you pick these these dandelions?

Like they're so ugly out the yard." It's

like if you just gave it a pretty name

instead of dandelion, like people would

actually like, "Oh, these grass flowers

are beautiful." Or if you had a

different name, it would change things,

right? And so for me, a lot of times I

look at stuff like that where if I can

reframe the message like somebody is

saying something that's negative, it's

like, "Okay, how do we I hate saying

spin it cuz that's what someone would do

in propaganda, but that's what it is,

right? How do you spin that thing to be

a benefit versus like a negative thing,

right? Joe Sugarman in his book Triggers

talked about this. He he got hired by

this advertising company and they they

were selling these an air filter on top.

The air filter had this really ugly like

gray furry thing and everyone's like,

"Oh, that gray furry thing is ugly." So,

everyone tried to hide it and they

couldn't sell it cuz people would buy it

and they'd refund it and it just wasn't

working. And what Sugarman did, he's

like, "I have to change I have to change

perception." And so he changed the

headline for the ad to like get the air

filter thing with I can't remember the

headline was but something about the the

fuzzy thing on top of it and he changed

it from this thing that everyone's like

oh this is horrible to like that became

the benefit like people were like he

just changed the name of it all like oh

check it out and this great thing right

here this is the thing that makes the

whole thing work and it it shifted the

conversation by making it a benefit

versus you letting people take the

message the way it was right you hear

the word propaganda most people have a

negative connotation when they hear that

word initially and it's like oh let's

just call it public relations now it's

now it's beautiful. So in advertising

it's it's looking at that like what are

the negative things people are saying

about you your business your brand

whatever and how do you spin that how do

you change it see this a lot in cancel

culture someone gets canceled it's like

really quickly okay how do we how do we

reframe this message how do we shift it

in a way where it looks different I mean

over the last four or five years you

look at the people who've got canceled

and those who've come back from it the

ones that have are the ones that are

masters at reframing the message and

shifting the ones that haven't don't

understand this principle there's so

many ways you can use this I use with my

kids sometimes where we want them to eat

healthy food but healthy food you call

healthy food guess what they will not

eat it. Right? So when we come back

instead like we try to reframe the

message like these are the blah blah

blahs that actually give you six pack

abs. Like what? Like yeah you eat that

you get six pack abs cuz they don't want

healthy food but they want abs right

they want the like that's the thing that

they want. And so it's like how to

reframe this message so that you're

delivering what people need but you're

doing it in a way that that gives them

what they actually want. I had one quote

I wanted to read Bnee said chapter one

like the second paragraph. He says we

are governed our minds are molded. Our

tastes are formed. Our ideas are

suggested largely by men we have never

heard of which is interesting. So a lot

of us think like oh yeah I have my own

ideas I have my own like I believe these

things like what you know like everyone

thinks that they are their own person

but the reality like you said here is

that our minds are molded our tastes are

formed our ideas are suggested largely

by men we have never heard of. These are

people who are on the back who are

creating these propaganda or these PR

campaigns, whatever you want to call

them, right? So you look at that, it's

like if you look at any area of your

life, like this stuff is happening,

right? Propaganda again was brand new in

the early 1900s when this book was first

written. But it's the same Bible that

people are using today. You look at

political movements, right? Like

recently we had an election and you look

at this like both sides, left and right,

are using this at deep deep deep

psychological levels. They're not just

like hoping they're going to win. Like

they are looking at this playbook and

they're figuring out all the different

things like all of the different

principles that Bernay was was

influencing and doing the things he

learned from Freud initially like

they're using them in politics for

positive or for negative. They're using

them on not just politics as a whole but

every single policy. You'll get any

policy that's heated that there's a

charge behind it. The reason why is

because there are people on both sides

fighting back and forth using

propaganda. Whenever you see something

that's charged or heated is because both

sides taking the same issue and they're

using propaganda against it. And you see

this religiously a lot, right? You think

the base of religion is all about love,

right? Like almost every religion like

that is the key foundational thing, yet

there's so much fighting and wars

between it. And why? It's because people

have these things that they believe in,

these ideologies, these whatever. And

then they use internal propaganda to try

to prove that they're right and that

someone else is wrong. They say that the

word war stands for we are right. It's

like two people fighting over both

thinking that they're right. And they're

both coming in, they're using

propaganda, they're using these same

principles to try to to try to persuade

people to their to their side of the the

table. And so it's important to

understand because number one is you are

being persuaded literally every day and

most people don't think they are. Like

you look at the paragraph two of the

propaganda book like your life is being

dictated your mind your like all these

things are happening by men you're not

even aware of right there. People behind

the scenes who are creating the

advertisements the the the YouTube

videos they are creating like music the

culture like all these kind of things

are being like we think that they're

just like oh this is just how the world

is. It's like these things are very much

thought through. people are engineering

and they're they're puppet mastering

this. And so it's becoming aware of it

on your first on your side so you can

protect yourself so you can actually

make good decisions. But number two is

after you understand it like this is how

you influence people, right? If you want

to have influence on people, if you want

to change people's lives, you want to

help people get from one spot to the

other especially when maybe they don't

they don't want to like you have to

learn how to do these things because

this is how you're able to move people

change their lives when you really

understand all of the principles behind

mastering propaganda or PR. Okay, so I'm

going to switch to Pitch Russell for a

second. Now, if you want, um, I have all

my notes and outlines from all the stuff

I pull from Propaganda. I even have a

full doodle of kind of the framework

that I built that I can use over and

over again as I'm kind of going through

these campaigns with the marketing and

the advertising I'm doing. If you want

that, I'll have a link in the

description. You get a free copy of it.

And number two is during the election, I

actually made a really cool video

showing the two different sides, their

funnels, what they were doing, what

worked, what didn't work. This is before

the election results happened. So, you

get my kind of my opinion based on their

marketing, who was going to win. If you

want to watch that video, there's a link

right here to check it out. Other than

that, I hope you enjoyed this video on

propaganda. Again, this is one of the

most powerful things you can learn and

master if you want to persuade people,

move them, and change their lives.